Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 4:31am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"People who like Trump must somehow prove they are not racists. People who like abortion must somehow prove they don’t hate unborn babies. And so on."
False equivalence; People who are demonstrably being racist are, in fact, already proving that they're being racist. No one is asking a trumpist to prove they aren't racist. Trumpist are simply asked to stop it with racist behavior. And that includes providing direct support to racists. Which unfortunately is built right into their whole platform.
False equivalence; People who are in favor of choice haven't implied they hate babies. They've implied they are in favor of choice. They may clarify why but no further conclusions can be drawn from the evidence.
You see, proving a negative is very, very hard. Which is why the demand to do so is the traditional tool of bad faith rhetoric trolls. In politics mainly used by Goebbels, the KKK and other organizations and people unable to muster actual facts to prove their arguments.
"But the point is, show evidence or refrain from characterization."
You mean like Marjorie Taylor Greene running an anti-semite rant about jewish space lasers burning down the west coast, Trump bragging about how celebrities can grab random women by the pussy, how a republican school board in Tennessee decided to vote for burning ideologically inconvenient books, or how statistics show people of color are two to three times as likely to get shot by police than white people?
The problem here is that you people aren't interested in evidence. You're interested in hearing what supports your tribe of cavemen so you don't have to - god forbid - adjust your narrative.
There are 14 tangible and easily observed points of behavior which make out the dictionary-definition of fascists. Most fascist regimes currently in the world don't even manage to hit all of those points. The current GOP, however, meets all 14.
So we show you the evidence, you ignore it, toss back some dystopian fairy tale about Killary's Cannibal Cult, then demand evidence again. It's pretty clear there's no use in debating people who have no interest in actual debate in the first place.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 3:03am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh look, another turd in bowl...
"You actually wanted the combined effort of the whole world for free?"
You mean, like Shakespeare, Homer, Beethoven, Mozart...and the other 99,99% of human culture?
tp, the sooner you realize that what you keep arguing for is an aberration which was never true, anywhere in the real world, the sooner you can formulate a response grounded in empirical fact.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 2:58am
Re: Re:
"Or is 'just asking questions' where your thought process ends?"
I'll bet you a thousand bucks against a tub of bullshit that's where that thought process does end in any of the forums old Baghdad Bob gets his talking points from.
This is why so many alt-right fsckwits deliver that line "Just look at.." and end up poleaxed when someone does look, finds nothing incriminating and asks the next question.
Whereupon they lose their shit completely and start screaming about being mistreated and silenced.
Because fact-checking, to the cult of anti-intellectualism, is outright bullying.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 2:48am
Re: Re: Re:
"There is no evidence that this stupid thing was stolen in the first place."
There's no evidence that anything, through history, has ever been "stolen". Proving a negative is...logically not very constructive.
But if person A states an object missing and loss through negligence has been ruled out then the police are going to take the word of person A that the missing object has, in fact, been stolen.
O'Keefe has a record of not caring overly much regarding either the ways through which he obtains his talking points or the objective deductions he draws from it. We know from his past that he's not above breaking the law and lying about his findings if it serves his personal purpose.
That said; We could assume almost any plausible scenario - from O'Keefe seen on a picture sneaking off with the missing diary badly hidden under a shady cloak, to O'Keefe receiving said diary from someone else - and it would still serve as a very flimsy pretext for the FBI to act as they did here.
The thing is, the FBI also has a record. And that record shows a mad dog biting everyone no matter which side of the aisle they're on, for the express purpose of obtaining blackmail material to use in "negotiations" about the funding, oversight and development of the FBI.
Here's my guess. The FBI are after whatever dirt O'Keefe may have on republican or democrat alike, and if the "diary" consists anything they can use, that'll be a bonus.
I doubt this is very political beyond that it's the type of power play Hoover was infamous for. It must sting the directors of that agency, used to lording it over everyone, when they can be summoned like serfs to explain themselves to elected representatives at whim.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:54am
Re:
"Even when they “lose”, they win."
The real winners here would be the FBI. Whether the pretext is flimsy or not they obtain all the dirt O'Keefe has on anyone he's ever spied on, including that he chose not to publish for fear of slander charges.
And if they're lucky they obtain that diary and it contains something they can hold over Biden's head as well.
