Comments on: Thinking about it

By: Cappy

Cappy — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 12:44:01 +0000

Forget it.

All of your predicted responses are a certainty.

Still exchange occasional terse texts with my sisters. That’s about it. It will end this way inevitably.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 21:21:01 +0000

Trump committed his “crime” to prevent personal embarrassment and (allegedly) to cover up his own gross behavior.
==
Trump committed no offense at all. A company lawyer negotiated a non-disclosure agreement and sent a mess of invoices to the company’s accounting apparat. The bookkeepers in the accounting apparat took the invoices and made journal entries for the company’s general ledger, selecting a pre-fabricated option indicated on the company’s accounting software. The company lawyer was compensated with vouchers redeemable by one of the Trump family trusts.

By: huxley

huxley — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:47:27 +0000

Forget it, Jake. It’s the Planet of the Apes.

By: junior

junior — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:03:24 +0000

The best that one can do with the Trump charges, imo, is to mock the charges themselves. Trump wasn’t convicted of murder, stealing, or something similar. He was convicted because a bookkeeping entry said “Legal Fees” instead of “Paid a woman to quit claiming she slept with him”. Once you phrase it like that, anyone crowing about it is suddenly forced to explain why it’s such an important thing. And that individual either has to shut up, or risk looking ridiculous. That’s because the crime is ridiculous, and anyone who claims otherwise risks looking ridiculous.

By: Butkus51

Butkus51 — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 15:30:41 +0000

lynched people were considered convicts. By a democracy.

Russian Gulag Archipelago prisoners were also convicts.

And there were a lot of them. They even built their own jails. It can happen in a flash and it seems there plenty of willing participants right now.

kinda glad im old.

By: Eeyore

Eeyore — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 13:48:06 +0000

Surely the trick is keeping in mind that ALL political judgements are provisional. This isn’t philosophy or geometry. The closest analogue I can think of is a commander in battle. You have to base your actions on certain beliefs which you presume true about the enemy, but always be ready to modify those with new info.

A related problem is the tendency to elevate what are ultimately provisional pragmatic notions into principles. E.g., our constitutional rights are actually attempts to enact protections for things to which we have a natural right. But that doesn’t mean the actual, exact means is itself something we have by natural right.

In both, we have false analogy at work.

By: BrooklynBoy

BrooklynBoy — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 12:51:07 +0000

I too have found it problematic when friends and co-workers go on and on about Trump (as anyone here knows I am not a fan of Donald Trump’s). Nothing is beyond politics and for some it has come to the point that if you bring up an innocuous topic such as bottle caps they will use it as a platform to attack Trump.

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 08:09:59 +0000

Isn’t it easier just to believe that “People believe what they want to…and that’s just how it is”—IOW “The short version”?

(Expanded version: “People—good, bad, decent, odious, brilliant, dumb, honest, lying SOBs, upright, degenerate, caring, inconsiderate, compassionate, forthright, sneaky, etc.—believe what they want to, PERIOD….”)

That’s right: Believe WHAT they wanna believe…until—UNTIL!—that “Russians-at-the-Gates-of-Berlin” moment rolls around…if it ever does…and even then one has to actually comprehend—AND admit(!)—that them Rooskies are actually at the gates…AKA “Believe their lyin’ eyes”…)

OMMV.

By: NorthOfTheOneOhOne

NorthOfTheOneOhOne — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 04:53:20 +0000

You might try this with your erstwhile friend.

Gandhi was a felon.

Mandela was a felon.

Don’t forget; Hunter Biden was found guilty of lying on ATF Form 4473. Lying on ATF Form 4473 is a Felony. Therefore; Hunter Biden is a Felon.

By: Mitchell Strand

Mitchell Strand — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 01:03:00 +0000

I think it was a mistake to suggest physicsguy try to salvage the friendship. If the friend doesn’t respect the 50 year long relationship, why should physicsguy?

No one ever wants to admit that people pass through your life. Friendships end, and in most cases, it’s fine that they do. People change, and sometimes they change to an extent that you don’t like them anymore. Sitting next to someone in school or discovering a mutual affinity in high school isn’t a blank check offered for the rest of one’s life.

Physicsguy, well done. Cut him loose. He’s not worth your time anymore.