nigel99

On 11/12/2023 at 4:40 PM, jakee said:

Why are you voting for Kennedy when you love Trump so much?

Perhaps for the same reason people don't admit to watching porn at a church service. He feels a bit dirty admitting his voting choice in public?

Alternatively in the same way as many homophobics are secretly gay, his anti Biden rhetoric is just cover and he's going to be voting for Biden

11 hours ago, jakee said:

The most bizarre thing I can ever remember in politics has just happened in the UK. For the last few years the Government has been trying to implement a policy of deporting asylum seekers in the UK to Rwanda, where their asylum claims will be judged by the Rwandan government and if successful, they are permanently settled in Rwanda. This has raced any number of legal challenges for various reasons, and delayed indefinitely at huge cost.

 

It just been finally struck down by the Supreme Court because after extensive investigations they found as a matter of fact that Rwanda was not a safe country for refugees. There are numerous instances of refugees being discriminated against by the government in Rwanda (including being killed in detention by police) and of legitimate asylum claimants being deported back to countries where they are then detained, tortured or killed. This matter of fact and reality makes the policy illegal under UK law, retained European law and international law. 
 

The government’s response to this comprehensive loss is (and I still can’t quite believe this is what they actually said - but it is) pledging to rush through legislation to declare that Rwanda is a safe country after all. Again, the courts struck down the policy because reality makes it illegal, so the government will pass a new law that says reality is not what it actually is. How is it even possible for someone whose job it is to do politics to have so little understanding of how it works?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67432853

Incredible and very sad. 

I've not looked at a map recently, but if you managed to get to the UK from Rwanda by boat you deserve to stay.

2 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi folks,

As I continue to say, he is his own worst enemy:  Testimony by former president Donald Trump quickly descended into bitter sniping Monday among the judge, Trump’s attorneys and a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office

I guess that he does not understand that this is not a jury trial.

I am quite sure that the judge is not one of the 'poorly educated' that love Trump.

Trump’s testimony quickly turns to shouting match - POLITICO

Jerry Baumchen

It would be interesting to send him a revised tax bill based on being worth 100 x what it was assessed as.

Very interesting talk by Tony Blair on politics. I like the quote about how politics is the only job where you are completely unqualified.

Probably a sensitive topic in here, as quite a few posters probably see people in their 50's and 60's as young and immature!

As we age we lose physical and cognitive ability, and I believe that people above retirement age should be excluded from running from leadership positions in government. Listening to the debate in the US between Biden and Trump highlights the issue, but they are not the exception. Interestingly, countries that are less free tend to have older leaders. 

I got curious as to what the average age of world leaders is and according to Pew Research it is around 62 years old. 

"Countries that are less free tend to have older leaders. In countries that Freedom House classifies as not free, the median age of the national leader is 69, compared with 61 in countries that are classified as partly free and 58 in countries classified as free. The United States is one of only two countries that are classified as free and have a leader in their 80s or older"

6 hours ago, Slim King said:

Ungodly people will never understand spiritual people. It's really that easy. Congratulations to Mike Johnson!!!!!!

My son and I are worlds apart in terms of religious beliefs, he's a devout christian and I'm best described as Pagan. One thing that we both agree on is that hypocrisy is both lazy and weak. 

Secondly, the inability to apply critical thinking seems to be a pandemic these days. The blinkered my guys are saints and yours are sinners attitude harks back to the dawn of time. I'm pretty sure if Jesus was in the US, the vast majority of republicans would want him shot and deported back to Mexico.

8 hours ago, wmw999 said:

I was reading something about that a couple of days ago; it was looking like Yes would win, but a couple of Aboriginal political figures, from very different political leanings, have been urging a No vote, obviously for different reasons. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/world/australia/australia-price-thorpe-voice-aboriginal.html

Wendy P. 

I contemplated voting no, because in reality this is a symbolic gesture that doesn't actually change much. 

Ultimately my daughter (who works in remote Aboriginal communities) and a talk by an Aboriginal Professor changed my mind in that it is better to vote yes for a small step forward than vote no in the hope of sparking more debate.

It has certainly drawn out people's views though, and it is surprising how comfortable people have become in expressing racist views.

Tomorrow in Australia we have a referendum to amend the constitution with the intent to recognise Aboriginal Australians. It gives them no more power or special rights. It looks like it will be defeated and yet in 1967 a referendum to give Aboriginals citizenship got a 91% yes vote.

I'm too young to know what the 60's and 70's were like, but it seems globally we are going backwards and rapidly becoming more divided and prejudiced.