Here's my guess; This is just the FBI once again trying to go back to the glory days of Hoover when they were a government in and unto themselves just because of all the dirt they had on everyone from both sides of the house.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:50am
Re: Why the FBI?
[Addendum]
And here's my nest guess. Sure, they want the diary and anything else they can dig up in form of dirt on O'Keefe and anyone he's spied on.
They ALSO want the diary in case it contains something, anything they could wave under Biden's nose whenever they think they need a presidential favor.
Hoover was the first one to employ the tactic of obtaining dirt on everyone in order to secure his job and empire no matter who sat in the oval office...and I very much doubt any FBI director since has looked back at those days with any other feeling than sheer envy and a desire to accomplish the same.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:46am
Re: Why the FBI?
"Of course the FBI wouldn’t be participating in this merely to protect Biden family interests, right? Right?"
The same way they'd participate in similar shenanigans to protect the interests of Trump, Nixon, and FDR. It's almost a given that if they were surveilling the likely diary thief and said thief at some point contacted O'Keefe the strike team would be rolling without the FBI director or the political establishment even becoming aware of it.
The issue with the FBI, since long ago, is that they're a politcal faction of their own - as illustrated under Hoover when the FBI was a mini-government accountable to no one since their director had all the dirt on everyone and wasn't shy of using it.
To boot they also consist of headhunters, all looking to make a high-profile collar. Which is why so very many presidents have lamented that they're that dog you keep on a leash because all it wants to do is bite someone and doesn't give a rat's ass who.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:41am
Re: negotiating for purchase?
"I value protection of the fourth estate, but I don’t start from a position of assuming the worst when I know that law enforcement had to first approach a court to get permission to execute a search."
Then again, the FBI in particular hasn't covered itself in glory since inception nor have US courts been all that good at abiding by constitutional principles lately.
The main issue of determining who's in the right here is that none of the parties involved have anywhere close to a clean record.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:36am
Re: Re:
"Its project Veritas. They were likely involved in the actual theft."
Lest we forget. Yes, it's indeed "Project Veritas". A grift machine designed to con the gullible because they want the funding and watching the world burn. O'Keefe in particular has a very definite agenda and long ago lost all claim to being an "independent" journalist, given how his tongue is so far up the ass of the Trumpist cause he can taste what they had for lunch.
On the other hand, also lest we forget, we're talking about the FBI. An organization which has never since its inception been known to be scrupulous about their means.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:29am
Re: Son of a quark...
One of the issues in being principled is that you have to apply it even when the wronged party is a shameless set of grifting douchebags eager to con multitudes of gullible morons into self-harm.
It's so much easier being on the alt-right, because they only ever really care about their side always being in the right and the other always being in the wrong, principles and consistency be hanged.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:26am
Re: Missing the forest for the trees.
"No, the target are not the people riding a bike by choice"
I could be missing my guess, not being american...but if the target is latino and bike riders in Los Angeles then surely the poor deputies will need some way to winnow down the number of people they need to search? I'm sure that targeting only the ones not wearing and riding expensive brands is just an unfortunate coincidence.
/s because, you know, the alt-right probably has even more insane explanations. Like every latino on a bike being a drug-addled trafficker with Ruger Redhawk shoved up their skintight spandex and a kidnapped child folded up under their helmet.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 19 Nov 2021 @ 12:22am
Re: Re:
"I'd agree a cavity search by a deputy only when the deputy showed me his DDS or DMD diploma and scheduled me 2 weeks in advance."
I'd normally agree...but given that it's the US we're talking about what you meant to say was; "I'll agree to a cavity search by a deputy only by providing reasonable suspicion by refusing one because I enjoy being held down by four other deputies while said cavity search is performed"?
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 6:58am
Re: Re:
"Except you aren’t doing anything to those companies! What you are doing is guaranteeing the corner shop goes under."
Weird. Because here in Europe we do have higher minimum wages than anywhere in the US - by a lot. Our businesses do just fine.
Our taxes for the wealthy ar higher than in the US - and we still do just fine.
After tallying US state taxes, federal taxes, and the non-optional insurances for health and dental...you guys spend 43% of your paycheck in taxes. We get away with average 34% or so.
Everyone here has healthcare which costs about 1/3th of yours and has the only limit of "until you get cured" rather than "until your health plan runs out".
Every type of infrastructure we get more for less than you do, pay less, and in the middle income bracket, get more left over.
