tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post7982259273798939312..comments2024-03-29T06:22:47.638-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Is it 'alive'? Claims of sapient AI... plus micropayments and future wealth!David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60690242289808360672022-06-25T12:30:40.410-07:002022-06-25T12:30:40.410-07:00Jon S... you clearly know nothing about Manchen...Jon S... you clearly know nothing about Manchen's votes and the net effect it has on power that we have Chuck Schumer as Majority Leader. If we had ten more Manchens, yes, YOU would still be frustrated by all the half measures that get 60 votes to overcome GOP filibusters. But those clotures would happen.<br /><br />Now let me ask. WHERE DO YOU PLAN TO GET 10 MORE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS?<br /><br />I don't mind efforts to get more Bernies and liz's, Fine. But I am vastly more aggressive than you. In order to render impotent ... and then extinct... today's mad-traitor Murdoch Party WE MUST TAKE TERRITORY! That means taking more purple and even red states. I talk about all sorts of tactics in Polemical Judo, by David Brin: http://www.davidbrin.com/polemicaljudo.html<br /><br />... but it is absolutely nuts to expect the candidates who can win in red states to be clones of Bernie. BERNIE SAYS AS MUCH!<br /><br />Raging at Manchin is nonsense and counterproductive. Sinema might be replaced in AZ by someone better. JM is the best you can hope for from West freaking Virginia.<br /><br />====<br /><br />now onward<br /><br />onward<br /><br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83687814379508846572022-06-25T11:30:26.894-07:002022-06-25T11:30:26.894-07:00Sorry. Been to busy to keep up. If anything truly ...Sorry. Been to busy to keep up. If anything truly needed my attention, take it oneward, please.<br /><br />Onward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57736454070079371962022-06-25T10:20:13.722-07:002022-06-25T10:20:13.722-07:00Dr. Brin, I'm sorry to say this, but you'r...Dr. Brin, I'm sorry to say this, but you're way off-base here. I remember those bad old days too. One thing about them was even then, the Supreme Court respected the concept of <i>stare decisis</i>; once it was decided, <i>Brown v Board of Education</i> was the rule, with no major concern it would be overturned later despite the complaints.<br /><br />And Manchin and Sinema <i>are</i> the problem here, or at least a major part of it. Add more Manchins, and you might as well just hand the keys back over to McConnell and give up on the country, because McConnell's agenda would be the only one being advanced at that point. Manchin only has a D after his name because he couldn't beat the Republican candidate in the primaries when he first ran for office. As for Sinema, she doesn't seem to have any political affiliation at all; it seems that she views the office primarily as a way to get rich and famous.Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-66122877946559681472022-06-25T09:26:23.510-07:002022-06-25T09:26:23.510-07:00IVF illegal? What of the children born with the he...IVF illegal? What of the children born with the help of IVF, such as my daughter? Is she to be grandfathered in, or is she retroactively illegal?Paradoctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04821968120388981470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81325570619199550552022-06-25T09:24:34.667-07:002022-06-25T09:24:34.667-07:00Note also that this opinion was based upon overtur...Note also that this opinion was based upon overturning another right: the right to privacy. Expect further incursions upon rights based on this. But the business side of the R's theocrat/business alliance should consider: if there is no right to privacy, then there is no right to private property. <br />Paradoctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04821968120388981470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3660468424854062382022-06-25T07:59:14.011-07:002022-06-25T07:59:14.011-07:00https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/opinion/elizabe...https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/opinion/elizabeth-warren-tina-smith-abortion-roe.html<br /><br /><i><br />We’re in this dark moment because right-wing politicians and their allies have spent decades scheming to overrule a right many Americans considered sacrosanct. Passing state laws to restrict access to abortion care. Giving personhood rights to fertilized eggs. Threatening to criminalize in vitro fertilization. Offering bounties for reporting doctors who provide abortion services. Abusing the filibuster and turning Congress into a broken institution. Advancing judicial nominees who claimed to be committed to protecting “settled law” while they winked at their Republican sponsors in the Senate. Stealing two seats on the Supreme Court.<br /></i><br /><br />Oh yeah, I forgot they want to outlaw in-vitro fertilization.