Alex Tsakiris, Four Questions About the Future of Skeptiko |414|

*wth, you vote on "tablecloths"? wth just wth? Tablecloths? The things you cover tables with right? An entire tablecloth? You're in Australia you say.... ah, that's right, that's where Crocodial Dundee came from, I see.

Hey Atlantis. We love democracy. We are so enthusiastic that come voting time we have so many senate candidates we need bigger and bigger voting slips to accommodate all our eager aspirational representatives. We take democracy so seriously its actually a legal obligation to turn up on polling day (if you haven't pre-polled) and have your name checked off the registered. What you do afterwards is your own business. You can submit a blank or write rude things on it.

Here is where Crocodile Dundee comes from. The USA is where Trump comes from. If you had our system ...... Say no more.
 
We vote on paper slips in private booths (at least we did before I left for the U.S. 10 years ago). Pencil, slip of paper, mark your sheet in private for the preferred candidate(s), and then drop in a box.

The Crocodial Dundee reference wasn't needed. Your intention was to diminish Australians as being somehow dim because of a populist movie from the 80s, as if that was the summation of our culture. Michael probably felt it was not worth the effort to reply to the dig, but as someone who puts up with this crap on a daily basis (aww, you're from Australia! <insert uninformed comment>), I call this bullshit out when I read it.

This forum is about discussing complex ideas, and nationality has very little to do with that.

Sorry to derail the forum topic, but the Skeptiko forum is better than this kind of cultural superiority nonsense.
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Excuse me, Loon? Um, my Crocodial Dundee was just some random Australian I happen to think of, the rest of the "feelings" are ALL YOU. You might want to think about that before you start inferring motives to someone you don't even know.

Oh, and just so we're clear I'm not comfortably couched behind some thinly veiled euphemism when I called you a "loon".
 
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Excuse me, Loon? Um, my Crocodial Dundee was just some random Australian I happen to think of, the rest of the "feelings" are ALL YOU. You might want to think about that before you start inferring motives to someone you don't even know.

Oh, and just so we're clear I'm not comfortably couched behind some thinly veiled euphemism when I called you a "loon".

I've been in the Stanford ICU for 8 days straight with crappy sleep and nothing but time on my hands with my son. I apologise - I'm probably just hyper sensitive at the moment.

He is getting better every day BTW, not fishing for sympathy posts, rather giving context.
 
Hey Atlantis. We love democracy. We are so enthusiastic that come voting time we have so many senate candidates we need bigger and bigger voting slips to accommodate all our eager aspirational representatives. We take democracy so seriously its actually a legal obligation to turn up on polling day (if you haven't pre-polled) and have your name checked off the registered. What you do afterwards is your own business. You can submit a blank or write rude things on it.

Here is where Crocodile Dundee comes from. The USA is where Trump comes from. If you had our system ...... Say no more.[/QUOTE

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Well that is odd, I can't imagine how that goes about. I was thinking maybe you all got together & wrote your names on one big cloth or something. Whoever got the most names on the cloth won! You know you're going to make me have to actually look this up later! THANKS, like I have nothing better to do. The deer are eating all the pears off my trees so instead of running them off I'll be looking THIS up. LOL

oh god... why would your bring up President Trump now? I don't understand, are you saying we should "vote Trump off the island"? no, he'll win in 2020 as well. Look at the maps of the voting in the USA. Wait I'll put a link: https://blueshift.io/election-2016-county-map.html
 
I've been in the Stanford ICU for 8 days straight with crappy sleep and nothing but time on my hands with my son. I apologise - I'm probably just hyper sensitive at the moment.

He is getting better every day BTW, not fishing for sympathy posts, rather giving context.
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Oh okay, I'm sorry then too. I hope your son gets better soon. I completely understand.
 
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Excuse me, Loon? Um, my Crocodial Dundee was just some random Australian I happen to think of, the rest of the "feelings" are ALL YOU. You might want to think about that before you start inferring motives to someone you don't even know.

Oh, and just so we're clear I'm not comfortably couched behind some thinly veiled euphemism when I called you a "loon".
Nowadays everyone has become obsessed with not hurting other people's feelings (except for those who happen to be white middle class heterosexual males, who are always fair game). I think most people are sick of that PC nonsense, let's return to the time when Australians could refer to "whinging poms", and others could make jokes about cork hats, and then everyone laughed and had a beer.

However, OK you were upset about other things, so lets drop it, or the forum will start to read like the BBC!

David
 
Nowadays everyone has become obsessed with not hurting other people's feelings (except for those who happen to be white middle class heterosexual males, who are always fair game). I think most people are sick of that PC nonsense, let's return to the time when Australians could refer to "whinging poms", and others could make jokes about cork hats, and then everyone laughed and had a beer.

However, OK you were upset about other things, so lets drop it, or the forum will start to read like the BBC!

David
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It must be hard to be a man. I remember when I was a kid, a little boy & I were talking. He said, "I'm glad I'm not a girl!" I said, "how come?" He said, "because you have to have the babies." I thought a second & said, "well, you have to go to war & get your head blown off." That ended the conversation.

It's probably hard to be either. I want to be God. Just for a few days... I'd fix it all.

Song of the day (which I sing at the top of my lungs when I ride my bike):

you all are invited to ride along.
 
It must be hard to be a man. I remember when I was a kid, a little boy & I were talking. He said, "I'm glad I'm not a girl!" I said, "how come?" He said, "because you have to have the babies." I thought a second & said, "well, you have to go to war & get your head blown off." That ended the conversation.

It's probably hard to be either. I want to be God. Just for a few days... I'd fix it all.
One of the things I like about Trump is that he is actually a fairly peaceful guy. He didn't kill 150 Iranians in response to the downing of a military drone. If at all possible he wants to stop the Iranians getting a nuclear bomb by means of sanctions. I very much hope he succeeds.

Without the prospect of going to war, being a man is probably preferable!

For every man blown to pieces, several more would be maimed for life.

David
 
One of the things I like about Trump is that he is actually a fairly peaceful guy. He didn't kill 150 Iranians in response to the downing of a military drone. If at all possible he wants to stop the Iranians getting a nuclear bomb by means of sanctions. I very much hope he succeeds.

Without the prospect of going to war, being a man is probably preferable!

For every man blown to pieces, several more would be maimed for life.

David
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OMG I know! Somebody "reasonable" for once~ I'm pretty surprised, I mean I agree with him 100%. But, he is surrounded by war hawks (L.Graham (who I like), the walrus (Bolton) I like him too, I guess I like everybody LOL, but, the news media here, the generals & the Demorats are yelling at him. You'd think he'd be loaded for bear after all this but he kept his wits about him.

The Iranians should pay the 175 million though for blowing it up (and we'd want cash) like obama sent them in the middle of the night.
 
ne of the things I like about Trump is that he is actually a fairly peaceful guy. He didn't kill 150 Iranians in response to the downing of a military drone. If at all possible he wants to stop the Iranians getting a nuclear bomb by means of sanctions. I very much hope he succeeds.

You believe that?
 
You believe that?
I wouldn't have said it if I didn't believe it! A substantial aspect of his campaign was that America should not be entering wars all over the globe unless US interests are at stake. While some would characterise that as uncaring, I think very few places have benefitted from US military 'care', and many have been harmed. In Iran, he seems to content to to face the regime out without taking aggressive action first, while waiting for sanctions to work. Sanctions are by far the most humanitarian way to contain potentially dangerous conflicts.

David
 
Really? I’d say they only turn up the heat.
Well I don't think it is in anyone's interest for Iran to get a nuclear weapon - that is what this is all about. Just doing nothing isn't really an option. The trouble with the deal that was brokered under Obama, is that it was due to run out at a certain point, and the regime could have gone full steam ahead making fissile material for weapons!

Incidentally, a few months back I talked briefly to an Iranian who is married to a Chinese woman who used to run the local take-away (i.e. he probably wasn't someone with an axe to grind). He said that the regime their has almost no support from the people, most of whom no longer believe in Islam. They attend the prayers and demos against the US and the women dress as they do because they are forced to.

I would think Trump knows the same thing, and in that situation, the regime may be far more vulnerable to slow gentle pressure than it appears.

David
 
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Well I don't think it is in anyone's interest for Iran to get a nuclear weapon - that is what this is all about. Just doing nothing isn't really an option. The trouble with the deal that was brokered under Obama, is that it was due to run out at a certain point, and the regime could have gone full steam ahead making fissile material for weapons!

Incidentally, a few months back I talked briefly to an Iranian who is married to a Chinese woman who userd to run the local take-away (i.e. he probably wasn't someone with an axe to grind). He said that the regime their has almost no support from the people, most of whom no longer believe in Islam. They attend the prayers and demos against the US and the women dress as they do because they are forced to.

I would think Trump knows the same thing, and in that situation, the regime may be far more vulnerable to slow gentle pressure than it appears.

David
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Totally agree with David. Trump doesn't like or want war. He's a businessman. He didn't even want to go. NOBODY wants to go to war (who has a brain) unless you're behind the scenes making money (our local psychopaths). I do think the Demorats, war hawks & war machines will push us into something. They always do.

This time, it won't be so easy. Too many eyes watching now. Like Russia being blamed for the nerve gas used in the U.K.. Total BS. Russia didn't do that.

I wonder why they didn't have better cameras filming those oil tankers though. You'd think with all the things going on, there would be cameras on all those tankers. Grainy shots of bad guys attaching explosives to the ships side (?).
 
This time, it won't be so easy. Too many eyes watching now. Like Russia being blamed for the nerve gas used in the U.K.. Total BS. Russia didn't do that
I agree - this was clearly done to be highly inconvenient to President Putin - he had no motive to behave like that. Moreover, Sergei Skripal and his daughter both survived and were promptly hidden from view - nobody knows where they are now. His daughter made one rushed phone call to her family in Russia prior to them disappearing - presumably they were going to tell some uncomfortable truths if they had been allowed to speak freely.

Salisbury is also just 2 miles from Porton Down - the main biological chemical warfare establishment in the UK! My guess is that someone at that establishment went rogue, and the government decided to cover it up and blame Putin instead.

There is a former British Ambassador, Craig Murray, who resigned over UK arms sales to an unsavoury regime. He now speaks from Moscow, and he covered this story at the time:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=novichok

Perhaps the most absurd aspect of this story is that neither of the two victims died from the attack from a deadly nerve agent smeared on their door knob - what incompetence would that be? A couple died, supposedly of the same poison about a week or so later, but this was blamed on the remnants of the poison having been discarded in a waste bin! This was after nerve gas experts had combed Salisbury for traces of the poison!

David
 
I agree - this was clearly done to be highly inconvenient to President Putin - he had no motive to behave like that. Moreover, Sergei Skripal and his daughter both survived and were promptly hidden from view - nobody knows where they are now. His daughter made one rushed phone call to her family in Russia prior to them disappearing - presumably they were going to tell some uncomfortable truths if they had been allowed to speak freely.

Salisbury is also just 2 miles from Porton Down - the main biological chemical warfare establishment in the UK! My guess is that someone at that establishment went rogue, and the government decided to cover it up and blame Putin instead.

There is a former British Ambassador, Craig Murray, who resigned over UK arms sales to an unsavoury regime. He now speaks from Moscow, and he covered this story at the time:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=novichok

Perhaps the most absurd aspect of this story is that neither of the two victims died from the attack from a deadly nerve agent smeared on their door knob - what incompetence would that be? A couple died, supposedly of the same poison about a week or so later, but this was blamed on the remnants of the poison having been discarded in a waste bin! This was after nerve gas experts had combed Salisbury for traces of the poison!

David
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When it all went down, I was yelling at one of my Russian friends & he told me it was a lie. He said why would Putin do this now, he was up for election? Besides, he had them in jail he could have killed them there. The big take away was the daughter was trying to run back to Russia. I don't think you'd got back to where people are trying to kill you.
 
I agree - this was clearly done to be highly inconvenient to President Putin - he had no motive to behave like that. Moreover, Sergei Skripal and his daughter both survived and were promptly hidden from view - nobody knows where they are now. His daughter made one rushed phone call to her family in Russia prior to them disappearing - presumably they were going to tell some uncomfortable truths if they had been allowed to speak freely.

Salisbury is also just 2 miles from Porton Down - the main biological chemical warfare establishment in the UK! My guess is that someone at that establishment went rogue, and the government decided to cover it up and blame Putin instead.

There is a former British Ambassador, Craig Murray, who resigned over UK arms sales to an unsavoury regime. He now speaks from Moscow, and he covered this story at the time:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=novichok

Perhaps the most absurd aspect of this story is that neither of the two victims died from the attack from a deadly nerve agent smeared on their door knob - what incompetence would that be? A couple died, supposedly of the same poison about a week or so later, but this was blamed on the remnants of the poison having been discarded in a waste bin! This was after nerve gas experts had combed Salisbury for traces of the poison!

David

Yep. This is a case where the official story is pure bunk. The Brits have been caught lying and being involved in nefarious plots (such as the attempted take down of Trump) lately. They demonstrate a high level of incompetency in concocting their stories; can't tell if it's because they are actually incompetent or they just have so much contempt for people that they are lazy.
 
Yep. This is a case where the official story is pure bunk. The Brits have been caught lying and being involved in nefarious plots (such as the attempted take down of Trump) lately. They demonstrate a high level of incompetency in concocting their stories; can't tell if it's because they are actually incompetent or they just have so much contempt for people that they are lazy.
As I said, I doubt if this incident was actually planned. The proximity of Porton Down, is almost certainly the clue. I think someone there went rogue, and admitting that would have really scared the public, and possibly lead to pressure to close the place down. Then they discovered who the victims were, and some idiot had a bright idea.

There was also an earlier incident, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium 210, that was also blamed on Putin.

We live in crazy times:(

David
 
Yep. This is a case where the official story is pure bunk. The Brits have been caught lying and being involved in nefarious plots (such as the attempted take down of Trump) lately. They demonstrate a high level of incompetency in concocting their stories; can't tell if it's because they are actually incompetent or they just have so much contempt for people that they are lazy.
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Well, I think a bunch of us better stay connected worldwide. This is why I talk to people all over the world, to see what is really going on. The U.S. doesn't even talk about the "yellow vest" in France. I've told people about it & they are ALWAYS WTH? What did you say? What? Are you sure? I tell them yeah, there are thousands in the streets of Paris protesting. It's been going on for months. I'm telling educated well connected people. Granted they are business people, stock brokers, agents, accountants, busy living their lives. So they don't have time to dig.

I'll tell you something else going on (we all know) but something odd, it's not just Google, FaceBook, YouTube that are in some kind of cahoots, they ARE. Now this Mark Zuckerberg... think about that face a second. He wants to get into cryptocurrency. THAT guy. He can't even write code.

Now he wants to control billions of people's money. Let that sink in. You guys saw Veratas right? Where a Google insider was caught saying they let 2016 get away from them, but they won't let 2020 happen. In other words control our elections.

Remember that Christ Church shooting? That Muslim place that got all shot up? Okay, so when the videos came out, I downloaded them, then uploaded them to YouTube (because they were being deleted). YouTube took mine down & gave me 2 strikes (like I care). ANYWAY, the point is, I had 2 videos one was the guy who did the deed (he videotaped himself) I got that. AND, the after math video.

The first video shows him entering the Mosque... automatic blazing. Just walking into each room & down the halls guns a blazing. Not aiming but rapid SPRAY gun fire at everyone & EVERYTHING. Killing everyone & anything that moved. Some rooms had maybe 25 people in there, other rooms less people. But, he was just spraying those rooms with auto fire. Some people were standing up, some praying or huddled. But, he fired from the opening of the doorways into the rooms, broadcast shooting.

Now the aftermath video with the people all bloody & crying... yeah, if you look at it, you all of a sudden notice a few things, no broken windows, no holes in the walls. Even one guy acting dead, but when he thinks he isn't being filmed he is smiling. WTH? Just WTH. Let THAT sink in. No bullet shots in any walls.... no broken windows.

Now, I'm a pretty good shot, but nobody is THAT good. Ask me where all the bullet casing are? Not a lot of them, just a handful.

I can't say it is all fake cause I wasn't there. But they sure as hell don't want anyone talking about it or showing ANY videos.

BTW, I took Google off my computer. I use Brave and it works great for me if any of you guys want to install a new browser. Probably another psyop but at least I tried: https://brave.com/ I like it better than Google actually. You can transfer all your liked links to Brave. I used it a few weeks before I uninstalled Google, because I was worried about uninstalling Google. But, I just went ahead & uninstalled stupid Google. Nothing bad happened.
 
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Well, I think a bunch of us better stay connected worldwide. This is why I talk to people all over the world, to see what is really going on. The U.S. doesn't even talk about the "yellow vest" in France. I've told people about it & they are ALWAYS WTH? What did you say? What? Are you sure? I tell them yeah, there are thousands in the streets of Paris protesting. It's been going on for months. I'm telling educated well connected people. Granted they are business people, stock brokers, agents, accountants, busy living their lives. So they don't have time to dig.

I'll tell you something else going on (we all know) but something odd, it's not just Google, FaceBook, YouTube that are in some kind of cahoots, they ARE. Now this Mark Zuckerberg... think about that face a second. He wants to get into cryptocurrency. THAT guy. He can't even write code.

Now he wants to control billions of people's money. Let that sink in. You guys saw Veratas right? Where a Google insider was caught saying they let 2016 get away from them, but they won't let 2020 happen. In other words control our elections.

Remember that Christ Church shooting? That Muslim place that got all shot up? Okay, so when the videos came out, I downloaded them, then uploaded them to YouTube (because they were being deleted). YouTube took mine down & gave me 2 strikes (like I care). ANYWAY, the point is, I had 2 videos one was the guy who did the deed (he videotaped himself) I got that. AND, the after math video.

The first video shows him entering the Mosque... automatic blazing. Just walking into each room & down the halls guns a blazing. Not aiming but rapid SPRAY gun fire at everyone & EVERYTHING. Killing everyone & anything that moved. Some rooms had maybe 25 people in there, other rooms less people. But, he was just spraying those rooms with auto fire. Some people were standing up, some praying or huddled. But, he fired from the opening of the doorways into the rooms, broadcast shooting.

Now the aftermath video with the people all bloody & crying... yeah, if you look at it, you all of a sudden notice a few things, no broken windows, no holes in the walls. Even one guy acting dead, but when he thinks he isn't being filmed he is smiling. WTH? Just WTH. Let THAT sink in. No bullet shots in any walls.... no broken windows.

Now, I'm a pretty good shot, but nobody is THAT good. Ask me where all the bullet casing are? Not a lot of them, just a handful.

I can't say it is all fake cause I wasn't there. But they sure as hell don't want anyone talking about it or showing ANY videos.

BTW, I took Google off my computer. I use Brave and it works great for me if any of you guys want to install a new browser. Probably another psyop but at least I tried: https://brave.com/ I like it better than Google actually. You can transfer all your liked links to Brave. I used it a few weeks before I uninstalled Google, because I was worried about uninstalling Google. But, I just went ahead & uninstalled stupid Google. Nothing bad happened.

Atlantis,
I haven't seen the videos of the mosque shooting, so I can't offer an opinion. Yes. there should be spent brass everywhere and blown out plaster, etc on the walls (if they're masonry), but maybe there were and the camera didn't pick it up? If the walls are drywall, there'd only be little holes that you might not see on the camera. Maybe the fire was too low to hit the windows? IDK.

I think the Newtown shooting happened just like they said it did, but there are people who say it didn't happen at all; that is was a staged event. It kind of bothers me that conspiracy theorists go there because it's clear to me that it did happen. I am extremely cautious buying into the conspiracy theory based on scant evidence and facts.
 
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