Voluntarist
Member

It's still in the early stages, but this was an announcement from HTS today: Syrian opposition bans forced wearing of hijab

My response would fit better here than in the "Mining Asteroids" thread ... this thread is more general purpose. Though I was an engineering consultant at NASA/JPL for six years, I always refused to sign on to the "five United Nations treaties on outer space" (read about them here). 1) Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies 2) Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space 3) Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects 4) Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space 5) Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Well, OK, it was never like I was given the option.

As preemptive pardons are being discussed for others besides just Hunter: Biden's 'Preemptive Pardons' Once Again Prove That the Democrats' Accusations Are Confessions That Crimes Have Been Committed By Batya Ungar-Sargon (Self identifies as left-wing populist)

Everyone is pardoned for what they do on the night of The Purge.

French government collapses

Don't forget the bathrooms ... non-gendered of course

Since Merrick Garland appointed the special prosecutor and approved this prosecution, shouldn't some action be taken against him for pursuing a politically motivated prosecution? President Biden and most of the Democrats seem to be saying it was, after all, a politically motivated prosecution. The attorney General can be impeached. I can't see why any Democrat in Congress wouldn't vote for impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate. Hold their feet to the fire and make them admit that it wasn't politically motivated. === Edited === I guess it's a good thing the Republicans held up approval for his appointment to the Supreme Court. You certainly wouldn't want a corrupt individual like that on the highest court in the land. === Second Edit === Call Joe Biden as a witness

Jeesh, how lame. After moving the cart, you're suppose to tip the cart over and leave it there "wheels up". And don't forget; go into the restroom in the store, take a dump, and exit the stall without flushing. Cripes, why is this so difficult to understand?

You need a couple more zeros there. Not billions. Not tens of billions. Not hundreds of billions. Trillions! Yeah, that's the one. Right up there with the order of magnitude the federal debt is measured in.

Not just that, but it also had to meet the requirements of every nation that subscribed to development (United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Norway, and Denmark). And how do they encourage Congress to finance it - well, they distribute production so that every state and as many congressional districts as possible have a piece of the production pie.

Somebody must have hitched them together like that. When I pulled them out of the cart corral, I spread them evenly throughout the driving lanes in the parking lot (on their sides). I get a kick watching cars trying to slalom through them.

Where's the Pardon for Thousands ... Locked Up for What Hunter Did?

Well, you know, if we're putting things behind us: Manchin calls on Biden to pardon Trump

Crime and Justice News

Well, fine then. Let's get rid of that question on the questionnaire; and any laws pertaining to it. Zero chance of that happening. And what about Trump's charges in New York? Who else, other than Trump and those associated with him, has been prosecuted for those? Would anyone not named Donald Trump have been prosecuted for it? Doesn't that make it a politically-motivated prosecution?

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-28) is from the Upper East Side in New York City and has probably never been Upstate except to see the leaves in autumn ... so I doubt she understands that much of the rest of the state has no problems with Trump (as buck000 tried to show - I think the following is the same image). All she's gonna be able to do is run to the end of her New York City chain and bark. I think you could probably get most of the Upstate counties (even the blue ones) to go along with allowing New York City to secede and join Canada though ... I think even Long Island would go along with that.

Not sure, he (they?) does wear dresses though (https://jamiealeph.livejournal.com/). May just be a cross-dresser.

Nope. There were roughly 1,700 nuclear warheads in Ukraine, and all were transferred, intact, to Russia. This decision was part of the Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine received security assurances from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal. In large part, that security assurance is why the situation now is what it is. As for the black market - it's no small consideration. As the USSR fell apart, the Ukrainian Mafia was "negotiating" with former USSR military for conventional arms located in Ukraine, which were then being sold to terrorist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Yeah, when I was born (in 1953) Crimea was a part of Russia (and reamined so until 1954). It had been so since 1783 (when it had been annexed by Tsarina Catherine the Great). But no, Khrushchev was not Ukrainian, he was born in Russia and remained Russian - though his family moved to "The Ukraine" when he was 15. He was pulled into the Ukrainian Communist Party as a non-voting member due to his expertise in mining, and later became a full-fledged member. So, it's safe to say that he had close ties with Ukrainian leaders, though he was never Ukrainian. As to the "why" of ceding Crimea to "The Ukraine" - three reasons: 1) Officially it was to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's union with Russia as a show of goodwill and a sign of unity and trust between the Ukrainian and Russian people. 2) The USSR had plans to turn Crimea into a profit center as a tourist destination. But one of the problems that Crimea has is insufficient water to sustain it's population - and Ukraine was more amenable in supporting the construction of the North Crimean Canal (from Ukraine into Crimea) if Crimea itself were in Ukrainian hands (at least on paper). 3) Khrushchev used it as a political chess piece to build support for becoming Premier of the USSR

I replied simply so that the quoted portion could be posted again. But I guess I have to say something to pay the dues, as it were. ... sh1t! Is something new so difficult to come up with? I can't think of anything. Guess I'll just have to keep posting here.

