Fletch wrote on Aug 7, 2017, 02:13:

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 6, 2017, 11:15:
Good luck leading a revolution against a police state.... (Turkey comes to mind) you'd be a terrorist, and not a revolutionary.

They've got to find some way to justify buying all that Maxpedition gear and .22lr ammo. An entire industry was created off of their paranoia, which now feeds it to keep them buying shit. No... running their fat asses through the jungle on weekends and shooting cans just isn't gonna cut it. The unhinged, lunatic fringe want to shoot something besides empty PBRs. Unfortunately, I doubt their revolution will last much past the first drone strike, and a real opportunity to remove some Stoopid from the gene pool will be gone.

Here's essentially what would happen (Warning: graphic. AC-130 Hercules gunship wrecks some Taliban and their pickups)

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 6, 2017, 11:15:
Good luck leading a revolution against a police state.... (Turkey comes to mind) you'd be a terrorist, and not a revolutionary.

They've got to find some way to justify buying all that Maxpedition gear and .22lr ammo. An entire industry was created off of their paranoia, which now feeds it to keep them buying shit. No... running their fat asses through the jungle on weekends and shooting cans just isn't gonna cut it. The unhinged, lunatic fringe want to shoot something besides empty PBRs. Unfortunately, I doubt their revolution will last much past the first drone strike, and a real opportunity to remove some Stoopid from the gene pool will be gone.

Retired wrote on Aug 6, 2017, 00:24:
The mere insinuation of killing anyone is disgusting. I am embarrassed for you.

Then write the POTUS and tell him what you think, because he's the one who set that bar that low, as well as many of his millions of moron minions whose first language seems to be largely comprised of innuendo for violence.

SlimRam wrote on Aug 6, 2017, 00:17:
Venezuela 2017 = United States 2018

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

Or:

"It took a revolution to start this country, and it will take a revolution to save it."

My Grandfather

Good luck leading a revolution against a police state.... (Turkey comes to mind) you'd be a terrorist, and not a revolutionary.

1badmf wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 18:17:

jdreyer wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 18:00:
Just a few points about the second amendment.

1) There's no way a bunch of guys with rifles and pickup trucks can stand up to the might of the US military and win. Force multiplication via modern technology is orders of magnitude greater than when it was written. Just look at how that worked out for ISIS, for example.

2) The raison d'etre of the second amendment was to maintain militias in southern states for the purpose of quelling slave rebellions. It was not intended to provide spontaneous "Wolverine!" style partisans in the event of a federal government takeover.

i have good reason to doubt that most 2nd amendment nuts have even read it. a friend who was a trained lawyer from a prestigious law school was silenced (for a moment) when i paraphrased the text for him that the law was tied to the support and maintenance of a militia, not unrestricted gun ownership like most of them believe.

That's the strangest part for me. How did the "Well-regulated militia" requirement get dropped from the interpretation of the 2nd amendment to mean "total freedom to do whatever you want with guns?"

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:33:

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:22:
We are one baseball practice and 4 memorials away from having a decent government.

Listen, I am near the front of the line to complain about the GOP and I realize you are not serious -- however, even "joking" like this is not useful or productive. The best case scenario is you are ignored. The worst case is damn ugly.

The mere insinuation of killing anyone is disgusting. I am embarrassed for you.

Venezuela 2017 = United States 2018

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

Or:

"It took a revolution to start this country, and it will take a revolution to save it."

My Grandfather

As a side note, the Ds basically make it easy for the GOP to gerrymander them... they collect in urban areas where they actually enjoy partaking in music and food from other cultures. The GOP is out in the rural areas avoiding all that hedonistic activity while strongly clutching their guns and bibles.

Yeah, an over-exaggeration... but you get the idea.

Yes, as I have said previously, the GOP spent the last 2-3 decades taking control of the election district mapping, culminating in their victories in the 2010 elections. It doesn't change the fact between 40 and 50 percent of the population voted for them. Given that, a popular uprising seems unlikely. It would be more like a civil war, which I have difficulty believing is a good idea. Again, I don't want to be next on someone's list.

Not sure how you jumped to thinking my heroes were Benedict Arnold or the Rosenbergs... but then you are well known on these forums to be troll. So, whatever. But for the record I am a veteran of the USAF, with an honorable discharge. So, I've done my duty to support the US. How about you Cutter? Did you serve in the Canadian military?

The important thing is to keep the political process in place. Political fortunes of people and parties swing to and fro. Yes, they've swung toward the GOP for now, in no small part due to their own careful planning. However, Trump and the GOP aren't trying to do anything which corporations and their supporters haven't been trying to do for many decades. Even if they are successful, their plans will eventually show themselves to obviously be bad for "the common guy on the street", and their fortunes will turn.

Will there be pain in the mean time? Yeah. But a lot less pain than a civil war.

This comment was edited on Aug 6, 2017, 18:12.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 18:00:
Just a few points about the second amendment.

1) There's no way a bunch of guys with rifles and pickup trucks can stand up to the might of the US military and win. Force multiplication via modern technology is orders of magnitude greater than when it was written. Just look at how that worked out for ISIS, for example.

2) The raison d'etre of the second amendment was to maintain militias in southern states for the purpose of quelling slave rebellions. It was not intended to provide spontaneous "Wolverine!" style partisans in the event of a federal government takeover.

i have good reason to doubt that most 2nd amendment nuts have even read it. a friend who was a trained lawyer from a prestigious law school was silenced (for a moment) when i paraphrased the text for him that the law was tied to the support and maintenance of a militia, not unrestricted gun ownership like most of them believe.

Just a few points about the second amendment.

