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ForumsDiscussion Forum → Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
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Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
2017-07-24, 2:32 PM #3201
Originally posted by Reid:
So my days of having no stable internet connection and generally not having any pressing business to attend I've stumbled my way onto potentially the worst/most hilarious corner of Reddit. It's called enough_sanders_spam and it's like a hive of the worst/funniest Clinton supporters. Check this out:



On voters:


Half of their time is spent linking Tweets that they like too. It's too good to be true.


I think you'd fit right in on r/incels.
TAKES HINTS JUST FINE, STILL DOESN'T CARE
2017-07-24, 3:02 PM #3202
At the risk of drawing attention to my own insufferabe babble, that's pretty ****ing rude.
2017-07-24, 3:03 PM #3203
I gotta confess, though, who the **** cares about a subreddit like enoughsandersspam

The layers of irrelevence boggle the mind
2017-07-24, 3:11 PM #3204
Originally posted by Roger Spruce:
I think you'd fit right in on r/incels.


T R I G G E R E D

R

I

G

E

R

E

D

D

D
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-24, 5:14 PM #3205
Originally posted by Roger Spruce:
I think you'd fit right in on r/incels.


Yes, daily user here, PM me at /u/daterapeisntreal and let's discuss how women are all awful whores. Shoutout to my buds /u/miscegenationismisandry and /u/bush911staywoke.
2017-07-24, 5:27 PM #3206
Did you type that with your keyboard upside down?
2017-07-24, 6:12 PM #3207
Originally posted by Reid:
I guess I presumed it would be funded by a tax increase. Maybe even a progressive one. I don't know why exactly.


I actually can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not.
Looks like we're not going down after all, so nevermind.
2017-07-24, 7:21 PM #3208
Originally posted by Krokodile:
I actually can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not.


I wasn't. Sanders was the first to promote a 1 trillion infrastructure deal in 2015 from what I can tell. Then with Clinton losing, Democrat rhetoric turning against the Clinton campaign, Nate Silver claiming Sanders looks strong as a 2020 contender, and Ossoff's defeat, I was thinking it might be that liberals were bending the knee towards Sanders' positions. Which would involve more social democratic policy.

I didn't know Trump's figure was 1 trillion and in retrospect this looks more like a pissing match than the Democrats aligning behind anything meaningful.
2017-07-24, 7:49 PM #3209
Check this **** out

https://news.vice.com/story/trump-tells-room-full-of-kids-obamacare-is-death

did we talk about that yet?

also those eyebrows
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-24, 10:21 PM #3210
So at least one kid who is covered because of Obamacare can ask their pediatrician if they are gonna kill them.
2017-07-25, 1:22 AM #3211
Originally posted by Reid:
I wasn't. Sanders was the first to promote a 1 trillion infrastructure deal in 2015 from what I can tell. Then with Clinton losing, Democrat rhetoric turning against the Clinton campaign, Nate Silver claiming Sanders looks strong as a 2020 contender, and Ossoff's defeat, I was thinking it might be that liberals were bending the knee towards Sanders' positions. Which would involve more social democratic policy.

I didn't know Trump's figure was 1 trillion and in retrospect this looks more like a pissing match than the Democrats aligning behind anything meaningful.


Alright, cool.

Also, I'm a huge Sanders fan, but 2020 and the guy is 78, which is what Trump would be at the end of a second term. I know some people live to be over a hundred, but Sanders 2020 sounds like a pipe dream to me. If he actually were to run, though, I guess you'd have to take an especially close look at the potential VP on that ticket.
Looks like we're not going down after all, so nevermind.
2017-07-25, 1:36 AM #3212
If you turn this on its head and see it as an opportunity, this would be the perfect chance to sneak in Al Franken as a VP payload in a Sanders ticket. The GOP's worst nightmare, muahahahaha!
2017-07-25, 3:00 AM #3213
It's going to be Warren. Come on.

.
.
.

