Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

I don't think I posted this Williamson piece which is pretty long but has really good parts. From a week ago. It's an excoriation of Republicans but specifically Trump Republicans. It also rips populism. I love his line about having met THE PEOPLE and if the choice is to be between THE ESTABLISHMENT and THE PEOPLE, he chooses the ESTABLISHMENT

If the choice is between the Harvard Class of 1997 and a dude wearing face paint and Buffalo skins, babbling about prophecies, all Hail Harvard!

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/the-end-of-the-gop/

[AlabamAlum]

Now that Trumo is deposed, shouldn’t you change your user pic, DSL? Maybe Ann Coulter or some other Kornellian?

[UMStan White]

Ah what a great day! Made better by the entertaining rants of the far right posters who accurately predict their collective demise!

[Hannibal]

1776, in what I was able to read before the site went away, actively discourages scholarship or education that draws attention to the nation's sins.

As well they should, since that type of study and rhetoric is not being done with any degree of intellectual honesty. If it were, it would look at those sins within their historical context and explore every factual truth about them, such as that Africans were enslaved by other Africans and then sold to regional slave traders by more Africans, and this trade existed long before America was there to participate in it and, later, put a stop to it. America has many distinguishing features that separate it from other civilizations throughout history, and the use of slavery is not one of those distinctions.

The purpose of the 1619 project is not to educate anyone or to provide a meaningful perspective on history. It is to spread White Guilt and demoralize the society so that we feel that we do not have a country worth preserving.

[iam416]

Now that Trumo is deposed, shouldn’t you change your user pic, DSL? Maybe Ann Coulter or some other Kornellian?

I'd think that Janet Reno, Keith Olbermann or Ed Marinara are leader contenders for the hallowed Kornell alumni user pic award.

[iam416]

As well they should, since that type of study and rhetoric is not being done with any degree of intellectual honesty. If it were, it would look at those sins within their historical context and explore every factual truth about them, such as that Africans were enslaved by other Africans and then sold to regional slave traders by more Africans, and this trade existed long before America was there to participate in it and, later, put a stop to it. America has many distinguishing features that separate it from other civilizations throughout history, and the use of slavery is not one of those distinctions.

The purpose of the 1619 project is not to educate anyone or to provide a meaningful perspective on history. It is to spread White Guilt and demoralize the society so that we feel that we do not have a country worth preserving.

Pretty much.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Now that Trumo is deposed, shouldn’t you change your user pic, DSL? Maybe Ann Coulter or some other Kornellian?

Biden eating ice cream until I can think of something better

[iam416]

America was not exceptional in that it conquered weaker peoples, had slaves, had various other injustices, had a military, had some form of government, had lots of other things.

America was and is exceptional in its embrace of liberal democracy (constitional republic), the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights (a lot of countries still don't protect freedom of speech), holding a fucking election during a CIVIL WAR, the Marshall Plan, rebuilding Japan and, in general, an overall commitment to freedom.

American exceptionalism isn't that America is entirely exceptional, but that, at its core, it certainly is. And that's entirely unacceptable to Chairman Joe which, sadly, is entirely unexceptional for the Left.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'd think that Janet Reno, Keith Olbermann or Ed Marinara are leader contenders for the hallowed Kornell alumni user pic award.

Carl Sagan. Toni Morrison. Legendary Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Also Fauci

[iam416]

I would have thought Bill Nye at least merited honorable mention...I'm sorry...I believe it's honourable mention at Kornell. Whatever. We all know it's going to be Ed Marinara. Do it already.

[Hannibal]

DSL's user pic is racist because ice cream is racist

https://archive.vn/R8Mrw

One person on Twitter ran the McBroken data for Houston through the Urban Institute’s Spatial Equity Data tool—created to help assess how unequally resources were distributed across cities and locales—and found McDonald’s locations were overrepresented in white areas while locations with broken ice cream machines skewed Black and low-income.

This is interesting considering it has long been documented that poorer areas tend to have limited access to healthy food, not only because of efforts by fast food chains but the federal government’s own subsidies.

Another longer analysis by data analysts at the Urban Institute covered even more cities and found more or less the same patterns. In Chicago, McDonald’s locations are underrepresented in low-income, Black, and Latinx areas, but broken machines are overrepresented in Black and renter-heavy neighborhoods. In New York City, McDonald’s restaurants are overrepresented in Latinx and renter communities, while broken machines are overrepresented in Black, high disability rate, and low-income communities.

”We were a little surprised to find that black communities were overreprresented with broken ice cream machines, and that this pattern held up across all of the cities we analyzed,” researchers Ajjit Narayanan and Alena Stern wrote in an email. “It is important to note that while our tool can measure the size and scale of disparities, it can't tell you why those disparities exist. In this case, it could be due to incomplete data, franchisee differences, corporate mismanagement, or a host of other factors. However, this a troubling trend, regardless of the cause.”

[iam416]

Systemic racism.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I would have thought Bill Nye at least merited honorable mention...I'm sorry...I believe it's honourable mention at Kornell. Whatever. We all know it's going to be Ed Marinara. Do it already.

I notice that Ohio A&M has had four Nobel Laureates? That's adorable. Not too shabby for an establishment that hands out diplomas like strip club flyers on a street corner.

Fair Cornell has had twice that. In just Physics alone.

Oh and everyone knows that Officer Joe Coffey was the glue that held Hill Street Blues together. Kill him off and you won't even have a show anymore. SAD!

[Tom W]

So, you're not OK with the proliferation of devices that allow our private lives to be surveilled? I see you have a plan to deal with that. Should government be involved with regulating the proliferations of such surveillance devices and capabilities? Don't such things used properly prevent crime? Promote public safety?

It's been pretty obvious for a while now that you can assume that just about anything you do will be monitored and recorded. I recall reading about how the SALT-2 treaty defined ICBM sizes based on what Keyhole satellites could measure and the book the Puzzle Palace shed some light on the NSA. Both of these were UNCLASSIFIED and date back to the early 1980s. I have no idea what goes on today, but it's a safe bet that there's no shortage of reasoning to apply technological advances to surveillance to prevent criminal activities- be it bored teens doing pranks or the next 9/11.

So, yeah, the government isn't just "involved"- they're actually leading the charge, and we really don't have a choice in the matter. Our only recourse is to not attract attention to ourselves. Don't do stupid things or piss off the wrong people.

[Dr. Strangelove]

You should assume your phone's camera and microphone are on ALL the time and are relaying information back to Facebook or Google or whomever at all times. No different with your Ring doorbell or smart tv or Alexa or any other "smart" device that has a camera or a mic.