SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
DannyB (5839)
(email not shown publicly)
Creator of horrible puns I try to inflict on people daily. I haven't been voluntarily or involuntarily committed to a mental institution yet -- as far as I can tell. Despite programming in Java.
A friend told me. I had to google it to believe it.
Apparently, Trump attorneys now say long-dead Hugo Chavez (2013) conspired to rig the 2020 election against Trump.
I mean, geez, I can't even make up stuff that crazy . . . and it's not like I don't try sometimes.
Rigging the election is serious business and Hugo Chavez should get life in prison.
Giuliani claims ‘Chavez approved’ Venezuelan election technology was used to rig election
Donald Trump’s election fraud lawyers – who describe themselves as an “elite strike force team” – have alleged that the vote was hacked and ballots switched from the president to Joe Biden, thanks to technology developed in Venezuela.
Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, leading the team, said that the election had been rigged by “a company owned by affiliates of Chavez and Maduro”.
[ . . . ] “This is real. It is not made up. There is no one here who engages in fantasy. I know crimes – I can smell them.”
Trump’s New Vote Fraud Theory Is So Much Crazier Than You Realize
[ . . . ] Like so many of his outrages, this has numbed the public and caused the absurdity to recede into the background of events. It is therefore easy to miss the fact that the conspiracy theory Trump has begun circulating over the last several days is vastly crazier than the ones he used to promote. It’s as if, Spaceship Trump, last seen leaving Earth for the moon, it has now reached distant galaxies.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2020, @11:02PM (10 children)
After Hugo Chavez died, were all of his associates slaughtered, mummified, and buried alongside him in his tomb?
No? Then a company owned by affiliates of Chavez and Maduro can help to rig a 2020 election.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 19 2020, @11:39PM (3 children)
Does any of that sound likely to you?
If it happened Mr Giuliani is going to have to present some evidence of it, and if he claims it in court and can't, the judge may well get very angry.
Mr. Giuliani may well wind up in serious trouble.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @02:00PM (1 child)
No, it doesn't sound likely. But reality is so often stranger than fiction. The currently disputed system is "Dominion" - great name for election software. Their software is used in about 40% of states now, including every single contested state. The 'Venezuelan Connection' is SmartMatic which is another election soft/hardware provider that was used some states. It indeed was used in Venezuela during elections widely believed to be fraudulent, and the chairman of SmartMatic, Vice Admiral Peter Neffenger, is now a member of Biden's transition team - great optics.
Anyhow the two come together through a technology transfer via a third company - Sequoia voting systems. In 2005 Smartmatic bought Sequoia voting systems. In 2007, they "sold" Sequoia to a holding company largely operated by Smartmatic. In 2010 Sequoia was then bought by Dominion Voting Systems maintaining many of the preexisting Smartmatic personnel in the process.
Is the connection more than tenuous and does it mean anything? Well that will be up the judge to decide. Personally to me this all seems so unbelievably stupid. Why in the world are we privatizing voting software and hardware that could, even if only in theory, end up compromising the results of en election? Seems obvious that this is one of those sort of things that should 100% be open, transparent, and auditable by any interested party. Instead not only do we privatize it but we privatize it and then give defacto monopolies in the industry to companies who have, at best, dubious backgrounds and connections.
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday November 23 2020, @03:52AM
Dominion, as in The Dominion of Canada, or The Dominion of Australia. You are right that it is a good name for election software with the record of clean elections the various Dominions have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @02:59PM
Evidence? That's crazy talk!
'Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?' Sweating Rudy Giuliani presents 'evidence' for 'massive voting fraud' as hair dye runs down his face - alongside 'elite legal strike force' who claim Joe Biden's win is a Venezuelan plot they uncovered on the internet [dailymail.co.uk]
IMO, Trump's evil plan is not to present evidence. Simply repeat the lie enough times until it becomes truth. (where have I heard that before?) Kick up enough dust that nobody knows what to believe. Just like people who die of Covid-19, gasping for breath, believing that Covid is all a hoax, that they must have something else, maybe pneumonia or lung cancer. Even as they are at 75% blood oxygen level while breathing 100% oxygen. Full of bitterness and hate to the very last breath.