Technically, the the Democrats only have 47 votes. There are four Independents, of which Manchin and Sinema sometimes vote against the Democrats, for instance: - Sinema voted with the Republicans in opposing Amir H. Ali, of the District of Columbia, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia - Manchin voted with the Republicans in opposing Sarah French Russell, of Connecticut, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Connecticut, and also in opposing Embry J. Kidd, of Florida, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit The key is that the Republicans only have 49 votes in the Senate and are not the makers of their own destiny. They need both Manchin and Sinema to overcome the Kamala tie-breaker. It seems, though, that they don't both vote against the Dems at the same time on these confirmations. But yeah, the blame can't be laid at the feet of the Republicans because they don't have enough votes on their own.

The site began slowing around 11NOV2024. As far as I can tell, 11NOV2024 was also Occam's Banana last posting: Joe Rogan Experience #2225 - Dave Smith Do you suppose he's been sucked into the matrix, and that's what's causing the slowdown?

Here are the actual numbers from the XITTER post from "The Vigilant Fox": King County, WA has a population of 2,271,380 as of July 2023 ... so the excess death numbers in the XITTER post are quite small in comparison. So while a "surge" of 1,236% sounds horrendous, it amounts to 0.006% of those who were treated with the Covid vaccine. With excess death numbers that small, it seems like real researchers who were intent upon showing a correlation with the Covid vaccine would have tried to show an actual linkage between having been vaccinated and dying from cardiac arrest; you know, instead of living in the same county as lots of people who have been vaccinated. Because of the lame way the study was performed, you have no idea if those that died from cardiac arrest were from the pool of vaccinated (~2,225,952 people) or the pool of unvaccinated (~45,427 people). Both pools dwarf the excess death numbers. An equally plausible hypothesis to the excess deaths would be that they came from unvaccinated individuals with underlying medical conditions (like obesity, smoking, diabetes, etc) which made them particularly vulnerable to Covid and suffered heart attacks due to that. You just don't know until you find out if those "excess deaths" individuals had been vaccinated or not. The people who performed the study were just too fuking lazy to do that (or maybe they did and are just withholding that information because it doesn't bolster their hypothesis - that's the way scientific research is done these days). It just blows me away that otherwise intelligent people put any credence in studies as lame as this one.

Gawd, I hate half-assed correlation studies. What's the first question you ought to ask? Mine would be: how many other counties in the United states have had a 98% vaccination rate, and what do their "fatal heart attack" rates look like? Or, how about we check vaccination rates per county and see what the corresponding heart attack rates are? Start with the counties with vaccination rates over 90% - that ought to give you a warm fuzzy. If the 90% rate pans out, then expand the study to other rates. D'ya remember that Crocodile Dundee movie where a mugger approaches Mick with a six inch switchblade and tries to mug him? And then Dundee looks at the blade and says, "That's not a knife, (pulls out his 18 inch bush knife and continues) now, that's a knife." So if you're going to use a correlation study - then use a real one. I mean, really? Peer-reviewed study; and no one raised my question from above? I'm just a lowly engineer, and it's the first question I would have asked as a peer reviewer. The title of the thread ought to start out with, "Cherry-picked data reveals that ..."

And the Democrats and MSM talked of Trump being a fascist dictator? What gives Biden (or any president) the authority to forgive loans to foreign governments?

Ahem! Pronoun, and verb conjugation?? Plural?? === Edited === If we were talking Swordy, then plural may have been appropriate

I guess it had to happen - damn monkeys must have made it to St. Louis. KSDK is reporting 97 E.coli cases linked to five events catered by the same company that is evidently employing migrant rhesus monkeys.

I could get all "conspiracy theorist" and say it was all a plan to get Gaetz out of Congress; but he seems to get along well with Trump, so that's probably not the explanation. Who's going to replace him in Congress? Aaron Dimmock, who primaried Gaetz (Gaetz 72.6%, Dimmock 27.4%) is considering running. He apparently has ties to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (a McCarthy-connected PAC spent $3 million to back Dimmock - highlighting Gaetz's misconduct allegations). The Florida Phoenix is reporting six other Republicans, one Democrat and and one other possibility: 1) Northwest Florida House Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman 2) Northwest Florida House Republican Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman 3) Keith Gross, who primaried Rick Scott in 2024. 4) John Frankman, former U.S. Army Captain and Green Beret, who was forced out of the military for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine 5) Kevin Gaffney, a teacher at Rocky Bayou Christian School in Niceville who describes himself as a “Reagan Republican” and a fiscal and social conservative.