And I'll tell you how that works; it's because "Fuck you, got mine" is, in the long run, inefficient and self-destructive.
Oh, yeah, and can't recall if "Biden's paying the poor immigrants Trump hurt shitloads of money" was in your parroted set of alt-right talking points but I'll address that as well since it serves as a pretty good example of how Trump hurt your interests.
What Trump did on the border, see, was illegal according to US law. Those migrants are suing the state. And they'll win humongous amounts of money if allowed to proceed to court. Biden offered them a minor settlement. Better hope they accept that or a lot more of your tax money goes to crime victims courtesy of Dear Leader.
And you keep telling people democrats hurt you every day while the alt-right has you persuaded that paying a sensible minimum wage will - unlike everywhere else in the world - cripple your economy. Maybe you ought to look at the economies and general prosperity of France, Germany and scandinavia before buying that load of steaming bullshit.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 6:19am
Re: Re:
"I’m proud of my votes. I have no reason to not be. "
You'll be that guy standing around a few years after the GQP actually wins, asking yourself "How did it come to this?".
The Build Back Better Bill? Should have been way bigger. Every time an american starts talking about the good old times what they refer to is the 50's and 60's based on FDR's New Deal. And it was only after dismantling that "socialist" platform in the 80's the US started to decline the way it has today.
You people opted instead to strip mine the basis of your own prosperity under Reagan and give every advantage to those already wealthy. Gone the days of actual upwards mobility - because save for the token lottery winner hard work no longer pays off.
"You voted for a communist and then you voted for a senile old man who has destroyed our economy, destroyed our energy sector, and is well on his way to destroying our country. "
Know how we can tell you gave up on your brain there in favor of the GQP talking points?
The US overton window is so skewed now when you people start talking about "left" and "right" what you mean is just hard right or extremist right. Bernie is about the most left-leaning guy you've ghot - and he'd be counted as a centrist-left at most in the rest of the world.
As for the "senile old man" destroying the economy. No. Trump earned, in his early days, the credit of Obama's policies. Biden is currently earning the outcome of Trump's policies. Because that's how it shifts - the current prez always gets to see the last prez's policy play out.
"I’m proud of my votes. I have no reason to not be. "
Spoken like a man bereft of his own history and a working brain, mindlessly chanting a senseless mantra and cleaving hard to the religious belief in Dear Leader.
Well. I don't have a personal dog in this fight. The US falling to the new republican trend of fascist rule won't matter much to me over here in Europe. It will mean the US days as a financial and political partner are numbered which means we'll all have to face Russia or the EU taking over the seat of world leader - because China won't give a toss beyond ensuring it's borders are closed to undesired western influence.
You people, otoh, will all get to watch that precious constitution of yours on fire, because unless i misread things, no matter whether Trump loses in 24 or not, the new set of republican yes-men won't oppose him in overturning the results.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 2:58am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This made me audibly laugh out l
"You said hentai and I pointed out yaoi would be more my speed."
Ah. Well, for future reference..."hentai" just means "lewd" or "perverted". So it covers anything pornographic. Behavior, feature film scenes, porn movies, and of course in manga and anime;
Yaoi, Yuri, Shounen Ai, Shoujo Ai...and all the weird offshoots exploring erotics beyond what is normally possible, including tentacles, vore, etc....that's all just subcategories.
A girl talking about a lecherous person might refer to them as baka hentai (stupid pervert) or just hentai (pervert). Categories of R18+ entertainment will be labeled hentai no matter what the subcategory. And so on.
Not to be confused with the far tamer ecci which just means naughty and tends to mean the work in question contains a lot of fanservice in the form of suggestive but not explicit scenery. I think Japan may have a law which states that this must include close-ups of female underwear.
Hrm...not that I'd know much about any of that, naturally. Yup. Boring old straight white cis-male, me...
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 2:04am
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"You are definitely on the wrong side of history..."
The idea of being "on the wrong side of history" is, incidentally, normally only used politically for a certain type of people, ever since a certain Hitler popularized the expression in his book and in his speeches.
Because the idea that history has a right and a wrong side rather than simply being a recounting of fact...that's an invention of that certain ideology Herr Hitler is famous for pioneering.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 2:00am
Re:
"List everyone this fine institute takes money from."
It's on the wiki pages for Copia.
