If they really wanted to prove they still had nukes they should test one.
They could test as many as they wanted until one of them worked and then they could claim they only tested one.
That they haven't done so STRONGLY suggests they don't have them anymore. The budget for their maintenance was stolen and they've gone bad.
Nuke maintenance is very expensive, they're never tested, and no one would notice if it's not done. They can't even do maintenance on things that are very high profile.
The trans athlete setting records wasn't high end before they converted. We've seen multiple other examples of vast improvement.
Of course the "female during the contest" coach who is trolling is another problem.
We separate the genders in sports for good reason.
Serena Williams, the best female tennis player in history, wouldn't be in the top 200 if she were a man (we tested this and it wasn't pretty). So if any of the top 10 male tennis players transition they're going to be invincible.
Our current situation is the gov is creating massive market distortions.
My suggestion is for the gov to not do that rather than to introduce more gov created massive distortions.
RE: "protection".
How does this work exactly? The gov will somehow decide what is a "fair" value for your house, and if the market decides otherwise the gov will step in and compensate you?
Over what range will this happen? If we create massive amounts of new housing then the value of existing housing will fall, by a lot.
The current value of all US housing is $47 Trillion dollars. Ergo any reasonable compensation program needs to start with a price tag in Trillions of dollars.
In addition, there will be tremendous political pressure to hand out this bribe to everyone and shield everyone from the market.
Worse, that's still not going to convince anyone that they should allow low income housing in their neighborhood because no one likes the social problems that come with that. Ergo the tools will still be misused.
We managed to get a constitutional amendment to prevent alcohol in the face of the bulk of the nation being drinkers.
A lot of the NIMBYs are in favor of building housing in general, they're just opposed to [this specific project].
Having a larger number of voters involved on the zoning of projects in general should prevent very narrow NIMBYs being shut out. If they want to end that project they need to talk to the state gov rather than their local gov.
BTW we should also get some state laws which outlaw defined benefit pensions for pretty much the same reason. The gov can't be trusted to manage them correctly. All the incentives are backward.
This is rewarding something that needs to be punished. Do this and there will be huge games played on the system (what is the "correct" price for houses) and the NIMBY won't stop because people like large backyards or just dislike living next to [low income housing / whatever]
The solution is to take away (or at least brutally limit) the tools the NIMBYs use.
The escalation of Ukraine was because of fears over Ukraine joining NATO.
This is propaganda. Russia needed to go to war with Ukraine because it needs territorial choke points.
Russia "needs" those choke points because it's so big and it's land is so poor that it can't possibly defend it's borders if it doesn't have them. There's nothing to stop an invasion and the lack of transportation prevents their army from easily responding.
A good example is how the Ukraine was able to invade Russia just recently even though both sides are at war so in theory the Russian army is prepared. The borders are just too big.
Fighting for those choke points explains the 9(?) wars that Russia has had since the USSR fell. Many of them with non-Nato countries. This issue predates Putin. Demographics also plays a role. If they were going to invade then it needed to be soon because of their falling population.
She just lost to a demented 78 year old after we proved the electorate cares about age. Trump had a truck load of other baggage to the point where I couldn't vote for him. So he was a very weak candidate and she still lost.
As VP she... "had less experience than any modern vice president since Spiro Agnew." She was an AG for 6 years and a Senator for 4.
Harris engaging in word salad during a CNN interview: https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/word-salad-kamala-harris-roasted-over-garbled-answers-at-town-hall-event/news-story/d63e706d48e37831524c67378d921520
There was a reason why she didn't do much interviewing.
Asked what she'd do on day one she said she'd "prioritize the middle class". Asked what she'd change from Biden she had no answer (she was running on "change"). Asked what she'd do about inflation she said she'd "punish price-gougers".
Her political position on Immigration is she's running as tougher than Trump (from her wiki)... however we also have her on video chanting "end deportation" with Protesters and as border czar she never visited the border.
A lot of her basic views are unclear to the point of creating problems.
She's pro-trans... but also filed to block gender-affirming medical care for inmates as AG.
She has been against free trade multiple times but wasn't running for Prez on protectionism.
That link I put up went over some of her lack of coherence over her middle Eastern stances.