The Georgia judge has a sense of humour, quoting Monty Python when knocking back a silly argument.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-in-trump-rico-case-appears-to-invoke-monty-python-in-rejecting-co-defendants-parrot-of-a-motion/

12 hours ago, kallend said:

N

Nigel,

Surely you're not really expecting any kind of logical consistency from MAGA types.  Critical thinking skills are not generally well developed in the poorly educated.

Hey John,

Not expecting it. Just observing the absurdity of the argument. I find it very interesting how people can be so ignorant.

11 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

No offense intended but you clearly don't understand the mindset of some conservative US gun owners. As has been quoted in these forums several times about 18-20 % of current GOP supports have stated that "violence may be necessary" or "violence is acceptable" in order to reinstate trump or to prevent another "election steal".

Most believe that the military or police will stand aside when their armed interventions take place. All because the election steal or the deep state is at work. Most believe that their AR-15 when carried by numbers will rule the day.

Don't confuse facts and logic whereby the US armed forces and US police won't obey orders. When such a gun nut rebellion takes place. The gun nuts kiss their guns at night wake up to the messaging of gun forums and truth social.

If you crossed the thinking of Ron and Slim you'd have these 18-20% of republicans.

I had hoped that by making the distinction of MAGA it was clear that I didn't mean all conservatives, but rather the lunatic fringe.

I think you restated my argument though. Belief does not equal facts or logic and my argument is that the belief that you could rise up against the US military and Law enforcement is in my opinion misguided.

We will always have extremists whose beliefs and dedication to their cause outweigh logic and would sacrifice themselves for the cause. Usually these people are in small minorities luckily.

My key point is that haven't current circumstances shown that the resistance to changing gun laws based on the 2nd amendment argument been proven a fallacy?  Ironically because this is such an ingrained belief, any government that attempted to implement reforms at this stage would probably coalesce support against them, because as you say "don't confuse facts with logic"

I find it interesting that so many Americans state that the 2nd amendment is to prevent a tyrannical government. Since that appears that a large part of MAGA believe that the current government is Tyrannical, it seems that they should be exercising their 2nd amendment rights.

I have always found it to be a misguided belief and pretty ineffective.  As shown by the insurrection charges the state has many tools at it's disposal. I don't believe the US military and law enforcement would cave into a truly Tyrannical government.  If they would then they might have supported Trump in his efforts on Jan 6th for example. 

As the military, law enforcement and courts are at least in principle independent from politics, they would presumably step in should politicians give illegal orders. 

Presumably if people felt it appropriate to exercise their 2nd amendment rights against law enforcement and military I can't see how they could win.  The only possible way to be effective would be to adopt terrorist type tactics, which clearly fall outside the law and so would be up against the legal system.

In summary it seems the tyrannical government argument has been proven to be a false premise. I'm not against guns, in fact despite  Australian gun laws are quite tight and often derided our attitude is entirely different and guns are for hunting, target shooting and pest control. My son has 5 guns here in Australia including 2 high powered rifles and a hand gun, all legal and sanctioned.

It doesn't appear to have fit the US news that I see, but sadly an Osprey with 23 marines crashed in Australia with 3 fatalities.

Not meant to be a political post, but being military I put it in SC

On 6/29/2023 at 12:44 PM, Coreece said:

Got my new kayak today, epic day on the river.  There's like an innate appreciation you feel when you're out there in nature.  I here it all the time form believers and atheists alike.  "I'm just so thankful to be out here, so beautiful.  The peace."  You can't help it, we all feel it. 

I feel so damn appreciative that I can't help but to thank God.  It always brings me back.

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

 

 

 

Wow 12 years later and thread still going!

20 hours ago, billvon said:

This was his defense for his retention of classified documents per his FOX interview:

"There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else, talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or it may not, but that was not a document.  These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things; golf shirts, pants, shoes, all sorts of things.”

So they were not documents; they were papers.  And they talked about Iran but also lots of other things so they weren't JUST classified papers.  And they were mixed in with a lot of pants so that kept them safe anyway.

I have a feeling that the US justice system is going to fail to provide justice in this case. The fact that Trump is discussing it all in the media and people are analysing it and passing judgement could play out in his favour. How much is the jury going to be told is inadmissible or needs to be disregarded as it has been discussed in the media? It seems that most high profile or emotive crimes have gag orders in place to reduce that risk. 

On 2/9/2023 at 11:49 PM, ryoder said:

Sounds like a conspiracy theory, but look at the source:

Seymour Hersh: How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline

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

The US has a long history of tampering in other countries affairs and something like this is quite conceivable. 

17 minutes ago, headoverheels said:

Trump says that he has been indicated.  