Also in Copia's homepage.
Also covered by numerous articles publicly released annually on where various think-tanks obtain funding.
Oh...I get it, Baghdad Bob...you thought you had yourself a 'gotcha' moment again and blurted out yet another question to which everyone can already supply the answer you weren't looking for.
I must say your trolling has become rather weaksauce lately...but I guess when the material you got comes from the alt-right morons hitting all 14 points of Umberto Eco's "how to spot a fascist" list the talking points just aren't possible without either denying observable reality or abstaining from anything but a brief, limping one-liner.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 1:55am
Re:
"Isn't the protection of section 230 limited to comments?"
It is. comments are made by the commenters - not Techdirt's responsibility what they say. No more so, at least, than the bar owner is culpable for what their patrons say in their bar.
Articles may be published by Techdirt staff (in which case TD would be partially or wholly culpable), or by independents (in which case TD would be partially or wholly culpable). Because in a sane legal paradigm it's always the person writing a message who is responsible for it.
The alt-right's slogan of "removing 230" basically means "Let's shoot the messenger, for they are culpable for bearing the message".
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 18 Nov 2021 @ 1:49am
Re: Re: Re: On another note:
"Martin Luther King could easily have been silenced, just as those who are ahead of their time today certainly are."
And yet he wasn't. And by those very fine people you claim are "ahead of their time" I'm sure MLK would be the first to advocate having every private entity throw those people out of their houses.
"Might doesn't make right and censorship is might. Immunizing libel is diastrous and will remain a disaster until 230 is gone."
And private property owners exercising their right to throw people off their property is not censorship. It's the house owner showing you the door because they think you're an asshole.
Just because you are a moron unable to understand this very simple difference doesn't mean anyone else is, Baghdad Bob.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"People who like Trump must somehow prove they are not racists. People who like abortion must somehow prove they don’t hate unborn babies. And so on."
False equivalence; People who are demonstrably being racist are, in fact, already proving that they're being racist. No one is asking a trumpist to prove they aren't racist. Trumpist are simply asked to stop it with racist behavior. And that includes providing direct support to racists. Which unfortunately is built right into their whole platform.
False equivalence; People who are in favor of choice haven't implied they hate babies. They've implied they are in favor of choice. They may clarify why but no further conclusions can be drawn from the evidence.
You see, proving a negative is very, very hard. Which is why the demand to do so is the traditional tool of bad faith rhetoric trolls. In politics mainly used by Goebbels, the KKK and other organizations and people unable to muster actual facts to prove their arguments.
"But the point is, show evidence or refrain from characterization."
You mean like Marjorie Taylor Greene running an anti-semite rant about jewish space lasers burning down the west coast, Trump bragging about how celebrities can grab random women by the pussy, how a republican school board in Tennessee decided to vote for burning ideologically inconvenient books, or how statistics show people of color are two to three times as likely to get shot by police than white people?
The problem here is that you people aren't interested in evidence. You're interested in hearing what supports your tribe of cavemen so you don't have to - god forbid - adjust your narrative.
There are 14 tangible and easily observed points of behavior which make out the dictionary-definition of fascists. Most fascist regimes currently in the world don't even manage to hit all of those points. The current GOP, however, meets all 14.
So we show you the evidence, you ignore it, toss back some dystopian fairy tale about Killary's Cannibal Cult, then demand evidence again. It's pretty clear there's no use in debating people who have no interest in actual debate in the first place.
On the post: Does Copyright Give Companies The Right To Search Your Home And Computer?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Oh look, another turd in bowl...
"You actually wanted the combined effort of the whole world for free?"
You mean, like Shakespeare, Homer, Beethoven, Mozart...and the other 99,99% of human culture?
tp, the sooner you realize that what you keep arguing for is an aberration which was never true, anywhere in the real world, the sooner you can formulate a response grounded in empirical fact.
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
Re: Re:
"Or is 'just asking questions' where your thought process ends?"
I'll bet you a thousand bucks against a tub of bullshit that's where that thought process does end in any of the forums old Baghdad Bob gets his talking points from.
This is why so many alt-right fsckwits deliver that line "Just look at.." and end up poleaxed when someone does look, finds nothing incriminating and asks the next question.
Whereupon they lose their shit completely and start screaming about being mistreated and silenced.
Because fact-checking, to the cult of anti-intellectualism, is outright bullying.
