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Donald Trump’s Presidency 2017 - 2021 AND 2025-202X

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mandown

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,901
9,192
Transylvania 90210
Some thoughts are rolling round in my dome and not well formed yet, but I want to puke them out to help structure them.

Is the current political environment a representation of singularity? In technology, there is an idea that each new technology benefits from the one before it, making things "progress" at an exponential rate, which functionally leaves the old in the dust of the new. It is a form of darwinism, where the strong survive and procreate.

Does thought progress the same way? I hate to use the term "intelligence" because that gets a bit Hitler-y. But let's say that progressive ideas or "thought" develops based on new information like technology. If ideas are created, are they not tools for developing new ideas, which can beget more new ideas faster? I would hazard a guess that the closer you are to the vanguard of these thoughts/ideas/information the more likely you are to expand your thought into new areas. I would imagine that this "thought" doesn't trickle down quickly and easily to all, and that the "few" progressive thinkers accelerate and pull away from "many" conservative thinkers. When faced with radical new ideas, do the conservative thinkers cling to what they know for comfort rather than adopt strange new, nontraditional ideas?

Assuming not all people will adopt new thoughts, and knowing that people live a long time, is it not reasonable to expect there is a significant portion of the population which will not rapidly embrace "new" thoughts? As the new thoughts progress faster and faster, doesn't this create a greater divide between the new and old schools? Not wanting to be left behind, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that the old school would dig in and resist change, in order to try keeping things consistent with their worldview?

I suppose I'm driving at a the idea that there is a large number of conservative thinkers who don't want radical change, and are willing to support political candidates who only seek the types of changes which will hold the status quo. Opposite them are the progressives who start pulling away, chasing new thoughts, and the farther out you go in the name of progress the more it moves the midline of the fence that splits conservatives and progressives in terms of headcount. At some point, the less-progressive thinkers don't progress fast enough and find themselves in the conservative camp, supporting candidates they don't care for, but provide some degree of comfort on key issues.
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
22,112
12,864
I have no idea where I am
mandown said:
Some thoughts are rolling round in my dome and not well formed yet, but I want to puke them out to help structure them.

Is the current political environment a representation of singularity? In technology, there is an idea that each new technology benefits from the one before it, making things "progress" at an exponential rate, which functionally leaves the old in the dust of the new. It is a form of darwinism, where the strong survive and procreate.

Does thought progress the same way? I hate to use the term "intelligence" because that gets a bit Hitler-y. But let's say that progressive ideas or "thought" develops based on new information like technology. If ideas are created, are they not tools for developing new ideas, which can beget more new ideas faster? I would hazard a guess that the closer you are to the vanguard of these thoughts/ideas/information the more likely you are to expand your thought into new areas. I would imagine that this "thought" doesn't trickle down quickly and easily to all, and that the "few" progressive thinkers accelerate and pull away from "many" conservative thinkers. When faced with radical new ideas, do the conservative thinkers cling to what they know for comfort rather than adopt strange new, nontraditional ideas?

Assuming not all people will adopt new thoughts, and knowing that people live a long time, is it not reasonable to expect there is a significant portion of the population which will not rapidly embrace "new" thoughts? As the new thoughts progress faster and faster, doesn't this create a greater divide between the new and old schools? Not wanting to be left behind, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that the old school would dig in and resist change, in order to try keeping things consistent with their worldview?

I suppose I'm driving at a the idea that there is a large number of conservative thinkers who don't want radical change, and are willing to support political candidates who only seek the types of changes which will hold the status quo. Opposite them are the progressives who start pulling away, chasing new thoughts, and the farther out you go in the name of progress the more it moves the midline of the fence that splits conservatives and progressives in terms of headcount. At some point, the less-progressive thinkers don't progress fast enough and find themselves in the conservative camp, supporting candidates they don't care for, but provide some degree of comfort on key issues.
Click to expand...
What you have described is commonly referred to the South, or my home. Traditionally NC has been one of the last parts of the country to catch up on anything. And that's because the conservatives here are heavily resistant to change.
 
mandown

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,901
9,192
Transylvania 90210
AngryMetalsmith said:
What you have described is commonly referred to the South, or my home. Traditionally NC has been one of the last parts of the country to catch up on anything. And that's because the conservatives here are heavily resistant to change.
Click to expand...
The South May be a small scale model of this. Perhaps a Trumpian/Trumpesque candidate was bound to emerge as the split between progressive and conservative moves into progressive territory by the nature of being progressive, which forces more and more people to consider themselves relative conservatives.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,912
19,243
Riding the baggage carousel.
Thought as Moore's Law?