(...please, please, please...)
former entrepreneur
2017-07-25, 4:05 AM #3214
So while I am not going to commit to reading 80 pages, my quick thoughts as a Russian / European on the subject:

1) I believe American democracy has failed. Hillary and Trump as the only choices indicate the start of the collapse.
2) I am very concerned Mr. Trump is going to start a war just to stay in power. And there might be no recovering from it.
3) I am also concerned with the whole animosity towards Russia. We will probably be on very different sides of the debate (I support the repatriation of Crimea after what happened in Ukraine, and I blame U.S. foreign policy on the 10,000 people who died fighting a civil war there at least as much as I blame Putin, if not more), but what the U.S. media does (CNN especially) in making Russia "the enemy" is very dangerous I think because what you'll have is a deterioration in bilateral relations potentially to the point of no return simply because of internal power struggles in the US.
4) That said, I'm no fan of Trump's healthcare reform (or DEform more like), mainly because it will leave tons of self-employed people (artists, writers) without a health care plan, apparently.
5) I am not going to argue about point 3 as nobody's going to come out the winner.

I'd also like to add that while I've never been to the States, I've nothing against the people or the culture, just the politics, mostly. Like Elon Musk said, U.S. is the country where the sense of adventure and exploration were distilled, and I really hope your country is going to get out of this crisis that you apparently seem to be in because you have some of the hardest-working and talented folks on the planet.
幻術
2017-07-25, 4:18 AM #3215
So in the spirit of being constructive, I think we need to design a system that works better than the current version of democracy that we've got (mainly: if you've money and power, you can rule the world). I'm not saying I think dictatorships or totalitarian pseudo-democracies are better, but surely there must be a solution that we as humans can come up with before it's too late.

For example: no automatic citizenship, everyone has to earn it for the right to vote (like Starship Troopers), or maybe politicians would not be allowed to own private property of any kind or be involved with any kind of corporate interests, or something. There must be a way!
幻術
2017-07-25, 4:22 AM #3216
Originally posted by Koobie:
5) I am not going to argue about point 3 as nobody's going to come out the winner.


Not everyone here will disagree with you on point 3, I imagine. I disagree with it very strongly, but I was prepared for a civilized exchange on the topic. I make it a point not to attack the person I disagree with.
Looks like we're not going down after all, so nevermind.
2017-07-25, 5:11 AM #3217
Krokodile XVI would be proud. :)

By all means, do voice your opinion. It's just likely I am not going to react to it. Not because I think you will never change my mind, I detest blind conviction, but I ask you this: since the armed coup-de-tat a few years ago, do you think Ukraine is better or worse off, and who was the real winner of this situation?

I think one fact that people forget that Ukrainians and Russians are the same ethnic people; the language is a bit different, but that's about it. It's really tragic what happened but I think eventually things are going to turn back around precisely because we've so much common history no candy mogul is going to destroy it. Just a tragic, senseless loss of life because of what is essentially a Game of Thrones called international diplomacy.

Again, I am not sure how engaged I want to become in a discussion about this, but this 2014 Guardian article more or less sums up my feelings on the matter: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict

My grandad's brother and his family live in Donetsk, they refused to leave. They get shelled. Things are dire. To be honest, things aren't all that better in Kiev now, with the contract murders and whatnot. I'd be genuinely scared for my life / freedom should I enter Ukraine on the account of my passport alone. They actually cancelled the trains from Hungary to Russia through Ukraine these days. Yes, mercs fight on both sides, and there were real-war-style prisoner exchanges (Russia exchanged the captured helicopter pilot for 2 of our service men who were evidently tortured in custody -- just the opinion of seeing a serviceman in a medical bed slowly saying that he was following orders etc., next cut he's a cast on his arm). War is hell.

And Syria. Do you know that Syria was one of the most progressive states in the middle East, with a relatively secular government, prosperous, and quite safe, before a civil war that has now cost the lives of 300,000 people?

What shocks me is that even after the tragedy of 9/11 the apparent support for "moderate" terrorists continues.