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
Re:
"He was silenced—with a bullet."
Fired by the very fine people Baghdad Bob here is describing as being "ahead of their times", no less.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Re: Re:
"There is no evidence that this stupid thing was stolen in the first place."
There's no evidence that anything, through history, has ever been "stolen". Proving a negative is...logically not very constructive.
But if person A states an object missing and loss through negligence has been ruled out then the police are going to take the word of person A that the missing object has, in fact, been stolen.
O'Keefe has a record of not caring overly much regarding either the ways through which he obtains his talking points or the objective deductions he draws from it. We know from his past that he's not above breaking the law and lying about his findings if it serves his personal purpose.
That said; We could assume almost any plausible scenario - from O'Keefe seen on a picture sneaking off with the missing diary badly hidden under a shady cloak, to O'Keefe receiving said diary from someone else - and it would still serve as a very flimsy pretext for the FBI to act as they did here.
The thing is, the FBI also has a record. And that record shows a mad dog biting everyone no matter which side of the aisle they're on, for the express purpose of obtaining blackmail material to use in "negotiations" about the funding, oversight and development of the FBI.
Here's my guess. The FBI are after whatever dirt O'Keefe may have on republican or democrat alike, and if the "diary" consists anything they can use, that'll be a bonus.
I doubt this is very political beyond that it's the type of power play Hoover was infamous for. It must sting the directors of that agency, used to lording it over everyone, when they can be summoned like serfs to explain themselves to elected representatives at whim.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re:
"Even when they “lose”, they win."
The real winners here would be the FBI. Whether the pretext is flimsy or not they obtain all the dirt O'Keefe has on anyone he's ever spied on, including that he chose not to publish for fear of slander charges.
And if they're lucky they obtain that diary and it contains something they can hold over Biden's head as well.
Here's my guess; This is just the FBI once again trying to go back to the glory days of Hoover when they were a government in and unto themselves just because of all the dirt they had on everyone from both sides of the house.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Why the FBI?
[Addendum]
And here's my nest guess. Sure, they want the diary and anything else they can dig up in form of dirt on O'Keefe and anyone he's spied on.
They ALSO want the diary in case it contains something, anything they could wave under Biden's nose whenever they think they need a presidential favor.
Hoover was the first one to employ the tactic of obtaining dirt on everyone in order to secure his job and empire no matter who sat in the oval office...and I very much doubt any FBI director since has looked back at those days with any other feeling than sheer envy and a desire to accomplish the same.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Why the FBI?
"Of course the FBI wouldn’t be participating in this merely to protect Biden family interests, right? Right?"
The same way they'd participate in similar shenanigans to protect the interests of Trump, Nixon, and FDR. It's almost a given that if they were surveilling the likely diary thief and said thief at some point contacted O'Keefe the strike team would be rolling without the FBI director or the political establishment even becoming aware of it.
The issue with the FBI, since long ago, is that they're a politcal faction of their own - as illustrated under Hoover when the FBI was a mini-government accountable to no one since their director had all the dirt on everyone and wasn't shy of using it.
To boot they also consist of headhunters, all looking to make a high-profile collar. Which is why so very many presidents have lamented that they're that dog you keep on a leash because all it wants to do is bite someone and doesn't give a rat's ass who.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: negotiating for purchase?
"I value protection of the fourth estate, but I don’t start from a position of assuming the worst when I know that law enforcement had to first approach a court to get permission to execute a search."
Then again, the FBI in particular hasn't covered itself in glory since inception nor have US courts been all that good at abiding by constitutional principles lately.
The main issue of determining who's in the right here is that none of the parties involved have anywhere close to a clean record.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Re:
"Its project Veritas. They were likely involved in the actual theft."
Lest we forget. Yes, it's indeed "Project Veritas". A grift machine designed to con the gullible because they want the funding and watching the world burn. O'Keefe in particular has a very definite agenda and long ago lost all claim to being an "independent" journalist, given how his tongue is so far up the ass of the Trumpist cause he can taste what they had for lunch.
On the other hand, also lest we forget, we're talking about the FBI. An organization which has never since its inception been known to be scrupulous about their means.
On the post: Yes, Even If You Think Project Veritas Are A Bunch Of Malicious Grifters, FBI Raid Is Concerning
Re: Son of a quark...