I doubt it's that complicated. People resist change, because new is scary. Lizard brain doesn't like different, lizard brain doesn't like new, lizard brain doesn't like non-conformists. Factor in 'religion' which gives people the illusion that all the questions either don't need to be asked, are possibly dangerous, or are already answered, and that stymies a willingness to accept new ideas even more. Even more radically, the suggestion that a person might be wrong, is a foundation shaker, and a place a lot of ego's simply will not let a person go.

I also don't think that a lot of "new ideas" are new at all. How old is "The Golden Rule"? My philosophy professor called it a "universal principal". Moral philosophy is as old as sentient man. Do unto others isn't a new idea, it's just that for at least as long it's been "Do unto others, except for those guys", because different.

I'm relatively certain it's that simple.

How would I wan't to be treated if I was Gay?

How would I wan't to be treated if I was fleeing violence in Guatemala?

How would I want to be treated if I was schizophrenic?

How would I want to be treated if I was black?

How would I want to be treated if I lost my job?

How would I want to be treated if I was homeless, and/or poor?

How would I want to be treated if I was sick?

How would I wan't to be treated if I had an unexpected pregnancy?

No body is going to answer any of those questions with "Hopefully I'd be treated like shit and my community/government will treat me like a fucking leper!". Even the Bible, poisonous as it is, gets it right.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."-Luke 10:27

Except when it's people they don't know, or identify with, because lizard brain. Conservatism, at it's heart, is an inability to experience empathy with a stranger.
 
Last edited:
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,063
22,091
Sleazattle
AngryMetalsmith said:
What you have described is commonly referred to the South, or my home. Traditionally NC has been one of the last parts of the country to catch up on anything. And that's because the conservatives here are heavily resistant to change.
Click to expand...

It just ain't the south dude. Seattle is about as liberal as it comes, but you get outside of the city and things are very different. Things go from hippy liberals to lifted truck drivers whose entire wardrobe consists of Grunt Wear/AR-15/Trump themed t-shirts.
 
boostindoubles

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
8,444
7,007
Yakistan
www.wired.com

Trump Tweeted a Sensitive Photo. Internet Sleuths Decoded It

Within hours of the president's post, amateur satellite trackers had hunted down the secret spy satellite that photographed a charred Iranian launchpad.
www.wired.com www.wired.com

“The US DOD has released reconnaissance satellite imagery on a number of occasions, but in all cases those were deliberately degraded images,” says Marco Langbroek, an archaeologist who runs an amateur spy-satellite tracking station in the Netherlands and who helped determine that USA 224 took the photo. “This is the first time since the 1984 leak that an image with this level of detail was released.”

Tracing the photo to a classified satellite was a masterclass in internet sleuthing. Christiaan Triebert, a journalist for The New York Times' visual investigation team, used the shadows in the photo to determine a one-hour window in which the photo was taken. Michael Thompson, a graduate student in astrodynamics at Purdue University, pointed out that USA 224 was directly over the Iranian launch facility during the timeframe identified by Triebert. Langbroek then used these initial observations to conduct a refined analysis that provided an exact location of the satellite at the time of the photo.

Since the trajectories of classified satellites are not published by the Department of Defense, Langbroek had to rely on orbit data collected by a global network of amateur spy-satellite hunters. This community obsessively documents the movements of classified objects in space, often using little more than binoculars, a stopwatch, and a basic knowledge of orbital mechanics. But despite the low-tech observation techniques, their predictions of satellite movements are often accurate to within a few seconds.

Armed with USA 224’s orbital trajectory, Langbroek calculated the angle at which the satellite viewed the Iranian launchpad based on the ellipticity of the platform as seen in the photo. (Since the launchpad is a near-perfect circle when viewed from directly overhead, the viewing angle can be determined based on how the circle is stretched along its axes in the photo.) Once Langbroek knew the angle, he could pinpoint the satellite’s exact position in the sky.
These calculations suggested that the satellite was roughly 385 kilometers away from the launchpad when it took the photo. When Langbroek plugged his values into Systems Tool Kit, a software package that can simulate the position and views of satellites, it produced a nearly identical image to the one posted by Trump—albeit at a much lower resolution.
 
rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,758
12,525
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Hoisted By His Own Petard?
Do you think he sees his hand in this?

www.cnn.com

Trump has private concerns over the economy despite public displays of confidence

Even as he continues to publicly tout the strength of the US economy, President Donald Trump privately has begun to express concern over what has thus far been his strongest political asset. In recent weeks, Trump has instructed aides with increasing urgency to develop proposals to fortify...
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
 
rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,758
12,525
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Toshi

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,840
8,813
rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,758
12,525
In the cleavage of the Tetons
So, about that 4-6% GDP growth under Trump...