All Trump needs to win is enough money and influence to bribe or coerce state legisoators to break the law, ignore the vote and put in their own slate of legislators in two or three states. That's it.
We already know that Trump will do anything to win. Legal or illegal. A true fascist.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2020, @11:50PM (3 children)
Giuliani is feeding the squirrels in your attic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @12:06AM (2 children)
Please get him out of there and back into a courtroom where he belongs.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @12:15AM
You'd have better luck in the courtroom with the squirrels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2020, @03:54AM
> Please get him out of there and back into a courtroom where he belongs.
Please get him out of there and back into Al Anon or other rehab where that drunk belongs.
ftfy
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @01:43AM (1 child)
A lie is a lie is a lie. There's no merit to anything Trump's lawyers are saying.
There were errors in Georgia's original vote count [ajc.com] that went against Trump. Georgia did a full manual recount and Trump picked up 1,400 votes. This is consistent with the types of swings that can occur in manual recounts.
Even if you hand recount all of the ballots from all of the blue wall states, Nevada, and Arizona, it's extremely unlikely that Trump would pick up enough votes to tip any of those states in his favor, let alone enough to win the election. Add 1,400 votes to Trump's total in any of those states and he still loses every single one of those states.
Georgia's Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has debunked Trump's claims. If a hand recount clearly shows Biden won Georgia, there's zero reason to think Trump would win any of the other states he's challenging the results in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @01:48AM
My mistake, I think Trump actually picked up closer to 1,900 or 2,000 votes, reading the article again carefully. It's still not nearly enough to tip Georgia in his favor. Trump can request a machine recount after the votes are certified. It won't make a difference. He lost Georgia. And he also lost Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona.
As for Rudy Giuliani, this is truly sad to see. He was commanded widespread, bipartisan support for his efforts after 9/11. America's mayor is now a laughingstock.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @12:25AM (1 child)
Trump never stopped, he simply got a new spot on a real reality TV shiw for oligarchs around the world. The goal of the show is to see how much stupid shit they can get Republicans to believe. This sounds like the crowning achievement that will see Don The Con's debts erased. The humiliation of the US is complete.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @04:22PM
The president attacking Iran. to get re-elected, was predicted in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSrC7-ERrE4 [youtube.com]
The prediction:
"Our president will start a war with Iran, because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective. So the only way he figures he's going to get re-elected, and as sure as you're sitting there, he's going to start a war with Iran. So. I believe that he will attack Iran. Sometime prior to the election. Because he thinks that's the only way he can get elected. Isn't it pathetic."
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @01:14AM (1 child)
One of the links in your journal led me to this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/giuliani-trump-powell-news-conference-venezuela-biden-b1750555.html [independent.co.uk]
And I'm still laughing.
You rock, DannyB!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @04:16PM
Laughter is the best medicine.
Maybe not a cure. But it can help medicate as the downfall happens all around us.
It would be funny if it were not so sadly true.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @01:20AM
Poor Rudy [independent.co.uk]:
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @01:32AM (2 children)
If I didn't know better, I'd start to wonder whether Giuliani was trying to sabotage the legal efforts. That's how utterly incompetent he's been at representing Trump.
As for Trump, he knows he lost. This is about settling a score with Democrats [cnn.com] because of the Russia investigation. There are many differences, not the least of which is actual evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. There was very clear evidence that Trump welcomed Russia's assistance [apnews.com] to win the election. The intelligence community, the same one Trump frequently disparages, did find there wasn't substantive evidence that Russia hacked voting systems [nytimes.com]. While Russian hacking of voting systems was a concern, it was never used to question the legitimacy of votes that were counted. Hillary Clinton conceded the morning after the election. Obama didn't impede Trump's transition team from moving ahead, and actually met with Trump to try to help prepare him.