Yes, I support the Syrian government as well, because, as ****ty as some of their tactics have apparently been, bringing it down will turn it into another Libya / Iraq, except much worse. Invasion of Iraq, too ... and the worst of it all is that regular Americans and Iraqis died because of what exactly? Weapons of mass destruction? Did it make the world a better place? Quite the opposite, I think.

I mean, where are we now? If not for all this middle Eastern destabilization, would we have ISIS by now? Saddam was no saint, but neither were the people who hanged him. I actually saw that video. It's a disgrace. Look at Vietnam. U.S. waged a war for 19 years because "communists are bad, let's kill them" apparently. Traumatizing people from both sides for generations.

What will stop U.S. from one day going, you know what, we think Finland has too much snow, let's invade?

So, yes. While I respect the people and the national achievements & spirit of the country, I do not view U.S. as peaceful at all, and now with Donald Trump at the helm, who to me seems to lack any sort of empathy or compassion, as well as long-term planning re: what's better for the planet on the whole, I fear the worst. :(
幻術
2017-07-25, 6:59 AM #3218
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Well that's pretty lame / sad, but then there's also /r/justneckbeardthings/, which is a subreddit dedicated to mocking mostly fat white guys for being introverted and awkward, for no other reason I can see except to be mean to one of the few groups in our society that hasn't been deemed a protected class by intellectuals.


I'm not subbed to it, but it's more specifically about mocking people are socially awkward due to their own overbearing arrogance and sense of entitlement, especially to the affections of women. A lot of the people there are actual neck-beards themselves, which isn't a huge surprise. Some are "SJW" types too, which are pretty similar.
2017-07-25, 7:13 AM #3219
Originally posted by Koobie:
3) I am also concerned with the whole animosity towards Russia. We will probably be on very different sides of the debate (I support the repatriation of Crimea after what happened in Ukraine, and I blame U.S. foreign policy on the 10,000 people who died fighting a civil war there at least as much as I blame Putin, if not more), but what the U.S. media does (CNN especially) in making Russia "the enemy" is very dangerous I think because what you'll have is a deterioration in bilateral relations potentially to the point of no return simply because of internal power struggles in the US.


lol maybe you could say that the UN giving loans to Ukraine was engineered to anger Putin, but giving it 50/50 responsibility is just unacceptable. Putin's the primary aggressor here. And Putin also ****ed with our election.
2017-07-25, 7:18 AM #3220
Originally posted by Krokodile:
Alright, cool.

Also, I'm a huge Sanders fan, but 2020 and the guy is 78, which is what Trump would be at the end of a second term. I know some people live to be over a hundred, but Sanders 2020 sounds like a pipe dream to me. If he actually were to run, though, I guess you'd have to take an especially close look at the potential VP on that ticket.


Yeah, I don't expect him to become president, I think my primary hope is that his popularity and rhetoric can force a shift in the Democrat's priorities over the next few years. It's a long shot but eh, who knows.
2017-07-25, 7:20 AM #3221
If I were an American I'd have voted for Sanders too, but only because Elon Musk is not eligible.
幻術
2017-07-25, 7:35 AM #3222
Originally posted by Reid:
lol maybe you could say that the UN giving loans to Ukraine was engineered to anger Putin, but giving it 50/50 responsibility is just unacceptable. Putin's the primary aggressor here. And Putin also ****ed with our election.


We can agree to disagree. That Guardian article I'd linked to sums up my views on the matter more or less.
幻術
2017-07-25, 10:42 AM #3223
Originally posted by Reid:
lol maybe you could say that the UN giving loans to Ukraine was engineered to anger Putin, but giving it 50/50 responsibility is just unacceptable. Putin's the primary aggressor here. And Putin also ****ed with our election.


Yeah, but REID what about the fact that WE INTERVENED in the Russian elections in 1996 and 2012? WE DESERVED IT and Americans have NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. *WE* are the AGGRESSORS.
former entrepreneur
2017-07-25, 10:43 AM #3224
j/k

But did your views actually change here, or what? I'm confused.
former entrepreneur
2017-07-25, 11:24 AM #3225
Originally posted by Eversor:
Yeah, but REID what about the fact that WE INTERVENED in the Russian elections in 1996 and 2012? WE DESERVED IT and Americans have NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. *WE* are the AGGRESSORS.

