Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

The future of humanity is anchored to the Earth, full stop. Its fun to do some exploring, but when the Earth goes so do we.

In our lifetimes, that is certain. Mars is a pipe dream until there are some radical breakthroughs in space travelling technologies.

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... Now. It's one thing to actively help criminals launder dirty money. It's another thing to be lazy, incompetent, and have contempt for the rule of law. No one ever accused the Trump Org of deliberately assisting criminals using his casino, just that they were so negligent and sloppy as to make it a haven for crooks.

Switch over to the current real estate "empire". I have close to zero doubt that some of his condo units purchased by Russian and Chinese nationals were bought with dirty money. Proving Trump knows about any of it is a tough task but he'd have to be clueless to not at least suspect certain people. My guess is he comes pretty close to straddling the line in being an accessory. This is someone who, during the campaign, complained about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because he thinks it puts American businessmen at an unfair disadvantage to not be allowed to bribe foreign govt officials. Not someone who I think is terribly hung up on scruples.

So while I'd be surprised that there's a direct connection between him and criminality (in part because he shuns paper records and prefers to do everything by word of mouth), I wouldn't be surprised if his properties are currently being used for criminal purposes.

First, being lazy and contemptuous of the law, as you assert Trump Org and it's members are, including PDJT himself, does not excuse this crowd from prosecution. Ignorance of the law.................. and that's not directed against you DSL. I know where you stand on this.

I don't think anyone posting here thought Trump colluded with Putin to get elected. To me, all the chest thumping going on here and elsewhere among Tumpsters is stupid. So is deriding nay sayers who want to know more about the Mueller Investigation Report.

It would be nice to know what it reveals about criminal activity PDJT may have undertaken or DJT before he became president but during his campaign using campaign funds to do it. We really don't have a clear idea of whether Trump obstructed or didn't. Mueller punted to Barr on this declaring, as far as we know, he couldn't exonerate him on this count. Patriots shouldn't take anything coming from Trump's or Barr's mouth about this as exculpatory.

Why? Because he is a liar and it's pretty clear he surrounds himself with people who are also liars. Does anyone here dispute this or find his lying acceptable behavior for a sitting president? Why is Trump such an active participant in social media? Does he have others who willingly and with intent or otherwise, just blindly jumping aboard, take to Instagram, et. al, as a means of spreading, intentionally or not, disinformation that is supportive of him and his policies? Does he display inappropriate narcissistic behaviors that are not in the best interests of the nation, its national security interests or domestic order? Are citizens just willing to overlook this behavior and the risks to truth posed by social media which he and his cronies are entirely capable of manipulating?

Trump remains a dishonest, self-absorbed, purposefully manipulative, loose cannon with his finger on the nuclear button. If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, given what I've said above, it should.

[AlabamAlum]

Nah. No sci-fi. But I believe that you give us a few hundred thousand years up to sometime before the Sun goes nova, a large sustainable multi-generational space craft is a certainty possible (similar to what Carl Sagan and others envision). We have a few things to work out (GCR is a big one) and launching this space ark would have to be from something docked to the ISS or a lower G setting (like the moon) is required.

But in those 300,000 years I expect technology to catch up to what we need. Our technological knowledge is growing exponentially and will continue to do so. Just the advancements in my lifetime are staggering.

Anyway, I think it's not only possible, but probable and inevitable . The only thing that will stop us from it is if some asteroid hits us before we are ready (or other event that throws us back into the stone age or wipes us out completely).

Full stop!

[Dr. Strangelove]

AA caught part of an episode of "Lost in Space" on MeTV last night at a bar. The sound wasn't on, but he got the gist of it.

[froot loops]

Comet had been showing Space1999 on the weekends, Some trippy shit.

[WingsFan]

Danger Will Robinson!

[iam416]

Excellent work, Strangelove.

[AlabamAlum]

All this space talk reminds of a time, a few years ago, talking to a guy at my bar after Voyager 1 exited our solar system and what an accomplishment that was and how impressed I was that we were still able to communicate with it considering that it was built in the 1970's - especially with how many billions of miles it had traveled...

He said, "Yeah, maybe it can get it to Mars and whatnot!"

I replied, "It JUST left the solar system and is now in interstellar space."

To which he said, "So, you're saying it will be a while, huh?"

[AlabamAlum]

Voyager talk made me think up a great trivia question.

Which launched first?

A. Voyager 1
B. Voyager 2
C. The first launch of a NASA space shuttle (STS-1)
D. Launch of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter

Pioneer was 1978 and the space shuttle was 1981, of course. That leaves the two Voyagers. So V'ger 1?

NO! Voyager 2 launched BEFORE Voyager 1!

You are welcome for that. Feel free to use it.

[froot loops]

You hit on a key issue with the asteroid. Going to the moon or Mars is flashy, but funding for defending the Earth from such a hit is paltry. We have a decent ability to track known asteroids but we are blind to close range objects. If we are to survive 300,000 years to build AA's Battlestar Galactica we need to protect them from the rocks.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Getting back to news of import ......

This is decent recounting of Ron Emanual's comments on the Smollett affair as well as that of the Chicago Chief of Police. I agree with both of them. Smollett was not held accountable for the crime he committed. Justice was not served. The worst part is the smarmy shit that came out of Smollett's mouth, his defense team's mouths and that of his family who, if they had raised the kid properly, would have never undertaken this scam. He is an entitled child who deserves public scorn .... a lot of it. The spin put on this by has attorneys is despicable and this outcome will set back the victims of real hate crimes attempting to seek justice when such crimes are committed. Fuck Smollett. I hope he is shut out of all opportunities to ever appear in any venue where he is on stage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/us/smollett-emanuel-chicago-police.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

Mars? The Chinese will help. Just watched "The Martian." If Matt Damon can survive a trip there and back solving all manner of incredibly complex problems along the way, Trump can surely put men back on the moon..... maybe the Chinese will help him out like they did NASA in rescuing Damon from certain death.

[AlabamAlum]

Trivia question 2: what school did Star Trek's Dr. McCoy attend:

1. University of Georgia
2. University of Tennessee
3. University of Mississippi
4. University of Kentucky

The correct answer is Ole Miss.

[Ghengis Jon]

If you're in the ISS and floating around in the weightlessness, does a fart propel you across the craft?

[iam416]

Froot seems to insist that we Build the Space Wall if we are ever see Alabam"Alum's" Space House Boat. Why does Froot hate asteroids? Why does Alabam"Alum" love awful trivia?