The (ostensibly) Low Content Thread - Page 78 - Politics and Society -- Two Plus Two Poker Forums

Why do smug MAGAt white males all wear that same smarmy face...

I noticed Matt Gaetz and Guy Reschenthaler wearing it too during the impeachment hearings in the House. I wonder what’s wrong with their brains...

I should have known better than to google Brotox. Of course it's already a thing.

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01-11-2020 , 02:15 PM

#1927

ChiddyBang

veteran

Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 2,873

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slighted

yeah considering they are nuisance suits that have very little actual merit, but huge PR annoyance, i'm sure they paid extra to the kid harassing the native american.

Lol

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01-12-2020 , 11:22 PM

#1928

Crossnerd

quite smart as well

Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 40,475

I can’t stop laughing at this

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01-13-2020 , 09:12 PM

#1929

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

Running late tonight, but finally got the boeuf a la bourguignonne in the oven. I was going to post the recipe because it's ****ing awesome but the Dean and Deluca cookbook site seems to have gone away.

This makes me sad.

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01-13-2020 , 10:21 PM

#1930

campfirewest

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 10,167

Just type it out.

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01-13-2020 , 10:22 PM

#1931

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

I'm going to drink wine instead.

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01-13-2020 , 10:34 PM

#1932

Crossnerd

quite smart as well

Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 40,475

Quote:

Originally Posted by well named

I'm going to drink wine instead.

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01-13-2020 , 10:35 PM

#1933

Crossnerd

quite smart as well

Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 40,475

Sorry, I just miss wine so much

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01-13-2020 , 10:38 PM

#1934

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

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01-15-2020 , 12:34 PM

#1935

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

Russian government resigns as Putin proposes reforms that could extend his grip on power

Quote:

Putin's critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain control of the country after his presidential term ends in 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended powers. Similarly, in 2008 Putin swapped places with the prime minister to circumvent the constitutional provision banning the same person from serving two consecutive terms.

In his statement, Medvedev indicated that the government was resigning to clear the way for Putin's proposed reforms.
Putin "outlined a number of fundamental changes to the constitution, significant changes not only to a number of articles of the constitution, but also to the balance of power as a whole," Medvedev said in his statement, which was aired on Russian state television.

"In this context, it's obvious that we, as the government ... should provide the president of our country with the opportunity to make all the decisions necessary for this. And in these conditions, I believe that it would be right, in accordance with Section 117 of the constitution," for the government to resign, Medvedev added.

I can't come up with a reaction to this that's not some form of "wat"

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01-15-2020 , 01:52 PM

#1936

micro dong

grinder

Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 588

Quote:

Originally Posted by well named

Putin's critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain control of the country after his presidential term ends in 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended powers. Similarly, in 2008 Putin swapped places with the prime minister to circumvent the constitutional provision banning the same person from serving two consecutive terms.

Get yer money down on Trump/Trump 2024.

Your first woman president is gonna lock her up, after all.

You heard it here first, folks!!!

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01-15-2020 , 02:45 PM

#1937

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,678

Quote:

Originally Posted by well named

Russian government resigns as Putin proposes reforms that could extend his grip on power

I can't come up with a reaction to this that's not some form of "wat"

Did anyone expect anything other than him finding a new way to stay in power at the end of his term? Maybe the exact method is worth an eyebrow raise but he could declare himself God emperor at this point and everyone would quickly fall in line.

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01-15-2020 , 03:27 PM

#1938

abysmal01

old hand

Join Date: Nov 2015 Posts: 1,678

Btw just as a quick straw poll how many posters have heard of/have an opinion on the Russian Tower block bombings of '99? I'm always fascinated by this event as it seems to have been largely ignored by the world and the official line of the Russian government is so out there it seems like they were barely trying to make it believable (I'm not a conspiracy person at all btw, this is the only event where i don't believe the official line and I don't think I've spoken to anyone else about it who believes it either). It says a lot about how openly a government can abuse their people when they've instilled the right amounts of obedience and fear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiki

According to historians, the bombings were coordinated by the Russian state security services to bring Putin into the presidency.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] This view was justified by a number of suspicious events, including bombs planted by FSB agents in the city of Ryazan, an announcement about bombing in the city of Volgodonsk three days before it had happened by Russian Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov, weak evidence and denials by suspects none of whom was a Chechen or connected to Chechen government, and poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko who wrote two books on the subject.

Here's a good long form article about it if anyone's interested https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gq....-and-putin/amp

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01-15-2020 , 04:42 PM

#1939

Luckbox Inc

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 61,693

Quote:

Originally Posted by abysmal01

Btw just as a quick straw poll how many posters have heard of/have an opinion on the Russian Tower block bombings of '99

Yeah it was a false flag to be used a pretext to go after the Chechens. I thought everybody knew that.
(Good thing nothing like that ever happens in the West because our media is super legit and would report on it if it ever did).

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01-15-2020 , 11:22 PM

#1940

D-Beat

banned

Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 3,009

WTF is up with this **** about Rudy talking to the president of the United ****in States of America in speaker phone?