1) There's no way a bunch of guys with rifles and pickup trucks can stand up to the might of the US military and win. Force multiplication via modern technology is orders of magnitude greater than when it was written. Just look at how that worked out for ISIS, for example.

2) The raison d'etre of the second amendment was to maintain militias in southern states for the purpose of quelling slave rebellions. It was not intended to provide spontaneous "Wolverine!" style partisans in the event of a federal government takeover.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 15:03:
Okay, first of all they are duly elected members of Congress, not some member of Royality who inherited the power to rule us. Meaning the problem isn't them, it is the people who elected them. Second, I don't want people being shot for their political beliefs because I don't want to be next on someone's list. Third, even if key GOP members (or any GOP members for that matter) were killed for political reasons, it would only increase their popularity with the populace. You think they have majorities now? Kill a few and they'll soon have veto override majorities in Congress and every statehouse in the nation...

Elected? The overwhelming majority of them have come to power with minority votes courtesy of the gerrymandering they're practicing, which incidentally is only getting worse. Pretty soon a Democrat won't be able to get elected regardless of the actual support they get. Since Nixon they've been trying to usurp the democratic process and put an end to it, literally, and you're fine with that? This isn't a simple ideological divide these people are actively working to establish authoritarian rule. And you want peace at any price? Those people love people like you. They'll shake your hand and nod agreement then stab you in the back the moment it's presented to them. And the beliefs and values aren't just bad for America they're bad for the whole fucking planet.

The founding fathers understood people like them. It's why they included the following in the Second Amendment....

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Not only do you have the natural born right but you have the duty to stand up and despots and tyrants. Anything else is just capitulation. I suppose your heroes are guys like Benedict Arnold, Joe Valachi, the Rosenbergs, et al.

Cutter wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 13:09:
Why? The GOP has declared war on everyone else and the planet. People have every right to defend themselves by any means necessary. Talking doesn't work with those people. They don't care. By your rationale there never would have been a War of Independence and no America to begin with. Like Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure." Appeasement only makes the aggressor stronger. Ask Neville Chamberlain how that worked out for him with Hitler.

Okay, first of all they are duly elected members of Congress, not some member of Royality who inherited the power to rule us. Meaning the problem isn't them, it is the people who elected them. Second, I don't want people being shot for their political beliefs because I don't want to be next on someone's list. Third, even if key GOP members (or any GOP members for that matter) were killed for political reasons, it would only increase their popularity with the populace. You think they have majorities now? Kill a few and they'll soon have veto override majorities in Congress and every statehouse in the nation...

jdreyer wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 14:19:

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:06:

crash between train and limousine

that will buff out

I hate to say it, but the way the limo was perfectly centered on the track almost makes it seem intentional. I mean, what are the odds? A foot in either direction and the limo gets shunted to one side or the other, not pushed a quarter mile down the track.

Dunno if staged, but such an incline can be incredibly deceptive from the perspective of a driver....

Video is 2 years old btw... Reddit....

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:29:
I'm a couple of hours away from a full eclipse location. Initially, despite my passing interest in cosmology, I wasn't planning to travel to the full eclipse location. But as it approaches I am feeling more and more like I should do so...

I'm just on the edge here in Cincinnati/Kentucky, so going to drive down south a few hours and be right in the middle of it. It'll go nicely with my 'Last Space Shuttle Night Launch' experience.

Huff, puff, pass? AG's pot fury not echoed by task force.

Hmm, a mild drug (marijuana) is ranked as Schedule 1, among the most damaging and addictive of all drugs. How did that happen?

The initial placement of marijuana in Schedule I, the government’s most restrictive category of drugs, can easily be considered a mistake — though perhaps “mistake” is too meek of a term, particularly in the face of alcohol and tobacco being left off the schedules. In fact, marijuana’s strict scheduling emerges from the cultural and racial apathy felt by Richard Nixon, the activist president who signed the Controlled Substances Act into law. Nixon’s aides suggested the war on marijuana was racially motivated, and Oval Office tapes highlight his contempt for the counterculture movement as well as racial minorities.

The tapes also make it clear that Nixon wanted to link marijuana use and its negative effects to two groups who he held in contempt: African Americans and hippies.

Thanks, Dick.

I guess that also explains why our AG, an unrepentant racist, wants to crack down on it again, even though marijuana spread to white people more than 50 years ago. Ancient white guy with ancient info strikes again.

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:06:

crash between train and limousine

that will buff out

I hate to say it, but the way the limo was perfectly centered on the track almost makes it seem intentional. I mean, what are the odds? A foot in either direction and the limo gets shunted to one side or the other, not pushed a quarter mile down the track.

Godwin's law reached in record time.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:33:

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:22:
We are one baseball practice and 4 memorials away from having a decent government.

Listen, I am near the front of the line to complain about the GOP and I realize you are not serious -- however, even "joking" like this is not useful or productive. The best case scenario is you are ignored. The worst case is damn ugly.

Why? The GOP has declared war on everyone else and the planet. People have every right to defend themselves by any means necessary. Talking doesn't work with those people. They don't care. By your rationale there never would have been a War of Independence and no America to begin with. Like Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure." Appeasement only makes the aggressor stronger. Ask Neville Chamberlain how that worked out for him with Hitler.

I must have played too much KSP, but to me a solar eclipse is a total turn-off. Better hope you got some charged batteries on that ship because solar isn't gonna do you a lot when you launch at night INTO an eclipse and then also synchronize with it by accident during your trip to another planet.

And yeah, that can happen (the game starts with the planets aligned just so that a few weeks after game start an eclipse will occur.