Are there any other leftists here? 👀

[dawei]

24 minutes ago, MildMouse23 said:

I've gone back and edited my posts because somehow it offends you.

 

I'm not offended in the least.  If you read the link I provided, you would see the historical context was a female member was offended.  One of my main goals over the years was to get more female voice on the board.  

[sean]

1 hour ago, dawei said:

Of course that is your meaning but you using a very sexually crude way to say that.  And the innuendo suggest getting screw is bad.  Put the two together and you should understand my point.   Using a sexually graphic way of making this point used border on being against the rules:

 

I appreciate the concern here and am aware of the problematic history of stuff like this. 🙏 Not to defend the crudeness, but for what it's worth, the way I read this was as a metaphor for innocent people being violated against their will. The target of the metaphor was also not another member, but a government seen as corrupt. Whatever ways you enjoy sex, no one wants to be assaulted so I didn't read it as a putdown of consensual anal sex. Just my two cents.

 

@MildMouse23 Please chill with the personal attacks, @cheya is 💯% right, it's very possible this board would no longer even exist were it not for @dawei in my near complete absence.

 

Sean

 

[dawei]

21 minutes ago, sean said:

 

I appreciate the concern here and am aware of the problematic history of stuff like this. 🙏 Not to defend the crudeness, but for what it's worth, the way I read this was as a metaphor for innocent people being violated against their will. The target of the metaphor was also not another member, but a government seen as corrupt. Whatever ways you enjoy sex, no one wants to be assaulted so I didn't read it as a putdown of consensual anal sex. Just my two cents.

 

@MildMouse23 Please chill with the personal attacks, @cheya is 💯% right, it's very possible this board would no longer even exist were it not for @dawei in my near complete absence.

 

Sean

 

 

I get that and understood his point.  When we had something similar happen, I was the same way: My read was there was no intended put down as it was used in its normal slang way.  But the female member (and some others) were quite offended at the usage nonetheless. So it seemed that some were sensitive to suggestive sexual remarks even when used in non-offensive ways.   

 

There is a ban word list in the back-end.  I think there is only one word in it right now because its usage, even if slang and innocent offends some people (particularly females).  I can say that it is working because someone tried to use the word... and realizing he was 'censored' then playfully played it off.   

 

So I did not do those two actions because of how I interpreted their meaning and use but how [female] members did.   Thanks.

[dawei]

1 hour ago, MildMouse23 said:

 Removed ridiculous giant, bold, multicolor quotes about anal sex. @MildMouse23, chill out dude — Sean

 

Dawei,

 

I do believe that you have made a mountain out of a molehill. In my subjective opinion your posts in the large and bold text were far more offensive than me saying we were getting hecked over with a big red white and blue baseball bat by our government.   
 

In my opinion there never was a reason to continue to make an issue out of a non-issue, the text you disliked for whatever reason was removed.   Perhaps in the future would it be too much to ask for you to create a new topic to address the issue at least if you need to feign moral outrage?

 

Not about I liked or not. Consist to a similar rule issue is all.

 

i am generally amoral, or don’t pay attention to morality as a motive force. So nothing to feign. 

 

I would likely not start another topic on such a small issue.  You can’t seem to stop quoting me and continuing it.  What I raised, you addressed. Thanks.

Edited August 1, 2019 by dawei

[MegaMind]

58 minutes ago, dawei said:

 

Not about I liked or not. Consist to a similar rule issue is all.

 

i am generally amoral, or don’t pay attention to morality as a motive force. So nothing to feign. 

 

I would likely not start another topic on such a small issue.  You can’t seem to stop quoting me and continuing it.  What I raised, you addressed. Thanks.

 

 

I feel your posts are much greater violations of the rule you instituted when you were an Admin, than anything I said.

 

A non issue was made into a major issue for no good reason other than perhaps just to cause a problem. 

 

In the future I would like to ask you either not reply at all to my posts, or to create a separate topic to prevent derailing threads.

 

Thanks.

Edited August 1, 2019 by MildMouse23

[dawei]

40 minutes ago, MildMouse23 said:

I feel your posts are much greater violations of the rule you instituted when you were an Admin, than anything I said.