I've never really held that position. Nor have I tried to apologize for Putin. That's partly why we disagree so much, because I think you read that into what I'm saying. I think Americans, especially in media love to point the finger but don't do enough work to understand (or is complicit/silent about) how our own government doesn't often help these situations.
2017-07-25, 11:47 AM #3226
OK well I'm not going to find what you said by searching through our conversations from several months ago (because, why?). But I think you're not accurately relating some of our earlier conversations. IRCC, what you were saying was, at some point, pretty close to what I just said.

I mean, I remember some flat out denial of Russian interference in the elections from you, so I'd expect your view to have changed at least a little. (And, whatever, I'm not asking how your views have changed in order to hold it against you.)
former entrepreneur
2017-07-25, 11:52 AM #3227
Although looking back for a quick sec I also see how we were talking past each other.
former entrepreneur
2017-07-25, 11:55 AM #3228
Originally posted by Eversor:
OK well I'm not going to find what you said by searching through our conversations from several months ago (because, why?). But I think you're not accurately relating some of our earlier conversations. IRCC, what you were saying was, at some point, pretty close to what I just said.

I mean, I remember some flat out denial of Russian interference in the elections from you, so I'd expect your view to have changed at least a little. (And, whatever, I'm not asking how your views have changed in order to hold it against you.)


Maybe that's true, maybe I was being too one-sided at that point. As for election interference, yeah at first I was skeptical but with time and with enough investigation I changed my mind. Partly at the time I was concerned because Hillary came forward and spoke very boldly about it, and because there was enough mis/disinformation I didn't buy it.
2017-07-25, 11:58 AM #3229
I think we did "interfere" as you call it, yes. It's what countries do. Nothing to do with revenge. According to LA times, US interfered in 81 elections across the globe between 1946 and 2000.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-us-intervention-foreign-elections-20161213-story.html

"That number doesn’t include military coups and regime change efforts following the election of candidates the U.S. didn’t like, notably those in Iran, Guatemala and Chile."

Yah ...

[https://media.giphy.com/media/BE9hJAvwnApeE/giphy.gif]
幻術
2017-07-25, 12:28 PM #3230
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

Check out the united states entry. not even a secret.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-25, 12:42 PM #3231
Never heard of this guy or this book, but the fact that there's no Russian Wiki page entry tells me that he's not that famous (and, em, no, the Russian internet is not censored).

And this is apparently his website: http://arctogaia.com/public/osnovygeo/

Yes, looks like it belongs to someone whose policies have been adopted by our government through and through (it doesn't). I've never seen this guy in the Russian media.

Looks like some crazy fascist scumbag at a quick glance, but reading the Russian Wiki entry on him (there's one on him, if not on his supposedly policy-shaping book), it appears he was in fact in charge of a sociology faculty in Moscow's most prestigious international relations university, which is sad. Thankfully, he was ignominiously fired on 27.06.2014 by the deacon of the university with the explanation that "the university is a place for science, not politics." (ref: https://lenta.ru/news/2014/06/27/dugin/ -- sorry, Russian only).
幻術
2017-07-25, 2:47 PM #3232
Originally posted by Koobie:

Yes, looks like it belongs to someone whose policies have been adopted by our government through and through...



vs.

[quote=that wikipedia article]The book has had a large influence within the Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites[/quote]

emphasis by spook

Also your post reads like the Russian version of someone trying to downplay how much influence Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. has had on American military, police, and foreign policy elites, which is extremely significant and it may be the defining document of American policy.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-25, 2:55 PM #3233
Originally posted by Spook:
vs.



emphasis by spook

Also your post reads like the Russian version of someone trying to downplay how much influence Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. has had on American military, police, and foreign policy elites, which is extremely significant and it may be the defining document of American policy.