One of the issues in being principled is that you have to apply it even when the wronged party is a shameless set of grifting douchebags eager to con multitudes of gullible morons into self-harm.
It's so much easier being on the alt-right, because they only ever really care about their side always being in the right and the other always being in the wrong, principles and consistency be hanged.
On the post: Data Shows LA Sheriff's Department Is Stopping Tons Of Latino Bicyclists, Rarely Finding Anything Illegal
Re: Missing the forest for the trees.
"No, the target are not the people riding a bike by choice"
I could be missing my guess, not being american...but if the target is latino and bike riders in Los Angeles then surely the poor deputies will need some way to winnow down the number of people they need to search? I'm sure that targeting only the ones not wearing and riding expensive brands is just an unfortunate coincidence.
/s because, you know, the alt-right probably has even more insane explanations. Like every latino on a bike being a drug-addled trafficker with Ruger Redhawk shoved up their skintight spandex and a kidnapped child folded up under their helmet.
On the post: Data Shows LA Sheriff's Department Is Stopping Tons Of Latino Bicyclists, Rarely Finding Anything Illegal
Re: Re:
"I'd agree a cavity search by a deputy only when the deputy showed me his DDS or DMD diploma and scheduled me 2 weeks in advance."
I'd normally agree...but given that it's the US we're talking about what you meant to say was; "I'll agree to a cavity search by a deputy only by providing reasonable suspicion by refusing one because I enjoy being held down by four other deputies while said cavity search is performed"?
On the post: The Latest Version Of Congress's Anti-Algorithm Bill Is Based On Two Separate Debunked Myths & A Misunderstanding Of How Things Work
Re: Re:
"Except you aren’t doing anything to those companies! What you are doing is guaranteeing the corner shop goes under."
Weird. Because here in Europe we do have higher minimum wages than anywhere in the US - by a lot. Our businesses do just fine.
Our taxes for the wealthy ar higher than in the US - and we still do just fine.
After tallying US state taxes, federal taxes, and the non-optional insurances for health and dental...you guys spend 43% of your paycheck in taxes. We get away with average 34% or so.
Everyone here has healthcare which costs about 1/3th of yours and has the only limit of "until you get cured" rather than "until your health plan runs out".
Every type of infrastructure we get more for less than you do, pay less, and in the middle income bracket, get more left over.
And I'll tell you how that works; it's because "Fuck you, got mine" is, in the long run, inefficient and self-destructive.
Oh, yeah, and can't recall if "Biden's paying the poor immigrants Trump hurt shitloads of money" was in your parroted set of alt-right talking points but I'll address that as well since it serves as a pretty good example of how Trump hurt your interests.
What Trump did on the border, see, was illegal according to US law. Those migrants are suing the state. And they'll win humongous amounts of money if allowed to proceed to court. Biden offered them a minor settlement. Better hope they accept that or a lot more of your tax money goes to crime victims courtesy of Dear Leader.
And you keep telling people democrats hurt you every day while the alt-right has you persuaded that paying a sensible minimum wage will - unlike everywhere else in the world - cripple your economy. Maybe you ought to look at the economies and general prosperity of France, Germany and scandinavia before buying that load of steaming bullshit.
On the post: The Latest Version Of Congress's Anti-Algorithm Bill Is Based On Two Separate Debunked Myths & A Misunderstanding Of How Things Work
Re: Re:
"I’m proud of my votes. I have no reason to not be. "
You'll be that guy standing around a few years after the GQP actually wins, asking yourself "How did it come to this?".
The Build Back Better Bill? Should have been way bigger. Every time an american starts talking about the good old times what they refer to is the 50's and 60's based on FDR's New Deal. And it was only after dismantling that "socialist" platform in the 80's the US started to decline the way it has today.
You people opted instead to strip mine the basis of your own prosperity under Reagan and give every advantage to those already wealthy. Gone the days of actual upwards mobility - because save for the token lottery winner hard work no longer pays off.
"You voted for a communist and then you voted for a senile old man who has destroyed our economy, destroyed our energy sector, and is well on his way to destroying our country. "
Know how we can tell you gave up on your brain there in favor of the GQP talking points?
The US overton window is so skewed now when you people start talking about "left" and "right" what you mean is just hard right or extremist right. Bernie is about the most left-leaning guy you've ghot - and he'd be counted as a centrist-left at most in the rest of the world.