 

A non issue was made into a major issue for no good reason other than perhaps just to cause a problem. 

 

In the future I would like to ask you either not reply at all to my posts, or to create a separate topic to prevent derailing threads.

 

Thanks.

 

You do realize you have linked to your own post of a quote... which Sean edited out of your last post you hide.  that's the third post in a row you have hide after two times being told to chill.   You have now conveniently hide Sean's edit of your post.   I have put that in my post quote as I saved it knowing you will hide it.

 

You hide three and edited your original, now I have edited my original. 

 

 

(( Wonder if anyone recognizes the pattern of disruption here ?   ))

Edited August 1, 2019 by dawei

[MegaMind]

1 minute ago, dawei said:

 

You do realize you have linked to your own post of a quote... which Sean edited out of your last post you hide.  that's the third post in a row you have hide after two times being told to chill.   You have now conveniently hide Sean's edit of your post.

 

You hide and edited your original, now I have edited my original. 

 

 

(( Wonder if anyone recognizes the pattern of disruption here ?   ))

 

I pointed to my own post with a quote in it.

 

The disruption was started by you not I.

 

 

[thelerner]

Guys, points will be awarded later (actually they won't).. shall we move on?

 

 

 

also I spotted a like by Taomeow, Yay!  Been too long, hope to see things in print too. 

there she again, gosh she's fast

Edited August 4, 2019 by thelerner

[dawei]

1 minute ago, thelerner said:

also I spotted a like by Taomeow, Yay!  Been too long, hope to see things in print too. 

 

Definitely can enjoy the return of some

 

 

 

[Nungali]

'''.....    like  Brian .

 

Briaaaaan  !   Come baaaack !

 

 

 

 

 

[MegaMind]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by MildMouse23

[Nungali]

Let's take a little musical interlude ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ralis]

I read an article by Jeff Sharlet a number of years ago in which he summarized his investigation of a group on C Street in D.C. called "The Fellowship" aka "The Family." A group of right wing Christian fanatics whose only goal is a theocratic state. I am posting this given the simple fact that these people are entirely opposed to leftist values! The series will be on Netflix August 9th.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Secret-Fundamentalism-Heart-American/dp/0060560053

 

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by ralis

[gendao]

On 7/31/2019 at 11:17 PM, MooNiNite said:

Amazon, Facebook, some of the most technologically advanced companies in the world. Google.

 

What about government run programs? I hope you see the inefficiency and waste. Does that factor into your assessment? We have Nasa vs Space X and Blue Origin. How about the F-35 program (over 1 trillion for a plane comparable to the euro fighter)?

Actually, the (financial) sweet spot in the US seems to be "private" companies spun off from tax-funded government R&D - to form the military-industrial-academia-corporate complex.  As these companies all benefit greatly from the government's research, corporate welfare seed money, and political blessings - which true grass-roots companies are at a severe disadvantage to compete against!

Quote

Intelligence-gathering may have been their world, but the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) had come to realize that their future was likely to be profoundly shaped outside the government. It was at a time when military and intelligence budgets within the Clinton administration were in jeopardy, and the private sector had vast resources at their disposal. If the intelligence community wanted to conduct mass surveillance for national security purposes, it would require cooperation between the government and the emerging supercomputing companies.
There was already a long history of collaboration between America’s best scientists and the intelligence community, from the creation of the atomic bomb and satellite technology to efforts to put a man on the moon.
the internet itself was created because of an intelligence effort: In the 1970s, the agency responsible for developing emerging technologies for military, intelligence, and national security purposes—the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
MDDS was introduced to several dozen leading computer scientists at Stanford, CalTech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and others in a white paper that described what the CIA, NSA, DARPA, and other agencies hoped to achieve. The research would largely be funded and managed by unclassified science agencies like NSF, which would allow the architecture to be scaled up in the private sector if it managed to achieve what the intelligence community hoped for.