Oh my God how I loathe that song. I had no idea how deeply rooted it was in our culture, but it makes sense.
2017-07-25, 3:02 PM #3234
ANDI GLADLY STAND UP
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-25, 4:02 PM #3235
Originally posted by Koobie:
So in the spirit of being constructive, I think we need to design a system that works better than the current version of democracy that we've got (mainly: if you've money and power, you can rule the world). I'm not saying I think dictatorships or totalitarian pseudo-democracies are better, but surely there must be a solution that we as humans can come up with before it's too late.
The current version of democracy is called Democratic Capitalism. The problem with Democratic Capitalism is the "capitalism" part, not the "democratic" part. As long as you have extreme wealth inequality (or, equivalently, unequal say in how the basic economic questions are answered) you will have the same problems, regardless of how you pick your leaders.

That said, in my country the political opposition doesn't get disappeared, and as far as I know my head of state isn't a former gestapo officer with deep ties to organized crime. So I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Quote:
For example: no automatic citizenship, everyone has to earn it for the right to vote (like Starship Troopers)
Who would you trust to decide whether you should vote or not?

Quote:
or maybe politicians would not be allowed to own private property of any kind or be involved with any kind of corporate interests, or something. There must be a way!
The US has two big problems here: there are no campaign spending limits, and congressmen / aides are paid quite poorly compared to industry executives. These factors mean congress is especially beholden to current lobby money to run campaigns, and future promises of employment.

Congressmen make about $175k. At least three people on this forum are paid more than congressmen, that I know of. I would never say it's easy to get that kind of job, but it's a lot easier to get hired at e.g. Google than it is to get elected to congress, I'd bet.

Basically that means congressmen have no actual incentive to stay where they are unless they are corrupt. And it shows, plainly, in their policies.

But, well, it's better than an autocratic regime run by the secret police.
2017-07-25, 4:30 PM #3236
Why am I reading so much about ICO's in the last few weeks? Is this the beginning of a new bubble? Are we gonna see massive amounts of fraud?

Didn't have a chance to read it, but the SEC made a move to regulate:

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2017-131
2017-07-25, 4:35 PM #3237
My understanding is that they were an unregulated IPO without underwriting, one of the many Bay Area "X but without laws" business models. If the SEC has ruled them securities the ICOs will probably stop immediately.
2017-07-25, 4:48 PM #3238
That sounds like good news for Coinlist:

Quote:
ICOs are obviously a new and interesting form of funding for blockchain-based protocols. But it’s not clear that all of them comply with U.S. securities laws or that all of them are companies that have good native use cases for new coins. So, we wanted to use a high-quality coin and team to trailblaze a legal and compliant ICO.


Quote:
Protocol Labs, a company that builds blockchain-based protocols laid out its ambitious roadmap and finally got around to announcing the seed investment USV and others made in it last year. My partner Brad Burnham wrote a blog post on USV.com explaining why we are so excited about Protocol Labs.

Protocol Labs will be launching a token offering soon for Filecoin which powers a blockchain based storage network on top of its IPFS protocol.

The Filecoin offering will be managed on a new platform called Coinlist which was built by Protocol Labs and AngelList.

Coinlist will utilize a new kind of security called a SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) that has been constructed to comply with existing securities regulations.


http://avc.com/2017/05/funding-friday-coinlist/
2017-07-26, 8:02 AM #3239
You're hearing so much about ICOs because we are already well into the ICO bubble, and probably past the peak if anyone learned their lesson with Coindash. Of course, nobody learned their lesson after The DAO, it seems, so that probably means nothing. Hopefully this SEC report will slow down all of the college students trying to collect tens of millions based on a white paper and nothing else, but I'm not too hopeful since there's a whole world of people who think the SEC can't come after them if they aren't American.

Either way, the only projects I am interested in watching (and the one ICO I participated in, plus tokens bought after the fact) will be able to comply in any way necessary because they are run by (relative) growed ups. None of this will work after the collapse of western civilization later this year anyway so it's no big deal.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-26, 8:30 AM #3240
Originally posted by Spook:
None of this will work after the collapse of western civilization later this year anyway so it's no big deal.


What's going to happen?
former entrepreneur
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