The other difference is that we have a pandemic raging this time. We need clear leadership from the executive branch, something that we're not getting now as Trump sits in the White House and sulks while watching OAN and tweeting misinformation. Biden needs access for him and his transition team so the new administration is prepared to make critical policy decisions on January 20. Leadership from the outgoing administration and a well-prepared incoming administration will prevent COVID-related deaths. How many people have to die so the piece of shit in the White House can exact revenge because he's butthurt about the Russia investigation?
This isn't a serious legal effort. It's about a piece of shit who cares more about his ego than human lives.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday November 20 2020, @10:40AM (1 child)
No, it's scorched earth - to the best possible, don't let Biden gain any of the republican voting base. especially in the run off election in Georgia (which may land the Dems the Senate too).
I wonder if Pompeo's tour of 7 countries [apnews.com] is not meant to brew some extra international troubles there to make Biden's life a bitter one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @05:22PM
Trump's main goal has never been to win in court, but to be seen upholding his narrative so that he can keep the party united. They will definitely push to broaden their majorities in Congress and the Senate in the midterms, and they will probably succeed if the trend of the past several decades continues.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @12:45PM (1 child)
He might be dead, but that never stopped anyone else voting democrat.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @03:02PM
It also never stopped dead people from voting Republican.
There. I can make wild unfounded accusations without a shred of evidence too!
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 20 2020, @01:49PM (28 children)
Some of you seem to have faith in the system. I don't have much. The problem, as I see it, is not so much that the Ds may have rigged the election. The real problem is, the Rs weren't smart enough to head them off.
Everyone knew where the battleground states were going to be. If the Rs didn't know it already, the Ds signaled those battles often enough throughout the campaign. So, where were all the R poll workers? Huh? Didn't have any? Well, WTF does anyone expect? Observers banned to a distance of 20 ft, 50 ft, or even 1/2 mile? WTF do you expect? The Ds get to run away with the election. It never has mattered who votes, or how they vote. It only matters who gets to COUNT THE VOTE!
I have no faith in the system, I have zero faith in the Ds, and the Rs don't deserve any more faith, because they have failed to supply the poll workers necessary to ensure the process to be "transparent" and fair.
Where were all those Trump Train people, on election night? They all had money to spend on their little shows all around the country. None of them had the money, the time, or the motivation to get inside of the election machinery? None of them had the qualifications necessary to become a poll worker? Allow me to express my contempt for all of those jackasses here.
I would have presumed that every table had two (or more) people working at it. One representing D interests, one representing R interests, as well as one or more "neutrals", if available. Any mistake or error should be discussed and corrected immediately, with the agreement of all of those sitting at the table.
True, Trump had a huge turnout at all of his rallies. True, Biden had damned near zero turnout at his rallies. But, obviously, Trump had crap for turnout on election night, where it mattered most. The Ds, the Rs, and all independents should take notice. Have your representatives there on election night to observe the count!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @03:10PM (14 children)
The nice thing about conspiracy theories is that no precautions that one takes can ever prevent new different conspiracy theories.
If there were a team of poll watchers watching directly over the shoulder of every single vote counter, there would still be conspiracy theories. If every single vote watcher was recorded, with every single ballot legible on that video, there would still be conspiracy theories about the ballots being corrupted before it reached the vote counters. If there are teams of armed guards from the voting places to the counting places, there would still be unfounded evidence-free conspiracy theories.
There is nothing that can or will stop this. People don't like the truth. Can't accept facts. Don't know what to believe. Have been gas lighted by this administration for four years. And longer by Fox News.
I have zero faith too. There ARE people who want to cheat and corrupt the result. That's why we have safeguards. They may not be perfect. But there is not some massive conspiracy throughout the nation, like faking the moon landings. And yet being able to keep it a secret.
In every elections, irregularities are found. Sometimes recounts change the results by hundreds of votes. But never anything that changes the outcome.
Four years ago, I did not like the outcome. It was disappointing. After I was assured by people from all parties and multiple levels, I accepted the disappointing result without conjuring up any conspiracy theories. I don't have to like the result, but I did accept it as reality.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 20 2020, @03:31PM (1 child)
You're mostly right here. But, what about an instance where a judge orders that observers be 6 ft closer to the spot where ballots are being counted, so poll workers allow them 6 ft closer - then move the tables 6ft (or more) further away from that spot? Bad faith. Or, zero faith.