Uh-oh:

Latest forecast: 1.5 percent — September 4, 2019

The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2019 is 1.5 percent on September 4, down from 1.7 percent on September 3. After this morning’s international trade report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the nowcast of third-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and third-quarter real nonresidential equipment investment growth decreased from 3.0 percent and -1.7 percent, respectively, to 2.8 percent and -2.4 percent, respectively. The nowcast of the contribution of net exports to third-quarter real GDP growth decreased from -0.26 percentage points to -0.33 percentage points.




https://www.frbatlanta.org/cqer/research/gdpnow.aspx


Q: Will the Fed Atlanta soon be forced to "disavow" its forecast, too?
 
Sandwich

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,876
7,118
borcester rhymes
Not going to lie, the NOAA weird shit and the antitrust lawsuit against car mfgs trying to protect the environment is terrifying stuff. If they want to lose competitive advantage by agreeing to strict standards, then that's their "loss".
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,063
22,091
Sleazattle
Sandwich said:
Not going to lie, the NOAA weird shit and the antitrust lawsuit against car mfgs trying to protect the environment is terrifying stuff. If they want to lose competitive advantage by agreeing to strict standards, then that's their "loss".
Click to expand...
The antitrust thing is legally bizaro. Would also imply that every industrial standard is illegal. ANSI, SAE, metric system etc.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,212
10,741
AK
Westy said:
The antitrust thing is legally bizaro. Would also imply that every industrial standard is illegal. ANSI, SAE, metric system etc.
Click to expand...
BB92, SuperBoost, MetricShocks, Dub...you may be onto something here.
 
kidwoo

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Aug 25, 2003
42,149
13,358
Squirtin ketchup n' mustard on charred flesh
mandown said:
Some thoughts are rolling round in my dome and not well formed yet, but I want to puke them out to help structure them.

Is the current political environment a representation of singularity? In technology, there is an idea that each new technology benefits from the one before it, making things "progress" at an exponential rate, which functionally leaves the old in the dust of the new. It is a form of darwinism, where the strong survive and procreate.

Does thought progress the same way? I hate to use the term "intelligence" because that gets a bit Hitler-y. But let's say that progressive ideas or "thought" develops based on new information like technology. If ideas are created, are they not tools for developing new ideas, which can beget more new ideas faster? I would hazard a guess that the closer you are to the vanguard of these thoughts/ideas/information the more likely you are to expand your thought into new areas. I would imagine that this "thought" doesn't trickle down quickly and easily to all, and that the "few" progressive thinkers accelerate and pull away from "many" conservative thinkers. When faced with radical new ideas, do the conservative thinkers cling to what they know for comfort rather than adopt strange new, nontraditional ideas?

Assuming not all people will adopt new thoughts, and knowing that people live a long time, is it not reasonable to expect there is a significant portion of the population which will not rapidly embrace "new" thoughts? As the new thoughts progress faster and faster, doesn't this create a greater divide between the new and old schools? Not wanting to be left behind, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that the old school would dig in and resist change, in order to try keeping things consistent with their worldview?

I suppose I'm driving at a the idea that there is a large number of conservative thinkers who don't want radical change, and are willing to support political candidates who only seek the types of changes which will hold the status quo. Opposite them are the progressives who start pulling away, chasing new thoughts, and the farther out you go in the name of progress the more it moves the midline of the fence that splits conservatives and progressives in terms of headcount. At some point, the less-progressive thinkers don't progress fast enough and find themselves in the conservative camp, supporting candidates they don't care for, but provide some degree of comfort on key issues.
Click to expand...

I feel you brother. I went through the same shit when 27.5 wheels showed up for some reason.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,063
22,091
Sleazattle
kidwoo said:
ANSI, SAE, NIST etc aren't companies trying outdo someone.

Actually NIST kind of is........hmmm
Click to expand...
All those organizations consist of representatives from companies that try to push standards that give an advantage to their companies.
 
Toshi

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,840
8,813
www.cnn.com

Exclusive: US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017

In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

>>>>>

Washington (CNN)In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.

A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.

The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,912
19,243
Riding the baggage carousel.
Toshi said:
www.cnn.com

Exclusive: US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017

In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

>>>>>

Washington (CNN)In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN.

A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy.

The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. The intelligence, concerning ISIS in Syria, had been provided by Israel.

The disclosure to the Russians by the President, though not about the Russian spy specifically, prompted intelligence officials to renew earlier discussions about the potential risk of exposure, according to the source directly involved in the matter.
Click to expand...
MAGA!
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,912
19,243
Riding the baggage carousel.
But that's unpossible! Brain's Orange God has made everything perfect and there are now zero Mexicans taking all the good jobs from honest Christian white heterosexuals. Fake news for coastal cucks!
 
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