As for the "senile old man" destroying the economy. No. Trump earned, in his early days, the credit of Obama's policies. Biden is currently earning the outcome of Trump's policies. Because that's how it shifts - the current prez always gets to see the last prez's policy play out.
"I’m proud of my votes. I have no reason to not be. "
Spoken like a man bereft of his own history and a working brain, mindlessly chanting a senseless mantra and cleaving hard to the religious belief in Dear Leader.
Well. I don't have a personal dog in this fight. The US falling to the new republican trend of fascist rule won't matter much to me over here in Europe. It will mean the US days as a financial and political partner are numbered which means we'll all have to face Russia or the EU taking over the seat of world leader - because China won't give a toss beyond ensuring it's borders are closed to undesired western influence.
You people, otoh, will all get to watch that precious constitution of yours on fire, because unless i misread things, no matter whether Trump loses in 24 or not, the new set of republican yes-men won't oppose him in overturning the results.
On the post: Jury Correctly Recognizes That Print-On-Demand Website Isn't A 'Counterfeiting' Business Engaged In Infringement
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This made me audibly laugh out l
"You said hentai and I pointed out yaoi would be more my speed."
Ah. Well, for future reference..."hentai" just means "lewd" or "perverted". So it covers anything pornographic. Behavior, feature film scenes, porn movies, and of course in manga and anime;
Yaoi, Yuri, Shounen Ai, Shoujo Ai...and all the weird offshoots exploring erotics beyond what is normally possible, including tentacles, vore, etc....that's all just subcategories.
A girl talking about a lecherous person might refer to them as baka hentai (stupid pervert) or just hentai (pervert). Categories of R18+ entertainment will be labeled hentai no matter what the subcategory. And so on.
Not to be confused with the far tamer ecci which just means naughty and tends to mean the work in question contains a lot of fanservice in the form of suggestive but not explicit scenery. I think Japan may have a law which states that this must include close-ups of female underwear.
Hrm...not that I'd know much about any of that, naturally. Yup. Boring old straight white cis-male, me...
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"You are definitely on the wrong side of history..."
The idea of being "on the wrong side of history" is, incidentally, normally only used politically for a certain type of people, ever since a certain Hitler popularized the expression in his book and in his speeches.
Because the idea that history has a right and a wrong side rather than simply being a recounting of fact...that's an invention of that certain ideology Herr Hitler is famous for pioneering.
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
Re:
"List everyone this fine institute takes money from."
It's on the wiki pages for Copia.
Also in Copia's homepage.
Also covered by numerous articles publicly released annually on where various think-tanks obtain funding.
Oh...I get it, Baghdad Bob...you thought you had yourself a 'gotcha' moment again and blurted out yet another question to which everyone can already supply the answer you weren't looking for.
I must say your trolling has become rather weaksauce lately...but I guess when the material you got comes from the alt-right morons hitting all 14 points of Umberto Eco's "how to spot a fascist" list the talking points just aren't possible without either denying observable reality or abstaining from anything but a brief, limping one-liner.
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
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"Isn't the protection of section 230 limited to comments?"
It is. comments are made by the commenters - not Techdirt's responsibility what they say. No more so, at least, than the bar owner is culpable for what their patrons say in their bar.
Articles may be published by Techdirt staff (in which case TD would be partially or wholly culpable), or by independents (in which case TD would be partially or wholly culpable). Because in a sane legal paradigm it's always the person writing a message who is responsible for it.
The alt-right's slogan of "removing 230" basically means "Let's shoot the messenger, for they are culpable for bearing the message".
On the post: Wherein The Copia Institute Tells The Eleventh Circuit That Florida's SB 7072 Law Violates Our Rights
Re: Re: Re: On another note:
"Martin Luther King could easily have been silenced, just as those who are ahead of their time today certainly are."
And yet he wasn't. And by those very fine people you claim are "ahead of their time" I'm sure MLK would be the first to advocate having every private entity throw those people out of their houses.
"Might doesn't make right and censorship is might. Immunizing libel is diastrous and will remain a disaster until 230 is gone."
And private property owners exercising their right to throw people off their property is not censorship. It's the house owner showing you the door because they think you're an asshole.
Just because you are a moron unable to understand this very simple difference doesn't mean anyone else is, Baghdad Bob.
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