The thing about conspiracies is, sometimes they are real. That's why we have people serving time in prison for conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit tax evasion, conspiracy to distribute drugs, mail fraud, wire fraud, mortgage fraud, and healthcare (insurance) fraud, and more.
I have a bit of a problem, in that, there are not Republicans among the poll workers standing up to say, "I'm a Republican, and I was there, and there was no fraud." It appears that the poll workers were overwhelmingly D, so there is no one to assure us that all the counts were fair and accurate.
Again, it doesn't matter who votes, it only matters who counts the votes. If there were conspiracies, we can only hope that some of the conspirators come forward to confess. The Rs failed, and failed hard.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @03:57PM
If that's true, it's bad. There is no excuse. But a vast conspiracy it is not.
That is true. But like the moon landing conspiracy, I'd sure like to see some proof. Your previous paragraph, if true, is not proof of a vast conspiracy.
I can understand complaining about insufficient R poll workers. But that is only the R's fault. It's not as though they didn't have the opportunity to be represented, in the large scale. (Even accepting that problems may occur in some precincts.)
There ARE officials of both parties who have repeated declared that there is no fraud. Have you not heard them? Trump's lawsuits are being thrown out for lack of evidence by Republican judges. The states that do not use paper ballots, just happen to be states that voted for Trump (if we want to talk about electronic voting machine insecurity). So in the places where the conspiracy theories can show cause, it IS POSSIBLE to do a recount. And a re-re-count. And a re-re-re-count. But do conspiracy theorists ever accept the outcome?
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @03:36PM (11 children)
There's one issue with what you were saying. Before this election most voters were worried that it would not be held fairly and equally. The outcome of the election has now changed that in a predictable and trite way, but this is still completely unprecedented. You always have some fringe element expressing doubts to the validity of an election, but now you have the vast majority of voters for one side believing the election was not held fairly. This has never happened before and thus there's obviously much more than 'I don't like this result so I will deny it's going on.
And similarly, the media is also acting in a *really* weird and unprecedented way. There were a large number of discrepancies in this election, ongoing legal challenges in a number of states, and other *very* weird stuff. For instance, you probably read in the news that the deadlock on election certification in Wayne County, Michigan was recently broken with a unanimous certification. What you probably did not read about is that the two republicans (on the 4 member certification board) have rescinded their certification and gone public claiming that threats were made against their family and that the Wayne County counsel lied to them and promised a full audit would follow certification.
Not only is the media generally providing 0 coverage to the ongoing challenges and issues with the results of the election, but they are actively 'gaslighting' people into believing they don't exist or are all "conspiracy theories" as you seem to be suggesting. Beyond this they are also framing all of the challenges, recounts, and other actions as 'efforts to overturn the will of the people.' That is completely fake, loaded, and frankly just outright propaganda. The "will of the people" is determined by ensuring that all valid votes are counted. Working to ensure this is happening is *precisely* to ensure that the will of the people is being obeyed. Compare the media coverage of today to the coverage of the 2000 election which saw similar issues, but on a much smaller scale and with far less 'weirdness' happening in the process of it all.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @04:04PM (10 children)
Evidence please! Fox News is media, and they could cover this evidence. Claims of having lots of evidence is NOT itself evidence.
What we have is the vast majority of voters for one side believing whatever Fox News tells them. Or whatever their Dear Leader tells them. Uncritically and without question. Like a true cult. And woe to anyone who criticizes Trump. I've criticized him before and been on the receiving end of TDS claims! OMG! Not a TDS!
We have the vast majority of voters for one side believing that COVID-19 isn't real. That they shouldn't wear masks. That household cleaners or malaria drugs is a cure. The won't believe qualified doctors. Politics over science. (see: climate change, evolution, sex education) And all sorts of other nonsense.
What has happened is that the vast majority of voters for one side have been Gas Lighted. By Trump for four years. By Fox News for much longer. They live in their own alternate reality bubble.