<br /><br /><i><br />Former Vice President Mike Pence called for a national ban on abortion in all 50 states; Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, flat out stated that it’s a possibility. And the logic laid out by the majority in Dobbs seems to undercut other precedents, raising the alarming possibility that we could soon see an assault on privacy and marriage equality.<br /><br />In order to fix the damage Republicans have done to our system in their efforts to control women’s lives, we need broad democracy reform: changing the composition of the courts, reforming Senate rules like the filibuster, and even fixing the outdated Electoral College that allowed presidential candidates who lost the popular vote to take office and nominate five of the justices who agreed to end the right to an abortion.<br />...<br /></i>Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40211579102599208932022-06-25T07:55:01.594-07:002022-06-25T07:55:01.594-07:00the IRS should announce that they are auditing
Ac...<i> the IRS should announce that they are auditing</i><br /><br />Actually, would it be so bad if <i>every</i> candidate for office had to undergo an income tax audit as part of being eligible to run? <br /><br />I doubt it would find anything on Manchin, who's wealthy enough to hire tax experts himself, but a preliminary audit might be a way of stopping crazies like Boebert. And if everyone gets one, simply being audited would no longer be stigmatizing. Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909011338723657265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64047979018429070422022-06-25T07:43:27.536-07:002022-06-25T07:43:27.536-07:00Robert:
I just call them "anti-abortion"...Robert:<br /><i><br />I just call them "anti-abortion", which accurately describes what they object to, without falsely attributing to them what "pro-life" does. Also keeps the focus solidly on the single issue they are agitating about.<br /></i><br /><br />But as we've just heard, they are <b>not</b> focused on a single issue. Now that they've shredded the privacy rationale for abortion, they want to go after contraception, homosexuality, and (to the extent possible, I'm sure) self-gratification. If Clarence Thomas was not himself married to a white woman, I'm sure they'd be outlawing miscegenation again as well.<br /><br />If you want to think of them as devoted to a single issue, that issue is not abortion per se, but white Christinanist domination.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24990424689811718622022-06-25T07:29:45.651-07:002022-06-25T07:29:45.651-07:00Start referring to 'pro-lifers' as 'pr...<i>Start referring to 'pro-lifers' as 'pro-confiners', because that is far more in keeping with their intentions.</i><br /><br />I just call them "anti-abortion", which accurately describes what they object to, without falsely attributing to them what "pro-life" does. Also keeps the focus solidly on the single issue they are agitating about.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909011338723657265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14082410554916677482022-06-25T07:04:02.220-07:002022-06-25T07:04:02.220-07:00The founders' framework and subsequent histori...The founders' framework and subsequent historical norms have actually enabled minority rule all these years. Now that that's all being shredded (by that delusional minority), the future might be a realm of majority rule via technology (previously discussed as 'bullets vs transistors'). Pandora is a coquettish, whimsical, and ironic lass. Messing with Texas is nada compared to messing with her.scidatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07152319593457629592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-34963120659176190352022-06-25T06:36:40.889-07:002022-06-25T06:36:40.889-07:00https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/opinion/clarenc...https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/opinion/clarence-thomas-abortion-supreme-court.html<br /><i><br />WASHINGTON — “What is happening here?” a distraught Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.<br /><br />It’s a good question and I can answer it, because I was there at the start of the corrosive chain of events that led to women losing control of their own bodies. I saw how America went from a beacon of modernity to a benighted outlier.<br /><br />Over the last three decades, I have witnessed a dismal saga of opportunism, fanaticism, mendacity, concupiscence, hypocrisy and cowardice. This is a story about men gaining power by trading away something that meant little to them compared with their own stature: the rights of women.<br />...<br /></i><br /><br />WAY back in the day, probably the late 70s, a Doonesbury cartoon had one of the little girls reading an essay which asserted that women were considered uppity if they demanded to be considered human beings. We are now seeing the law of the land presuming that women are ambulatory incubators first, and human beings a distant second.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br /><i><br />Thomas’s concurring opinion to the fanatical Samuel Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade chillingly warned that he would apply the same rationale to contraception, same-sex marriage and same-sex consensual relations.<br /></i><br /><br />But tellingly, <b>not</b> to miscegenation, even though the exact same logic undermining that right would apply. Clarence and Ginni Thomas's <b>own</b> rights won't be trampled, just everyone else's. Myy brother said of Republicans back in the early 2000s, "They're not even pretending any more. All they're doing is <b>pretending</b> to pretend." And now, they don't even do <b>that</b>.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6687757497181241172022-06-25T06:05:32.697-07:002022-06-25T06:05:32.697-07:00Der Oger:
Your and my generation should not laugh...Der Oger:<br /><i><br />Your and my generation should not laugh at Generation Z, we should profoundly apologize that we messed up, and help what we can to soften the blows that will inevitably come.<br /></i><br /><br />I may not have adequately explained the sense behind my daughter's text mentioned above. She was not a snowflake, crying for her parents to make bad things go away. She understands full well that she's a child of privilege as well as the fact that everyone has to live through their least-expected crises. What she was expressing was the rapid fire of the literally-unprecedented which has marked the most recent six years. After each of the tumultuous, contested elections of 2016 and 2020, I've tried to tell her, "It's not always like this," to which she replies, "It is in <b>my</b> lifetime." That was the sense behind her texting of being tired of all this, immediately following the supreme court ruling on abortion which itself followed their "guns are people too" ruling the previous day and the revelations out of Washington as to how widespread the attempted coup really was.<br /><br />It wasn't "I can't take it." It was a 20 year old's summer daydream wish for a quiet moment, knowing full well that we live in the world we have, not the one we wish we had. She was sharing a moment of gallows humor with parents who fully understood.<br /><br /><i><br />We should not ridicule their fears, but inspire courage and confidence that these hardships can be overcome.<br /></i><br /><br />I knew in her high school years that her generation--or at least her social group--had better heads on their shoulders than I ever did.<br /><br /><i><br />We should not point fingers, but lend a hand or teach skills that might help to shorten the darkness.<br /></i><br /><br />Yes, I have the luxury of saying, "Regardless of what comes next, I've had a good life." It's for my daughter's sake that I care about the future.<br /><br />From memory:<br />"There comes a time in every father's life--a time you cannot know--when he looks into his little girl's eyes and realizes--he <b>must</b> change the world for her."Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2063047490883767422022-06-25T04:24:46.293-07:002022-06-25T04:24:46.293-07:00"Take her week-by-week through 1968."
F..."Take her week-by-week through 1968."<br /><br />Five or ten years ago, the right-wing pundits in GER tried to start a "conservative revolution", coined also as a "Movement against the 68ers" which largely failed because those politicians who participated in that eras' revolution long had become hawkish centrists.<br /><br />"Jesus, what snowflakes."<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />Now you are condescending and sound like our own old, white, privileged "potatoe" men.<br /><br />Something I would call <a href="https://twitter.com/HeleneBismarck/status/1505254663087661059" rel="nofollow">Wohlstandsverwahrlosung</a> these days (Moral/Ethical decay after years of societal and personal wealth).<br /><br />Nixon wasn't as bad as Trump and the modern-day GOP, Russia had less influence on our domestic policies. A streak of fascism always was there in the US, but not a prominent danger as it is today.<br /><br />Climate Apocalypse wasn't imminent.<br /><br />The Kremlin was led by a bunch of old, opportunistic apparatchiks who controlled each other, not by a dictator with delusions of grandeur.<br /><br />Higher job security. A more intact social welfare system. <br /><br />Corroding infrastructure after decades of austerity and mismanagement.<br /><br />That generation did not have an epidemic of that proportions that robbed you of some of your best years (In case you forgot: being around with same-olds is important for the acquisition of mental ressources you'll need later in your life.), worsened because of people in red hats, conspiracy nuts and FREEDOM!11Eleven!! shouters all over the globe.<br /><br />Global hunger will cause refugee crises, and further political destabilization.<br /><br />Inflation. <br /><br />Your and my generation should not laugh at Generation Z, we should profoundly apologize that we messed up, and help what we can to soften the blows that will inevitably come. <br />We should not ridicule their fears, but inspire courage and confidence that these hardships can be overcome.<br />We should not point fingers, but lend a hand or teach skills that might help to shorten the darkness.Der Ogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00977602334642769985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82218231178794149242022-06-25T02:57:37.737-07:002022-06-25T02:57:37.737-07:00The penalty for an abortion provider in Texas is s...The penalty for an abortion provider in Texas is set to be up to Life imprisonment. Naturally, no provider is going to end up serving out the same sentence as Manson or Son of Sam; yet a provider could spend years waiting for appeals to cycle through the system.<br />And Texas prisons aren’t country clubs.Alan Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996922923136240709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63431821982547400262022-06-24T22:11:06.684-07:002022-06-24T22:11:06.684-07:00Dr Brin:
Jesus, what snowflakes. Sorry. Take her ...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />Jesus, what snowflakes. Sorry. Take her week-by-week through 1968. Watch a documentary about that year with her. Carumba. Any ONE WEEK of that exhausting year would leave today's whipper snappers quivering wrecks. <br /></i><br /><br />No, here you have to trust that I know my own daughter better than you do. Her generation will save this country if we don't wreck it beyond saving first.<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39325364373425150092022-06-24T21:43:22.613-07:002022-06-24T21:43:22.613-07:00Matthew Manchin-Sinema hating is bizarre, futile a...Matthew Manchin-Sinema hating is bizarre, futile and simply crazy. So the dems have a right wing roote in very red states? BFD! They made Bernie and Liz committee chairs and they are VASTLY better than leaving McConnell in charge. Grow up man. Fight to ADD MORE Manchens from More red states! Jesus.<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24070155090953009852022-06-24T21:41:21.701-07:002022-06-24T21:41:21.701-07:00"My 20-year-old daughter just texted me that ..."My 20-year-old daughter just texted me that she is tired of her entire life spent witnessing unprecedented historical events. I don't blame her."<br /><br />Jesus, what snowflakes. Sorry. Take her week-by-week through 1968. Watch a documentary about that year with her. Carumba. Any ONE WEEK of that exhausting year would leave today's whipper snappers quivering wrecks.<br /><br />Stand up. It's been worse. We can do this.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-11229398218691582982022-06-24T20:03:19.260-07:002022-06-24T20:03:19.260-07:00I said:
They claim the mantle of pro-life, but th...I said:<br /><i><br />They claim the mantle of pro-life, but they are the party of death. <br />...<br /></i><br /><br />My brother just reminded me that in this context, I totally forgot to consider COVID. Republicans are against masking, against vaccination, against social distancing, and against lockdowns. Basically, they are the pro-death-from-COVID party. Some have literally claimed that they'd rather their kids die of COVID than "live in fear" by masking or vaxxing.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />A reader comment in the NY Times:<br /><i><br />What the Supreme Court did today was to deliberately and irrevocably cleave the United States in two like nothing we've seen since 1861 -- splitting the country into states where the US Constitution is in effect (free states) and those where it is not honored (slave states). <br /><br />We are now a RINO nation, a Republic In Name Only.<br /></i>Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41581841189951317552022-06-24T19:44:43.575-07:002022-06-24T19:44:43.575-07:00https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/opinion/roe-v-w...https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/opinion/roe-v-wade-dobbs-decision.html<br /><i><br />...<br />Although Justice Brett Kavanaugh proclaimed with evident relief in his concurring opinion that the court was now bowing out of the picture and “will no longer decide how to evaluate the interests of the pregnant woman and the interests in protecting fetal life throughout pregnancy,” that is not likely to be the case. Those pesky women will keep coming up with problems<br />...<br />No, justices, your work isn’t done. What you have finished off is the legitimacy of the court on which you are privileged to spend the rest of your lives.<br /></i>Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75728162376218301642022-06-24T19:32:53.055-07:002022-06-24T19:32:53.055-07:00Start referring to 'pro-lifers' as 'pr...Start referring to 'pro-lifers' as 'pro-confiners', because that is far more in keeping with their intentions. Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87856527432832488252022-06-24T19:20:40.938-07:002022-06-24T19:20:40.938-07:00If militias were necessary for the security of a f...If militias were necessary for the security of a free state in the past, they clearly no longer are. To be clear, confiscation of firearms is not feasible and I'm starting to agree with Vaush that we leftists need to arm ourselves. Don Gisselbeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05770961482198971383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32845978698805956042022-06-24T18:58:27.875-07:002022-06-24T18:58:27.875-07:00It's going to get weirder than that, Paradoc.