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01-20-2020 , 06:29 PM

#1941

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

College-Educated Voters Are Ruining American Politics

Quote:

Many college-educated people think they are deeply engaged in politics. They follow the news—reading articles like this one—and debate the latest developments on social media. They might sign an online petition or throw a $5 online donation at a presidential candidate. Mostly, they consume political information as a way of satisfying their own emotional and intellectual needs. These people are political hobbyists. What they are doing is no closer to engaging in politics than watching SportsCenter is to playing football.

For Querys Matias, politics isn’t just a hobby. Matias is a 63-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic. She lives in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a small city on the New Hampshire border. In her day job, Matias is a bus monitor for a special-needs school. In her evenings, she amasses power....

Matias is engaging in politics—the methodical pursuit of power to influence how the government operates. If she and the community she represents are quiet and not organized, they get ignored. Other interests, sometimes competing interests, prevail. Organizing gives them the ability to get what they want. Much as the civil-rights movement did, Matias is operating with clear goals and discipline, combining electoral strategies with policy advocacy.

Unlike organizers such as Matias, the political hobbyists are disproportionately college-educated white men. They learn about and talk about big important things. Their style of politics is a parlor game in which they debate the issues on their abstract merits. Media commentators and good-government reform groups have generally regarded this as a cleaner, more evolved, less self-interested version of politics compared with the kind of politics that Matias practices.

In reality, political hobbyists have harmed American democracy and would do better by redirecting their political energy toward serving the material and emotional needs of their neighbors. People who have a personal stake in the outcome of politics often have a better understanding of how power can and should be exercised—not just at the polls, once every four years, but person to person, day in and day out.

This is definitely aimed at me. It's a fair cop. Worth a read.

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01-20-2020 , 06:32 PM

#1942

Luckbox Inc

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 61,693

One of those articles where I read the title and skim a bit and then try to figure out what the odds are it's from The Atlantic. Chances were high.

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01-20-2020 , 06:39 PM

#1943

micro dong

grinder

Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 588

Quote:

Originally Posted by well named

This is definitely aimed at me. It's a fair cop. Worth a read.

You know where everybody takes their politics as serious as cancer? North Korea. The world's a more interesting place when you have a nice mix of hardcores, casuals and apathetics.

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01-20-2020 , 06:48 PM

#1944

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

Quote:

Originally Posted by micro dong

You know where everybody takes their politics as serious as cancer? North Korea.

Pretty sure you've fundamentally misunderstood how North Korean society works. Either that or how politics in the US works.

But sure I'd agree that there's some limit to how useful the argument is. I don't actually feel any great level of guilt for my hobbyism, so to speak. I don't think everyone should be even a part time activist. But I'd say that the author is probably right that the current equilibrium for people like me ("political hobbyists") is one in which we feel like we're engaged in politics but are not actually, and this leads to some weird and not totally desirable consequences.

I think you may be taking it for granted that being more involved in a real way would involve being more stridently ideological or something like that, but I'm not sure that's true. Actual political activity, focused on more narrow local issues, is probably mostly less polarized and compromises are more likely to happen, rather than less. It's easier to stick to ideological commitments when there's nothing really at stake, or when you stay focused on the very abstract.

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01-20-2020 , 07:39 PM

#1945

campfirewest

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 10,167

I'm not sure how North Korean society works, but my understanding were there are pretty much no politics, and anyone attempting to engage in them beyond pretending to cry at the right time will have a very short lifespan.

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01-20-2020 , 07:45 PM

#1946

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,078

Right, that is what I was thinking.

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01-21-2020 , 03:49 AM

#1947

D-Beat

banned

Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 3,009

Quote:

Originally Posted by micro dong

You know where everybody takes their politics as serious as cancer? North Korea. The world's a more interesting place when you have a nice mix of hardcores, casuals and apathetics.

North Korean politics?

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01-21-2020 , 04:17 PM

#1948

joe6pack

banned

Join Date: Sep 2019 Posts: 1,907

Oh dear! Former CNN favorite presidential hopeful now in solitary confinement in El Chapo's cell.

https://nypost.com/2020/01/21/michae...-in-manhattan/

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01-26-2020 , 01:36 AM

#1949

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,296

Quote:

Racial bias and policing made headlines last year after a study examining records of fatal police shootings claimed white officers were no more likely to shoot racial minorities than nonwhite officers. There was one problem: The study was based on a logical fallacy.

The original research counted the numbers of fatal shootings, but never considered how often civilians encounter police officers, an essential ingredient to justifying its central claim.

Quote:

Yet, Knox and Mummolo show that the authors' conclusions hinge on the assumption that black and white officers encounter black and white civilians in equal numbers. Knox and Mummolo show this formally, but a simple thought experiment also illustrates the conceptual problem.

Imagine a white officer encounters 90 white civilians and 10 black, while a black officer encounters 90 black civilians and 10 white, both under identical circumstances. If both officers shot five black and nine white civilians, the results would — according to the reasoning of the original study — appear to show no racial bias.

However, once encounter rates are taken into account, one would see the white officer shot 50% of the black civilians he or she saw while the black officer shot 5.6%. Therefore, failing to incorporate information on encounter rates masks racial bias.

http://wws.princeton.edu/news-and-ev...-bias-policing