Just provide some actual evidence that even a Republican judge could believe. That seems so simple. Continuing to argue that there could maybe possibly coulda' be a conspiracy theory sounds like Flat Earthers. But then again, "a vast majority of voters for one side believing...".
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 20 2020, @04:17PM (2 children)
I think you've lost one of the threads in this ball of yarn. Fox has come down in favor of Biden, along with all the rest of mainstream media. Why do so many people presume that Fox is responsible for anything and everything they disagree with?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @04:39PM
It seems Fox has been cleaning house lately. And I had noticed. But I had forgotten the news item that you mention above. Thanks.
I don't assume Fox is responsible for anything I disagree with. Fox is what it is. I can't speak to its future, but it has a long history of being way out there, to put it kindly.
I would argue that if even Fox News recognizes the legitimacy of the election, and the conspiracy theorists have yet to provide any concrete evidence, that maybe the election, while never perfect, is legitimate and reflects the will of most of the people. Even if only by a slim majority. In Trump's case four years ago, not even by a majority, just by electoral college votes. (And I'm not raising that as a complaint -- in this particular post.)
Now I suppose the conspiracy theorists will expand the vastness of the conspiracy to include that even Fox News has been corrupted by the D's who have taken on human form and infiltrated the sacred sanctified halls of Fox News! OMG what is the world coming to!
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @06:23PM
I'm just pointing this out. CNN is merely reporting it, not making it up.
Georgia confirms Biden victory and finds no widespread fraud after statewide audit [cnn.com]
Of course, they could do another audit, and another and another.
But nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing will convince true conspiracy theory believers.
Of course, there are other states that are of interest.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @04:35PM (6 children)
Please take just a moment and read your own post. Let me take the most extreme thing. You stated, "We have the vast majority of voters for one side believing that COVID-19 isn't real." Are you being emotional/rhetorical, or do you genuinely believe this? The fact you would even consider writing this leads me to believe that you're not only consuming media that is actively working to purposefully mislead, but that you obviously have no real life interaction whatsoever with the groups and individuals you're so quick to frame in such a comically absurd way.
I could probably describe your views and values reasonably well. Yet you'd likely be completely wrong on many, if not the vast majority, of assumptions you might have about my views and values. Do you know the purpose of war propaganda? The reason wars need propaganda is because people, in their natural state, are generally decent and understand the same is true of others. The sole purpose of the propaganda is dehumanize the enemy. Because once a group is dehumanized you can basically say whatever you want to the propagandized public and they'll simply accept it at face value. And then step by step, you transform that into you can *do* whatever you want to the propagandized enemy and not only will the public accept, but they may even cheer it on. And by the time you realize what is going on and what "you" (in the general sense) have become, it's far too late to ever turn back.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 20 2020, @06:14PM (2 children)
I'm no great fan of polls, but Rasmussen reports that >1/2 of Rs think the election was stolen - AND that ~1/3 of Ds believe the same.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/11/19/whoa-nearly-a-third-of-democrats-believe-the-election-was-stolen-from-trump-n1160882 [pjmedia.com]
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2020/61_think_trump_should_concede_to_biden [rasmussenreports.com]
You've got to sift through a whole lot of verbiage to get the gist of the poll, so I just fell back on the headline for this post.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @06:36PM
PJ Media?
That certainly sounds like an unbiased news organization.
It is an interesting statistical anomaly that I don't seem to know any of this 1/3 of D's who think the election was stolen. Nor do any of my friends in other states.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @06:44PM
Tucker Carlson bashes Trump attorney Sidney Powell for lack of evidence in fraud claims: ‘She never sent us any’ [washingtonpost.com]
Now the Wa Po's reporting of what Tucker Carlson said is either accurate or it is not. If it is not, I would genuinely like a report, especially by Tucker Carlson, claiming he did not say this. If this reporting is true, it is interesting that even Tucker Carlson:
* calls the claims outlandish
* says no evidence
* is fed up with
I will repeat: no amount of evidence can ever convince conspiracy theorists. The conspiracy simply gets bigger. Now maybe Tucker Carlson is part of the conspiracy. Or some evil D has possessed his body and put words in his mouth.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @06:33PM (2 children)
You'll notice how I deliberately used and re-used the phrase "the vast majority of voters for one side believing", in a rhetorical way.
