J.C.MacSwell

8 hours ago, Phi for All said:

https://uinterview.com/news/trumps-fundraising-agreement-with-rnc-allows-donations-to-cover-his-legal-bills-despite-concern-hes-using-party-as-a-piggy-bank/

Looks like Republicans all down the line will be cash starved due to TFG's legal bills. The argument that the money will be used to fight "the illegal witch hunts" continues to work. The RNC is now funding TFG first, then the Save America PAC, and finally the RNC and the rest of the Republicans running for office.

When the campaign installed its own people, including daughter-in-law Lara TFG, they fired a lot of folks and invited the rest to reapply, and many didn't. The RNC is supposedly dangerously understaffed going into a presidential election. 

And, of course, if TFG is convicted of any of the many charges against him, he may not even be able to vote for himself.  

Hopefully, at least he'll never get in a position to pardon himself.

Are the funds raised a tax right off? If so, unless Trump is a registered charity how is this possible?

Here folks, is an opportunity to agree with something that comes out of Mike Johnson's mouth!

Trump of course would somehow claim it's just fake pews...

19 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

It's the reticule from an autocollimator.
https://moeller-wedel-optical.com/en/product/reticles/

What were you thinking?

I refuse to answer on the grounds I....😇

On 6/22/2023 at 12:12 PM, Phi for All said:

And Noah famously turned away the pair of sasquatch who showed up at the ark riding unicorns, so they never survived the flood.

Not true. And even if it was a Yeti told me Bigfoots are excellent swimmers, often making ocean passages well over 40 days without food or water.

Need more proof? How do you think they got to both sides of the Atlantic?

On 4/8/2024 at 9:23 PM, Moontanman said:

Obvious fake...there's only one turtle...

On 4/8/2024 at 7:07 AM, John Cuthber said:

For a moment, I thought that looked like this.  But it's probably just me...

LOL. (quietly...yeah no...I won't go there!)

9 hours ago, toucana said:

He's also facing the wrong way, towards the back of the pew !

In his defence I also would photoshop in some extra...ah...fingers, if my ah...hands were that small...

On 4/8/2024 at 7:07 AM, John Cuthber said:

For a moment, I thought that looked like this.  But it's probably just me...
 

Hard to make any future claim you're "just a patsy" after that post! 😄

...and I'll see myself out!

Nice that he lived to see the Higgs boson discovered. RIP.

If Musk (or Swansont) had nothing to give in return, he probably wouldn't have seen much government money.

25 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

I don't know anything about that. I was responding to the post where you conflated the financial aid Elon Musk got from the government with swansont's government salary. It was wrong when you said it, it's still wrong,and it really has nothing to do with how you define "self-made". It's about the difference between getting paid by an employer and getting financial incentives, tax breaks, and infrastructure help from a government entity.

I don't think you can defend this point, and I was really hoping you could admit you had this part wrong so we can move on to other areas in this discussion. This is NOT semantics, and it's not a translation error. Being hired to work for the government is different from being awarded government contracts, subsidies, and tax incentives. Does that make sense?

I don't think Swansont used any capitalist leverage to pry his salary out of the government, but just as there are differences there are similarities.

If that's what he was getting at...he's still right.

On 3/31/2024 at 8:00 AM, J.C.MacSwell said:

Make Christianity Great Again!

Looking forward to seeing him in court making water into whine...

Of course, only one perfect man ever lived, mathematically as per the golden spiral...not to mention every other way...

The problem with the term "self made" is that it's often used well outside typical use with the context being that no social obligation should be felt by those "self made" and that such things as taxes are considered something ranging from "generous donations" to outright theft

All the while with the expection that the managed economy by the government and wealth security from police institutions etc should be more directed at maintaining and "opportunizing" that and other established wealth than for benefiting everyone more or less equally. 

44 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

The only connection I can think of is, Dawkins wanted to cancel Jesus... 🤔

He comes over as a little cross...

It's just a flesh wound!

2 hours ago, swansont said:

I don’t know what you mean by cooperation. Government subsidies and tax breaks are not the same as government contracts. 

Yes and no, depending on how you view it. Generally speaking, corruption aside, governments use subsidies and tax breaks as incentives toward something they seek to encourage for the benefit of "The People". Generally speaking, corruption aside, governments use contracts to obtain something for the benefit of "The People".

They can be different, they can be essentially the same, and both can be good or corrupt.

15 hours ago, MigL said:

That the Earth is not flat is factual, and can be proven.

That vaccinations are beneficial is also factual, and can also be proven.

I stand by my claim that subjective opinions are NOT factual.
Just like a rectum, everyone has one.
And society decides which opinion is 'fashionable'; dissenting opinions only get you labelled, and the fashionable opinion 'du jour' must then be protected against the dissenting views.
What the hell is 'revealed faith' anyway ?
I may tolerate it,but I see no reason to protect such garbage.

That vaccinations can be detrimental is also factual, and can be proven.

I realize the two statements are not on equal footing, scientifically speaking. 

17 hours ago, Gian said:

JC MACSWELL

So after 10¹⁴ years, that's it. No more life?

GIAN🙂

That's a pretty long time, and I'm assuming it's correct for the sake of argument and that your suggestion to extend is based on technologically creating new replacement stars also...but stars are a pretty inefficient way to go, even if corralling bits of previous stars to create new ones was possible.

How long could some idealized society potentially last tucked but protected inside some mostly dead gas giant?

Probably nothing remotely approaching a small fraction of a percentage of any round off errors in that number?

1 hour ago, iNow said:

Chinese and Russian controlled GenAI TikTok videos beamed directly into our brains via Neuralink chips. Hive mind driven by evil queens. 

I said next. Aren't they doing that already? 😄

According to the second law of thermodynamics, assuming it holds for the universe as a whole...No.

As per Ginsberg...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginsberg's_theorem

You can't win...you can't break even...you can't get out of the game...

You can however, lose efficiently...but not that efficiently.

The World can get much much worse. But hopefully it has reached full bizarro with Trump selling Trump Bibles, ironically including the Constitution, and the bizarro pendulum only has paths toward normalcy no matter it's current direction...if not...what's next?

Make Christianity Great Again!

Looking forward to seeing him in court making water into whine...

As Exchemist has stated, we receive a certain amount of energy from the Sun, and give off pretty much the same amount into space, generally in balance though degraded, at a certain average temperature. That average temperature can change over time when the balance is not exact. If it goes up that's global warming and it's obviously a problem.

2 hours ago, swansont said:

How/why is that more ethical or acceptable? 

IMO it's more acceptable in the sense that they have more time to realize the inevitability of the outcome and get to choose how much pain they want to endure. Of course that's as a Nation, not as individuals.

47 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

With Russia finally admitting it is "at war" with Ukraine, will this change anything in terms of the rules of conflict? Does that free open more options for them in what they can allow militarily with their armed forces and population?

 

I expect the "see what you made us do/what aboutist" Putinist Kremliners will attempt to justify anything and do anything that they think will help their position. Not that twisting the rules of conflict, such as they are, is limited to their side only.

Putin is certainly willing to cherry pick through history with an unmatched sense of entitlement.

4 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

Sorry, how do you mean?

Edit: You mean Putin calling in all his favours via Novichok or some other  concoction

Just kidding, but assuming Putin to be one of his creditors, and abandoning Trump faster than anyone else.

2 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

How many creditors will call in his debts once the water starts lapping over the bows.

Will Putin go early, or really, really early?