...It's going to get weirder than that, Paradoc.<br /><br />The DoJ stated today that they will not interfere with anyone receiving abortifacent medications or "day-after" pills through the US mail, no matter where they are. Smacks of Andrew Jackson saying of Justice Marshall's decision in <i>Worcester v Georgia</i>, "He has made his decision, now let him enforce it" (except with about 90% less bigotry).<br /><br />One is tempted to wonder how many other SCOTUS decisions will face this...Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71040815821002046252022-06-24T17:51:36.629-07:002022-06-24T17:51:36.629-07:00Are you for 86? Post Roe v Wade will not be like p...Are you for 86? Post Roe v Wade will not be like pre Roe v. Wade, because birth control technology has advanced. There will be smuggling of RU-486. It's harder to control the movement of pills than it is to control the movement of women.<br /><br />The radical right has gotten the judicial activism that they spent decades preparing for. That will have consequences. Overturning Roe v. Wade signals the start of the War on Abortion Drugs. How's that for a culture-war red flag? Abortion and drugs! Throw in the inevitable police-state power abuse and high-level hypocrisy and corruption, and you've got one for the history books. You read it here first.<br /><br />We know how previous drug wars have gone. Prohibition fails because the Invisible Hand of the Market is quicker than the All-Seeing Eye of the State.<br />Paradoctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04821968120388981470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48322959111182605672022-06-24T15:03:18.110-07:002022-06-24T15:03:18.110-07:00DP:
Jon S - to preserve our freedoms the Dems hav...DP:<br /><i><br />Jon S - to preserve our freedoms the Dems have to start fighting like vicious dirty junk yard dogs.<br /></i><br /><br />I don't disagree, but every time anyone on our side (politician or civilian) suggests such a thing, we are shut down by own own compatriots, insisting that we have to fight by Marquis de Queensbury rules.<br /><br />What we have to do is stop <b>leashing</b> our attack dogs.<br /><br /><i><br />We are certainly not "nice".<br /></i><br /><br />Remember that Edith Keeler was "right, but at the wrong time." The current civil war is another such time. To misquote Jim Steinman, "I would do anything for peace, but I won't do <b>that</b>."<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61240922577669367692022-06-24T14:54:32.632-07:002022-06-24T14:54:32.632-07:00DP:
Some red-state Republicans are even distantly...DP:<br /><i><br />Some red-state Republicans are even distantly echoing Calhoun in promising to nullify—that is, defy—federal laws with which they disagree.<br /></i><br /><br />They've already been doing that. They also insist that <b>we</b> have no business nullifying <b>their</b> edicts. But what's to stop us?<br /><br />Louisiana intends to classify abortion as murder, and so prosecute abortion cases under murder statutes. Suppose the Republican congress extends that to the national level, insisting that abortion is murder anywhere in the US? There's no federal statute prohibiting murder--those are all state laws. So if (for instance) Illinois or California states' attorneys refuse to press murder charges in abortion cases, what are the confederates expecting to happen?Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.com