The point being, I am surprised that the two sides seem to live in completely different worlds.
In general, the R's, or at least their news outlets, generally deny scientific consensus. The people who don't wear masks do not appear to be D's, as far as I know.
You mention propaganda. I would point to Runaway's post below. I certainly do not know any 1/3 of D's who believe the election was stolen from Trump. I can easily believe that R's believe the election was stolen.
To get back to the point. What is the evidence the election was stolen? Where is the smoking gun? The proof. How was it done? All of the people who know, both D's and R's, seem to agree that the election went well. By their own public announcements -- independent of any single news source.
There simply isn't anything that is going to convince the R's that the election was fair.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday November 21 2020, @12:52AM
From Runaway's quoted article :
I'm guessing here, but it seems likely Runaway's reasoning is that if only 61% say it is not likely then 39% must say it is likely. Their numbers don't seem to add up though, as only 74% of unaffiliated think it either was or was not a stolen election. Maybe they are not reporting "don't knows".
It is a shitty article either way, trying to put spin on the numbers by quoting a different side of the question for each group.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 21 2020, @08:12PM
I'd certainly agree with you that both R and D live in completely different worlds - both about equally far from reality. Neither side (the leaders of such, that is) cares at all about science, or really about much of anything aside from their own power. Science is only used when it's convenient as a political bludgeon. The most obvious example of this on the democrat side is the social identity politics stuff which generally implies a blank slate hypothesis. It is completely contradicted by all science on the topic. The vast majority of the extremist social science stuff is not only completely scientifically unsupported but entails a complete denial of progress in human genetics over the past ~70 years.
I'd also add that the appeals to a "scientific consensus" is part of contemporary political propaganda. It's an overt effort to appeal to authority while sidestepping the "problem" that numerous authoritative figures in climate science do not agree with or do not feel that rampant scaremongering is justified or supported. The clarity of the sudden and immediate spike [google.com] in searches for 'what is scientific consensus', just before an election, tells a crystal clear story.
Pair all of this with the totally-not-fascist 'destroy the life of anybody who states anything else' theme that's increasingly common in US public life, and it generally goes a long way towards explaining why the US is a relative downward trajectory in science. In 1969 we put a man on the moon. Now 50 years later, we literally cannot even get to the moon while we spend our time shouting meaningless slogans at one another and pretending we're not trending towards fascism by calling everybody and everything else fascist in some sort of shared delusional projection.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @04:09PM (1 child)
And certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and the men;
they have hearts with which they do not understand,
and they have eyes with which they do not see,
and they have ears with which they do not hear;
they are as cattle,
nay, they are in worse errors;
these are the heedless ones.
Qur'an 7:179 (Shakir translation)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @05:29PM
...this being the first known description of the Dunning–Kruger effect.
[for those who did not make the connection]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @04:11PM (3 children)
Trump earned more votes on election night than any other candidate in election history prior, *by far*. He even beat Obama 2008 (the biggest turnout ever since this election) by more than 5 million votes. But somehow Biden, a corrupt geriatric life long corporatist who's been, as you observed, unable to muster any visible support on the ground, managed to beat even that showing. But it's certainly inaccurate to say Trump had crap for turnout on election night.