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by gendao

[C T]

4 hours ago, ralis said:

I read an article by Jeff Sharlet a number of years ago in which he summarized his investigation of a group on C Street in D.C. called "The Fellowship" aka "The Family." A group of right wing Christian fanatics whose only goal is a theocratic state. I am posting this given the simple fact that these people are entirely opposed to leftist values! The series will be on Netflix August 9th.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Family-Secret-Fundamentalism-Heart-American/dp/0060560053

 

 

 

Watching The Great Hack now on Netflix. 

 

 

It supposes the theory that Cambridge Analytica engineered Trump's & Brexit's direction towards victory by triggering what their analysts call "the persuadables" with specific content to fire their imagination and sway decisions towards a specific intended outcome. 

Edited August 2, 2019 by C T

[MegaMind]

This seems to be completely normal in our society:

 

 

[ralis]

The right wing surveillance state becomes more insidious with each passing moment. Pentagon surveillance balloons over South Dakota collecting data for what eventual purpose?

 

 https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/02/pentagon-launching-drug-surveillance-balloons-over-south-dakota-guardian/1901158001/

[dawei]

4 hours ago, ralis said:

The right wing surveillance state becomes more insidious with each passing moment. Pentagon surveillance balloons over South Dakota collecting data for what eventual purpose?

 

 https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/02/pentagon-launching-drug-surveillance-balloons-over-south-dakota-guardian/1901158001/

 

I believe the pentagon is apolitical and has reminded the WH to not mix politics and the military... so not sure dragging the pentagon into politics is correct.

 

But, what you raise is troubling and worth mentioned... privacy of a state and its residence should be considered.  I'm reminded of the concept of 'two sovereigns' (State and Federal) and so it will be interesting to see what plays out to resolve the concerns. 

[sean]

9 minutes ago, dawei said:

I believe the pentagon is apolitical and has reminded the WH to not mix politics and the military... so not sure dragging the pentagon into politics is correct.

 

This perspective here, that a literal department of a government could ever be anything other than reliably political is pretty fascinating by way of its foreignness to me. We must have very different connotations of "political". 🤔

 

Sean

 

[ralis]

15 minutes ago, dawei said:

 

I believe the pentagon is apolitical and has reminded the WH to not mix politics and the military... so not sure dragging the pentagon into politics is correct.

 

But, what you raise is troubling and worth mentioned... privacy of a state and its residence should be considered.  I'm reminded of the concept of 'two sovereigns' (State and Federal) and so it will be interesting to see what plays out to resolve the concerns. 

 

Not just simple privacy, but 4th Amendment rights! Violation of Posse Comitatus in which the military has no jurisdiction within the borders of the U.S.! 

[dawei]

11 minutes ago, sean said:

 

This perspective here, that a literal department of a government could ever be anything other than reliably political is pretty fascinating by way of its foreignness to me. We must have very different connotations of "political". 🤔

 

Sean

 

 

surveillance has been attested as occurring over the last 10 or more years.  We can know some of it particularly thanks to whistle blowers.    Now, if we want to suggest that it has been continuously occurring over a decade or more due to political influences on which is in the WH then so be it.  So surveillance happens, whether we like it or not and regardless of the influence of the WH, is my point. 

[dawei]

25 minutes ago, ralis said:

 

Not just simple privacy, but 4th Amendment rights! Violation of Posse Comitatus in which the military has no jurisdiction within the borders of the U.S.! 

 

Posse Comitatus Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

 

I read up a bit and there seems some application to the military and some exceptions.  It did make me think that when they say 'the pentagon did this or that', what branch of the military is executing it or is there something at a DOD level they are talking about other than a military branch?  (more thinking rhetorical)

 

But I think valid points and concerns. 

 

 

[Nungali]

6 hours ago, ralis said:

The right wing surveillance state becomes more insidious with each passing moment. Pentagon surveillance balloons over South Dakota collecting data for what eventual purpose?

 

 https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/02/pentagon-launching-drug-surveillance-balloons-over-south-dakota-guardian/1901158001/

 

 

Balloons   ?   WTF !

 

 

 

At lest I can (usually) hear the  helicopters coming  . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[manitou]

Just now, Nungali said:

 

 

Balloons   ?   WTF !

 

 

 

 

Aww, the government would just deny it and say they were UFO's.

[MegaMind]

Our Economy Explained With Cookies: