Author Topic: Politics  (Read 17698 times)

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Neumatic

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Re: Politics
« Reply #375 on: March 19, 2016, 01:43:26 pm »
I honestly don't think it's  gonna be Trump.  From what I've been hearing, Trump is either going to cash out (does he really want to be president or just prove he COULD be President?  What if he knows he'd fail at being President?), or the Republicans are going to hold an open convention (rather like House Of Cards just did) to find this season's sacrificial lamb to lose to Hillary.  The establishment Republicans actually do not want Trump leading the party, they think he'll destroy the brand.  But the truth is, they already broke it.  The Republican brand has been meaningless for a while now, which is why ignorant loudmouths like Trump and Palin can ascend to the heights they do.

And the truth is the Democrats aren't far behind, they're center-right for the most part but the conservatives who would vote for them won't and the left-leaning voters are completely disaffected by them.  No one can really trust Hillary, but she's playing the game so well (and hasn't REALLY been challenged) that she's going to be the eventual nominee.

But they can do this, the Republican and Democrat parties are private entities, they can do whatever they want.  We don't really vote for candidates, they just need a certain percentage of people to approve of them.  Scratch that, chosen electors.  The people don't really HAVE a choice outside of total dismissal, which is why the lesser of two evils always wins and can do whatever they want.

This has always sucked, but there's another stress point coming up, and it's something that doesn't seem connected to politics.  See, recently a computer called AlphaGo reached God-like Go player status.  Now, this is a bigger deal than Deep Blue beating Gary Kasperov because you can brute force beat Chess, but there are evidently more permutations of a Go board than there are atoms in the universe.  The methodology needed to attain that status requires a process called Deep Learning, which everyone thought was still 10 years away.

What this means is that, as bad as the job market is now, with plenty of jobs obsolete forever because of mechanization, the only two remaning are low brains/low pay and high brains/high pay, drivers or doctors or lawyers.  Those are all on the chopping block now.  By 2030 we'll need to shift to an entirely new social paradigm and we need forward-thinking leaders to help guide us towards those changes.  And the current state of politics means that's probably not going to happen.  The seemingly "Radical" but actually very old ideas of Bernie Sanders are a salve compared to what we need to do as a society to prepare for that massive upheaval.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and that article really helped solidify things, and so many of our social structures are just the best way we have of keeping score.  Money, the electoral college, and so on are only there because we couldn't get more dependable, malleable data, but soon we'll be able to.  We're going to get to the point... sooner than we expect... that we won't have money because we'll have a computer keeping track, making sure we live within our means but also that we're provided for, where our economy is self-correcting, where our traffic is efficient because we're not driving (no more traffic jams), we probably won't need as many of our politicians because they all run on providing solutions that SOUND good and we'll be able to get solutions that can be demonstrated to work (we could vote on desired outcome and desired course of action and see the effectiveness of it while we do it).  There's all this tech about to happen that can make our lives easier, but if we don't prepare for it, it could be used to control us.  The way the working people have been bent over by corporations and politicians with sh1t like NAFTA and the TPP (which Clinton says she's against, cause she wants votes, but I guarantee she'll vote for because what are WE gonna do about it?), that seems like a stark inevitability.  That kind of power by people in control means they won't lose control.  I don't want to sound like an alarmist or conspiracy theorist, because this all sounds like science fiction, but it's not.

Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #376 on: March 19, 2016, 04:55:29 pm »
Dayuuuuuuuum... Look at who's doing the deep thinking.

This deep learning, is that at all like the large number analytics I'm hearing about. Today we gather info about every conceivable thing, but just now trying to wrestle with this info and apply it ways unimaginable.

I may be deriding you comments.

I think American society has been naive and shallow when it comes to politics and business. Look, most Americans may vote for someone they like to look at. Or just immediately agree with whatever these politicians say. But I think, in general, most middle America is getting smarter. So after this Trump period, wether he gets nominated or elected, if we will continue to scrutinize politics or fall back into the ol system.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #377 on: March 19, 2016, 05:17:36 pm »
I think there are a lot of factors that are going into middle America being more astute this time around and a lot of it has to do that the failed Obama administration for the past 7 years. As you pointed out Mac, a good chunk of people voted for him because he was young and not the typical career politician that swims in DC. Given how awful he has been, factored in the idea of Clinton continuing his policies, suddenly you have a lot of people taking notice to not let that happen for another 4 years of the same sh*t. The only problem to that is we have Trump or Cruz as our alternative on the other side of the table. I've never seen so many dreadful candidates in one year. It's pathetic. And now we are going to pay the price, regardless who gets into the White House.

FYI, good post Neumatic.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2016, 05:19:40 pm by Chiprocks1 »
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Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #378 on: March 20, 2016, 05:24:55 am »
I would pose the question, have we had any good potential candidates for president in 20, 30, 40 years?
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #379 on: March 20, 2016, 06:13:44 am »
I would pose the question, have we had any good potential candidates for president in 20, 30, 40 years?

Good point.
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #380 on: March 20, 2016, 06:49:22 am »
Trump protester punched, kicked at rally



Brutal beat-down.
Is this the norm now?
Sigh.
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #381 on: March 20, 2016, 07:26:27 am »
There's so many things wrong with this violence at rally's. Trump not saying anything, says to me this is acceptable. This just may be one of those things that will reveal the truth about Trump. His loud mouth, and in this case, loud silence, may just bite him in the ass.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #382 on: March 24, 2016, 08:20:26 am »
So now the Presidential race is about Melania and Heidi? Seriously, what is this sh*t? Might as well just call it The Real house Wives of the 2016 Campaign since this is all the news channels are talking about the past 24 hours. Sheesh. Cruz and Trump just need to go away.....and take Clinton and Sanders while your at it. And Kasich too.
Chip's Rockin' Art
Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Neumatic

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Re: Politics
« Reply #383 on: March 24, 2016, 09:25:44 am »
Wouldn't that put John Bonehead... I mean John Boehner in control?

Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #384 on: March 24, 2016, 11:09:03 am »
In control of what? Reality TV programming?  :)
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #385 on: April 06, 2016, 04:19:14 pm »
I'm gonna make a wild prediction here right now just so that I can come back to it and say "told ya so!" This is what I see happening, Trump will not only win New York, he's going to crush Cruz so badly that he won't even get one delegate. When this happens, Cruz will internally come to the realization (if he hasn't already) that he can not and will not reach the magic number before the convention. Once this happens, he is sure to have an epiphany that there is no way in f*cking hell anyone will nominate him at the convention as the alternate. He is universally hated by everyone that is "backing him right now". This isn't an endorsement. It's just a way to stop Trump. If and when he admits this to himself, he will pull Trump aside and tell him that he will concede the race so that Trump can win outright in exchange for the VP slot. Now most people would say that they would NEVER team up together. But you have to factor who we are talking about. Trump would absolutely agree to a Cruz VP if it meant locking up the Nomination before the convention and Cruz would do ANYTHING to get into the White House....even as a lowly VP. He knows he is hated, so why wouldn't he do this just to spite his mythical 'Washington Cartel'. Trust me, this is EXACTLY how it will unfold.

Mark.
My.
Words.

Scary sh*t when you think about those two in the White House together. Ugh.
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #386 on: April 06, 2016, 05:00:23 pm »
Trump's ego is way to big. Cruz... Never. Trump is going to populate the White House with unknowns and no one that would be a conflict for him.
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Chiprocks1

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Re: Politics
« Reply #387 on: April 06, 2016, 06:09:34 pm »
Trump's ego is way to big. Cruz... Never. Trump is going to populate the White House with unknowns and no one that would be a conflict for him.

Yes, he has an ego and it's that ego that would propel him to make a deal with Cruz. See, if Cruz stays in the race, Trump will not get the nomination and everything after that is a moot point. Can't populate the WH if he is not in there. So, as much as he hates Cruz, he hates the idea of losing. Cruz knows he won't get the nom either. For them to team up is a Win-Win for them and a Lose-Lose for America.
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Michael Scott To Meredith: "You've slept with so many men, your starting to look like one. BOOM! Roasted! Go here.

Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #388 on: April 07, 2016, 09:39:29 am »
Good points. My only point is this election cycle has rarely seen the likes of these process and procedures and I would hate to make a bet on any future outcome because it's taking so many twists and turns... and we STILL have 7 more month

As expected, this process started way to early. I wonder what the status of the general population is like. Because I think most of the middle have been sitting on the sidelines not getting involved. It just wears on you this constant circus. It also ****es me off to think votes don't count with super delegates, coin tosses, caucuses, etc. I hate the whole electoral college process.

My one glimmer of making a nod to trump is telling the establishment... no more. Things have to change. I just hope we don't over compensate and swing way back to something unrecognizable.
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Mac

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Re: Politics
« Reply #389 on: April 21, 2016, 11:26:22 am »
Oh dayum.... didn't even expect this.

Joe Walsh bows out of Cleveland show because of association with RNC

Quote
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Legendary rock guitarist Joe Walsh has withdrawn from a July concert in Cleveland after he learned the event was associated with the opening of the Republican National Convention.

Walsh released a statement Wednesday on his website saying he was told the July 18 show was a nonpartisan event to benefit families of veterans. He said he learned Wednesday it was a launch for the RNC and that the event would be used to raise money "convention-related purposes."

"Therefore I must humbly withdraw my participation in this event, with apologies to any fans or veterans and their families that I may disappoint," Walsh's statement says. "I was misled as to the event's true purpose.

"I am very concerned about the rampant vitriol, fear-mongering and bullying coming from the current Republican campaigns, it is isolationist and spiteful. I cannot in good conscience endorse the Republican party in any way. I will look at doing a veteran-related benefit concert later this year."

Walsh, known for his work with the Eagles, James Gang and as a solo artist, is still scheduled to appear at Blossom Music Center with Bad Company and Steve Rodgers on June 26.

The Republican National Convention runs from July 18 to 21 in Cleveland.
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