I think one issue, and one that may grow in relevance over the coming years, is one of fascism. Why were the polls so horribly wrong again, even worse than 2016? The answer is pretty obvious. Somebody, or some machine, calls you and asks you to tell them your political opinions. In the state of society of today, people who don't have the "right" political opinion are going to disproportionately hang up. People's lives are being destroyed over having the wrong political opinion; there have now even been multiple isolated events of people being outright murdered for having the wrong political opinion. And now you have congressmen proposing that "lists" be made of people with the wrong opinion. At a rally you can blend into the masses and it may not even be especially close to where you live. But poll watching is isolated, visible, and likely relatively close to where you live. As the country turns more towards fascism, that's not a risk many are going to be willing to take.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 20 2020, @04:25PM (2 children)
I meant specifically turnout in the form of poll workers. The votes were there, the counters weren't, it seems. I can't over emphasize the importance of friendly poll workers to legitimize the count. By it's very nature, a political race is an antagonistic process. If one of the antagonists is absent at some point of the process, there is room for shenanigans.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @06:35PM
Loving this fantasy world you Rs are living in right now. Such baseless speculation stated with absolute confidence. Top kek Mr. Brainwadh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2020, @11:29PM
There were literally an identical number of Democratic and Republican counters. In fact, they work in teams together to prevent these sorts of baseless accusations.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmdrklarg on Friday November 20 2020, @05:53PM (6 children)
Uh-huh, riiiight. Had Trump won we wouldn't have heard a peep out of you about "faith in the system". You're letting the bullshit campaign pull you in.
It's probably been said already, but I'll say it: If there is hard evidence of wrongdoing on a scale that would affect the end result of the election, please show everyone. I'm sure that Trump's legal teams would love to find some. If there isn't any (as it appears to be) then give it a rest.
This election was Trump's to lose. He did two things very wrong.
1. Downplay and make political the pandemic. What he should have done was turn Fauci and the CDC loose and stood behind them (I know, an impossible task for an asshole narcissist).
2. Demonize mail in voting with his base. If he hadn't done that, he would have had a LOT more mail in and absentee votes.
Had he not dropped the ball on those two items he would be getting his second term.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2020, @03:26PM
I think the proper response to this is to look at polls prior to the election which showed a majority of Americans, across the political spectrum, did not expect this election to be held fairly and equally. That is completely unprecedented.
The only reason for the galvanization of views now is because of the results. Had Biden not magically come back from the dead (at one point during the election, Vegas was giving ~90% for Trump, and they are generally the most objective analysts you can find - because they're putting out numbers based on $$$, instead of ideology) you'd have seen the exact same thing as now, just with the sides reversed. I expect the liberal media would now be claiming that Russia hacked the voting machines and swapped votes using much of the same evidence of potential vulnerability and previous misuse that republicans are now appealing to. And by contrast republicans would now be claiming that it was a completely fair election, and any effort to argue otherwise is a "conspiracy theory" and an effort to overturn the "will of the people."
The divisions in America that preclude any mutual efforts to assuage any concerns about integrity of the vote, make this particularly bad. It means that whoever is sitting in office come January 21st will never be acknowledged as legitimate by about half the country. And the radicalized groups on both sides are going to know that they're going to have more support than ever before for doing dumb shit. It's a recipe for very bad things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 22 2020, @03:52PM (4 children)
I'd also add here that more people voted for Trump than any other president in history prior to this election. He even beat Obama 2008 by about 5 million votes. And the vast majority of these votes were people showing up, in person, on election day. Biden by contrast is a corrupt geriatric establishment warhawk who has managed to generate 0 support on the ground. In polls he's also lost substantial support among moderate democrats, who make up the majority of democrats. Yet, somehow, he managed to do even better. This defies belief in many ways, but whether it was legitimate or not is tangential to the point here - it is *extremely* unlikely that Trump behaving in a different way, especially as it relates to the pandemic or voting, would have resulted in more votes for him.
Far more likely is that it would have collapsed support. For instance you seem to believe that federal government has some magic bullet they could have fired here against the pandemic. They do not. How the states choose to respond to the pandemic is a state matter. The only reason Fauci has a positive reputation is because the media are generating propaganda in his favor. He has said a *lot* of absurdly stupid things, but they generally get tucked away and ignored as he moves onto more inevitably incorrect prognostications that tend to oscillate before extreme overreaction and extreme underreaction. For instance, he suggested as late as March, that 'going on cruises is just fine' [forbes.com]. He also actively evangelized for poorly designed end-of-world models that have been debunked by reality, suggested early on (~January) that the virus was nothing Americans needed to worry about, etc, etc. Having his knee jerk responses in charge of America would have been catastrophic, almost certainly resulted in a far worse outcome than we have had, and Trump would have [deservedly] received the brunt of the responsibility for the outcome.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday November 23 2020, @06:45PM (3 children)
Fauci and the CDC have orders of magnitude more credibility and expertise with respect to pandemics than Trump ever had.