Na.zi/death-camp accusations are the "go to" argument if you don't have a case, and it's not convincing. Nor does it win elections.
Your prison hc argument would be stronger without them.
David: ‘Maybe trans people should stay out of sports’ …you’re the Germans in 1934
It's a bad idea to insist that females-by-identity should be setting sports records that born-females can't hope to match. Attempting to make this argument shatters creditability.
I see no reason to treat the "allegations" against Biden seriously because there are so many red flags on the accuser.
Not only is the legal system not taking her seriously but it likely shouldn't. If she wants to change that she can submit her claims to investigation, but my expectation is that's the last thing she wants.
Similarly I see no reason to disbelieve the court's verdict(s) against Trump. Trump has many red flags and a many decade pattern of this sort of thing. At some point we need to believe the dozens of women who have said there are problems.
Trump being bad doesn't mean whoever he's running against must be as bad, nor does it mean that we can't look past that and vote for him anyway.
I have one vote, that implies I can have one priority.
I don't know what "increase people's access to wealth" means.
I will say the big problem with the American Dream recently has been the increase in housing costs, but the solution there is to increase the supply of housing and we're not willing to do that yet.
This is DEI in a nutshell and sometimes it's explained at this level of detail.
Calling this "a messaging problem" implies this message can be made prettier. This is a very ugly message and it should be treated like an ugly message.
Having said that, for a "sitting VP" she's remarkably inept, uninformed(?), and bad at this. She was selected by Biden to unify his identity politics base. She wasn't ready to be at the head of the ticket.
There are a number of VPs who haven't been ready for prime time. Lincoln's VP was selected to bring ideological balance to the ticket, which is another way of saying he disagreed with Lincoln on basically everything.
More recently we have Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney. Cheney at least was selected for his experience in governing, but if he had to head the ticket his total lack of charisma would have worked against him.
if you were on a jury with just a regular guy and it was her word against his
We have already run that experiment. We had a real jury with a real conviction. They spent many hours listening to evidence and no, it wasn't just "her word against his". I'm not going to spend minutes trying to repeat that.
For Biden, I seriously doubt it makes it to a jury because the case is so bad the legal system would filter it out before it gets there.
For Trump, he gets convicted. Not because "he's Trump", the legal system is designed to prevent that kind of emotional thinking. He gets convicted because not caring about the rules or about what other people think means he has no problems crossing lines or doing crimes.
If the claim here is she's really as demented as Trump but the media treats her more harshly, then...
1) This is really bad for her on the face of it.
2) The media was largely on her side proclaiming how super competent she is.
That last is the big problem. Trump was genuine, Harris was not.
Trump runs as a vulgar old man and makes it work. He likes telling exaggerated big fish stories and we make allowances because he's been doing it for decades.
Harris was trying to run as a super competent advisor to the President. That's a fine role. However to make that work she needed to be able to answer basic questions that she either couldn't or wouldn't.
Harris was artificial. The answer to most questions was babble while she tried to remember what the answer was supposed to be. It showed that she wasn't saying what she really thought.
That Bezos is elite doesn't change that the educated class is too.
elite
/ĭ-lēt′, ā-lēt′/
noun
1) A group or class of persons considered to be superior to others because of their intelligence, social standing, or wealth.
2) A member of such a group.
3) The best or most skilled members of a group.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024”
Yep. Paying for sex with escorts probably only scratches the surface.
"
Then show me the mushroom cloud. Russia has lots of open space. They've pulled out of the test-ban treaty. They have lots of reasons to saber rattle.
All they'd have to do is have one test and every earth quake sensor in the world would confirm that they still have nukes and aren't bluffing.
They have no reason to not test and every reason to test...
...unless they can't.
"
If they really wanted to prove they still had nukes they should test one.
They could test as many as they wanted until one of them worked and then they could claim they only tested one.
That they haven't done so STRONGLY suggests they don't have them anymore. The budget for their maintenance was stolen and they've gone bad.
Nuke maintenance is very expensive, they're never tested, and no one would notice if it's not done. They can't even do maintenance on things that are very high profile.
On “Ordinary Times Needs Your Help”
Donated.
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
Because they are not infiltrating the popular press.
https://nypost.com/2023/03/30/male-powerlifter-enters-womens-event-breaks-record/
The trans athlete setting records wasn't high end before they converted. We've seen multiple other examples of vast improvement.