Well for once I agree with Trump. When the US elected Trump the USA effectively became a banana republic. 

If the US doesn't want to be a banana republic then Trump should be tried for his alleged crime and if found guilty jailed.

Failure to hold politicians to account is the sign kf a corrupt system.

On 1/7/2023 at 4:52 AM, jakee said:

My question would be why you do think that (specifically among criminal murderers) hired killers particularly deserve the death penalty? Do we know that they're particularly more or less likely to re-offend than other people? Or morally, is (for example) a guy paid by a drug dealer to kill a rival drug dealer that much worse than an angry man who kills his wife because she made his dinner wrong?

It's a really good question and highlights the complexity of 'treating' criminals rather than relying on punishment. Playing devils advocate you could say that as a hired killer was paid and therefore financially motivated a suitable punishment is to fine them more than they are paid. Whereas a guy with anger issues may never truly get his anger under control. 

My question is what do we do about people who for whatever reason are not able to be rehabilitated or reformed? A specific example, in Western Australia we have an arsonist who has been active for over 50 years. He is high risk, as every time he is released from prison he re-offends.He is putting lives in danger, and I would argue that if he has not changed in 50 years he is unlikely to ever do so. 

I always thought flat earth was nothing more than an online tongue in cheek trolling topic.

This weekend I met a guy who passionately believes it and was giving his 'evidence'. Western civilisation is doomed!

On 12/26/2022 at 11:15 PM, airdvr said:

The possibility of an error outweighs whatever perceived deterrent the death penalty brings.  Most murders are an act of passion or anger and I doubt the perp ever stops and considers capital punishment.

For me being caged for the rest of my life would be far worse than being put to death.

I agree, murder is typically driven by emotion and I'm not sure that severity of punishment plays much of a part in deterring murders.

I believe that capital punishment should be reserved for individuals where there is no hope of rehabilitation. Less focus on the crime and more on the person and what circumstances surrounded the crime.

We had a local skydiver in the news about 2 years ago. he shot and killed a bike gang leader at a crowded sporting event, it was a hired hit with no emotion involved. That is a far cry from a man or woman who is in severe distress emotionally in a relationship breakdown and 'loses it'

On 12/14/2022 at 9:27 AM, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi folks,

The Governor of Oregon has just commuted the death sentences of everyone [ 17 total ] on Death Row here in Oregon:  Outgoing Oregon governor commutes death row sentences, orders execution chamber dismantled - OPB 

I am interested in how people feel about death sentences; particularly, the non- US folks on here.

Thoughts????????????//

Jerry Baumchen

It's an interesting topic. The last couple of years I've been doing a psychology degree with a minor in criminal psychology and as a result some of my views have changed.

I think that we should be trying to rehabilitate people and from what I can see there is very little evidence that prisons work. In cases where there is no chance of rehabilitation I think it should be an option. 

However the US legal system appears to be totally dysfunctional and I'm not sure that it could be trusted to not have significant bias. A system that has the power to take life should be fair and get the same results regardless of wealth or race.

It amazes me that politicians and policy makers disregard the scientific evidence regarding the treatment of crime and the causes of crime in order to appease public opinion. I can only speak for Western Australia, but our premier routinely brings out policy that the science shows is counter productive. 

9 hours ago, ryoder said:

That operates on the assumption that people will make an intelligent decision.

In 2020, 74,223,975 voters chose 4 more years of a deranged moron as POTUS.

So I have very little faith in the electorate making logical decisions.

I have a bet going that Trump will win the election. 

There are lots of stupid people out there and Murdoch and co. have far less sway in a digital world. In fact the more the main stream media vilify him the more his followers will circle the wagon.

On 11/5/2022 at 1:15 AM, RonD1120 said:

They have one bad side effect. 

They wear off.

actually they are far more effective than traditional anti depressants. But it doesn't mean recreational use is healthy.

On 3/31/2021 at 9:58 PM, kallend said:

Well?

No just tattoo 666 on the forehead or implant a micro chip

21 hours ago, TriGirl said:

Well, I sort of agree.  The name day is one thing, but the description of Patrick as having "chased all the snakes out of Ireland" is a sanitized version of his (reported) exploits of forcibly converting Pagans -- Inquisition-style.

I will celebrate/appreciate Ireland.  I will not celebrate that.

I don't disagree with their views. I just found the completely different viewpoint amusing and also how strongly they felt about it. Especially that almost everyone celebrating that day is using it as an excuse to party and have a few drinks. 

I will admit that prior to the people getting really upset about it, I hadn't ever read up the story behind it. I've never dressed up or partied for St Patricks day, guess next year I will go to something as a snake :)