Your quote of Fauci isn't even a quote and is highly misleading. Here is what he actually said, right from the link you posted:
You have no clue what you are talking about. The US is having a bad time of it because of large fractions of the populace not taking the pandemic seriously, mostly due to Trump's insistence of lying about it.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 24 2020, @01:39PM (2 children)
The interesting thing here is you don't even see how absurdly biased you are. Why is going on a cruise ships in the midst of a pandemic a bad idea? You end up in poorly ventilated conditions with hundreds of other people. If even a single person has it can and has now multiple times end up spreading throughout the entire ship. That, in turn, can lead to issues with nations not wanting to allow the ship to dock. So now not only do you have COVID and a lack of medical care, but you end up undocking in Cambodia. Saying going on cruise ships was okay, for anybody, was mind-numbingly stupid. You'd certainly agree if Trump said *exactly* what Fauci had.
And similarly, what would you now argue that many countries - including numerous far less densely populated - countries are having a far worse time with COVID? Is it because of Trump too? If you ever took even a brief minute to actually inform yourself you'd find that in general government responses to COVID have had very little impact on the overall outcome. The one thing that has consistently predicted national outcomes for COVID has been obesity. Fat countries do horribly, regardless of how they respond to the virus. Healthier countries do *relatively* better, again regardless of their exact actions.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is not just a random meme. People are literally losing their ability to think cogently and logically because of media propaganda that has convinced them that Trump is the source of every single evil in this world, while individuals like Fauci are knights in shining armor trying to fight against the grand evil. It is an absurdly fake narrative that was generated exclusively to get a population swinging more leftward and anti-corporate to elect a corrupt geriatric corporatist warhawk. The corporations won, and you lost your mind. Congrats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:13AM (1 child)
In the next year or two you should probably reflect on this post. Hopefully you get exposed to enough of the truth that you shamefully try and forget you ever posted it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @05:12AM
No, you.
Have you looked at who Biden is appointing? His entire campaign shtick was simply fake. The media ran 4 years of propaganda to get rid of the first outsider president who actually helped achieve some great things like, for the first time in decades, not expanding the US war machine. Now we're going to go right back to the status quo. And the status quo is not only keeping 'kids in cages' (though you won't hear a peep about it from the media anymore), killing criminals who place the lives of police or others in immediate jeopardy (though you won't hear a peep about it from the media anymore), but also going back to the 'good ole days' of killing, directly or otherwise, hundreds of thousands of people in the Mideast. And, again, you won't hear a peep about it from the media.
For instance did you know a couple of foreign policy advisors Biden has chosen, andwho will likely end up being part of his cabinet, are Michele Flournoy and Tony Blinken. They've advocated for amazing, progressive, changes like literally using "wheat as a weapon" in Syria. Want to get Assad out of power? Let's not only get back to supporting "moderate rebels" (which is an interesting way of describing radicalized Islamic extremists), but now let's also add on trying to starve innocent people to death by the hundreds of thousands. Granted, Trump appointed John 'Yellowcake' Bolton, but that was clearly more to appease the establishment of which Biden is part and parcel of. Bolton's lust for war ended up getting blue-balled until he was finally kicked to the curb.
As you see ever more of your freedoms and liberties chiseled away, and as we join in ever more never-ending wars resulting in endless death in destruction, I do hope you cuddle your teddy tight and night reassuring yourself that this is progress and you've rid yourself of an awful dictator (which oddly enough required little more than an election). I mean just think about all of the mean things he said on Twitter! You're the good guy after all, right? The one who's going to go down on the right side of history.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 20 2020, @04:10PM
Kelly Loeffler's disclosures appear to omit the holding company that operates her private jet [salon.com]
If the Georgia senator knowingly falsified or omitted information from her disclosure forms, that's a crime
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?