Of course the "female during the contest" coach who is trolling is another problem.
We separate the genders in sports for good reason.
Serena Williams, the best female tennis player in history, wouldn't be in the top 200 if she were a man (we tested this and it wasn't pretty). So if any of the top 10 male tennis players transition they're going to be invincible.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
Our current situation is the gov is creating massive market distortions.
My suggestion is for the gov to not do that rather than to introduce more gov created massive distortions.
RE: "protection".
How does this work exactly? The gov will somehow decide what is a "fair" value for your house, and if the market decides otherwise the gov will step in and compensate you?
Over what range will this happen? If we create massive amounts of new housing then the value of existing housing will fall, by a lot.
The current value of all US housing is $47 Trillion dollars. Ergo any reasonable compensation program needs to start with a price tag in Trillions of dollars.
In addition, there will be tremendous political pressure to hand out this bribe to everyone and shield everyone from the market.
Worse, that's still not going to convince anyone that they should allow low income housing in their neighborhood because no one likes the social problems that come with that. Ergo the tools will still be misused.
"
We managed to get a constitutional amendment to prevent alcohol in the face of the bulk of the nation being drinkers.
A lot of the NIMBYs are in favor of building housing in general, they're just opposed to [this specific project].
Having a larger number of voters involved on the zoning of projects in general should prevent very narrow NIMBYs being shut out. If they want to end that project they need to talk to the state gov rather than their local gov.
BTW we should also get some state laws which outlaw defined benefit pensions for pretty much the same reason. The gov can't be trusted to manage them correctly. All the incentives are backward.
"
There is no reason why home/zoning regs needs to be set at a local level rather than a state level.
These tools have been misused so often and so consistently that something of that nature needs to happen.
"
This is rewarding something that needs to be punished. Do this and there will be huge games played on the system (what is the "correct" price for houses) and the NIMBY won't stop because people like large backyards or just dislike living next to [low income housing / whatever]
The solution is to take away (or at least brutally limit) the tools the NIMBYs use.
"
The escalation of Ukraine was because of fears over Ukraine joining NATO.
This is propaganda. Russia needed to go to war with Ukraine because it needs territorial choke points.
Russia "needs" those choke points because it's so big and it's land is so poor that it can't possibly defend it's borders if it doesn't have them. There's nothing to stop an invasion and the lack of transportation prevents their army from easily responding.
A good example is how the Ukraine was able to invade Russia just recently even though both sides are at war so in theory the Russian army is prepared. The borders are just too big.
Fighting for those choke points explains the 9(?) wars that Russia has had since the USSR fell. Many of them with non-Nato countries. This issue predates Putin. Demographics also plays a role. If they were going to invade then it needed to be soon because of their falling population.
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
Reading her wiki I can't figure out her actual stance on all sorts of things.
If you're going to run as an empty suit with undefined policies then we're not going to be able to figure out what you support.
"
...Are you able to make a case with evidence
She just lost to a demented 78 year old after we proved the electorate cares about age. Trump had a truck load of other baggage to the point where I couldn't vote for him. So he was a very weak candidate and she still lost.
As VP she... "had less experience than any modern vice president since Spiro Agnew." She was an AG for 6 years and a Senator for 4.
Harris engaging in word salad during a CNN interview: https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/word-salad-kamala-harris-roasted-over-garbled-answers-at-town-hall-event/news-story/d63e706d48e37831524c67378d921520
There was a reason why she didn't do much interviewing.
Asked what she'd do on day one she said she'd "prioritize the middle class". Asked what she'd change from Biden she had no answer (she was running on "change"). Asked what she'd do about inflation she said she'd "punish price-gougers".
Her political position on Immigration is she's running as tougher than Trump (from her wiki)... however we also have her on video chanting "end deportation" with Protesters and as border czar she never visited the border.
A lot of her basic views are unclear to the point of creating problems.
She's pro-trans... but also filed to block gender-affirming medical care for inmates as AG.
She has been against free trade multiple times but wasn't running for Prez on protectionism.
That link I put up went over some of her lack of coherence over her middle Eastern stances.
"
Na.zi/death-camp accusations are the "go to" argument if you don't have a case, and it's not convincing. Nor does it win elections.
Your prison hc argument would be stronger without them.
David: ‘Maybe trans people should stay out of sports’ …you’re the Germans in 1934
It's a bad idea to insist that females-by-identity should be setting sports records that born-females can't hope to match. Attempting to make this argument shatters creditability.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Gaetz#Child_sex_trafficking_investigation,_other_legal_issues_and_controversies
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
Yes, I'm not. However one assumes she's still pro-trans and is personally affected by the trans issue.
On “He Got Away With It”
I see no reason to treat the "allegations" against Biden seriously because there are so many red flags on the accuser.
Not only is the legal system not taking her seriously but it likely shouldn't. If she wants to change that she can submit her claims to investigation, but my expectation is that's the last thing she wants.
Similarly I see no reason to disbelieve the court's verdict(s) against Trump. Trump has many red flags and a many decade pattern of this sort of thing. At some point we need to believe the dozens of women who have said there are problems.
Trump being bad doesn't mean whoever he's running against must be as bad, nor does it mean that we can't look past that and vote for him anyway.
I have one vote, that implies I can have one priority.
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
Here is a trans-woman who has run for office as a Democrat talking about how the Democrats have badly mishandled the trans issue(s).
Why We Lost - Brianna Wu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6fR0bhZJi0
On “An Election Map that Asks “What if Only Educated People Voted?” and a Follow-up Question”
I don't know what "increase people's access to wealth" means.
I will say the big problem with the American Dream recently has been the increase in housing costs, but the solution there is to increase the supply of housing and we're not willing to do that yet.
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
This is DEI in a nutshell and sometimes it's explained at this level of detail.
Calling this "a messaging problem" implies this message can be made prettier. This is a very ugly message and it should be treated like an ugly message.
"
First of all, you're correct.
Having said that, for a "sitting VP" she's remarkably inept, uninformed(?), and bad at this. She was selected by Biden to unify his identity politics base. She wasn't ready to be at the head of the ticket.
There are a number of VPs who haven't been ready for prime time. Lincoln's VP was selected to bring ideological balance to the ticket, which is another way of saying he disagreed with Lincoln on basically everything.
More recently we have Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney. Cheney at least was selected for his experience in governing, but if he had to head the ticket his total lack of charisma would have worked against him.
On “He Got Away With It”
If we're going to go there, Trump was repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct before he ran for office.
Various women filed lawsuits against him. This is in the context of him always counter suing them and turning it into a legal mess.
He accidently admitted they were correct during the campaign when talking into a mic he didn't realize was on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations
"
if you were on a jury with just a regular guy and it was her word against his
We have already run that experiment. We had a real jury with a real conviction. They spent many hours listening to evidence and no, it wasn't just "her word against his". I'm not going to spend minutes trying to repeat that.
For Biden, I seriously doubt it makes it to a jury because the case is so bad the legal system would filter it out before it gets there.
For Trump, he gets convicted. Not because "he's Trump", the legal system is designed to prevent that kind of emotional thinking. He gets convicted because not caring about the rules or about what other people think means he has no problems crossing lines or doing crimes.
On “The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty”
Then there's the commercial with her dancing and chanting "no more deportations" with the protesters.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024”
If the claim here is she's really as demented as Trump but the media treats her more harshly, then...
1) This is really bad for her on the face of it.
2) The media was largely on her side proclaiming how super competent she is.
That last is the big problem. Trump was genuine, Harris was not.
Trump runs as a vulgar old man and makes it work. He likes telling exaggerated big fish stories and we make allowances because he's been doing it for decades.
Harris was trying to run as a super competent advisor to the President. That's a fine role. However to make that work she needed to be able to answer basic questions that she either couldn't or wouldn't.
Harris was artificial. The answer to most questions was babble while she tried to remember what the answer was supposed to be. It showed that she wasn't saying what she really thought.
On “An Election Map that Asks “What if Only Educated People Voted?” and a Follow-up Question”
That Bezos is elite doesn't change that the educated class is too.
elite
/ĭ-lēt′, ā-lēt′/
noun
1) A group or class of persons considered to be superior to others because of their intelligence, social standing, or wealth.
2) A member of such a group.
3) The best or most skilled members of a group.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.