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I wonder what the emotional response to upgrading to a newer version will be.

If you feel nothing more than when you upgrade your phone, what level of emotional attachment can the robot really have achieved? On the other hand if you're so attached that you don't want to upgrade, there's no long term business model.

Perhaps the answer will be to treat upgrades as body transplants, so the "personality" or your robot is simply moved to a new shell.

Given Japanese culture, I suspect quite a bit.

Given shrines were set up to mourn the Sony Aibom the Japanese can get quite attached to their robots. I mean, after those Aibos started dying, and shrines set up so their owners can mourn them, there are businesses set up to fix them. Given the reason Sony stopped servicing them was a lack of parts, those dead Aibos often donate their "organs" to keep others alive.

And given it uses a smartphone as a backend, I suspect this Toyota bot will not be upgraded for some time, but even so, I imagine many people would buy one and keep it a long time. Sony had several models of Aibo, after all.

So, would you believe James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia Hypothesis and one of the earliest and loudest proponents of AGW ? He now says,

Anyone who tries to predict more than five to 10 years is a bit of an idiot, because so many things can change unexpectedly.” But isn’t that exactly what he did last time we met? “I know,” he grins teasingly. “But I’ve grown up a bit since then.”

Lovelock now believes that “CO2 is going up, but nowhere near as fast as they thought it would. The computer models just weren’t reliable. In fact,” he goes on breezily, “I’m not sure the whole thing isn’t crazy, this climate change. You’ve only got to look at Singapore. It’s two-and-a-half times higher than the worst-case scenario for climate change, and it’s one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in.”

Furthermore, even the Far Left Pravda-clone of The Guardian is trying to salvage some credibility now after promoting the false alarmism for so long:
https://www.theguardian.com/en...

I cannot get a more Left-leaning source than this, and even they have finally realized that the climate is VASTLY more complex than a simple response to CO2 (let alone anthropogenic CO2). The number of you science denying alarmists is slowly decreasing, but you will cling to your cult of anthropogenic climate sin as long as you can. The majority of other scientists are no longer alarmed by the mostly-natural temperature increases since the end of the Little Ice Age.

I'm trying to save you from deep and total future embarrassment. Now the interesting thing is that you accepted the facts I presented earlier. It was only later when I presented the "why" of why the United Nations bureaucrats are pushing the falsified CAGW Hypothesis that you struggled. Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert, and trained hypnotist) calls this "cognitive dissonance", you understand the facts but cannot reconcile them with the indoctrination you've received your whole life. You cannot yet step outside the Matrix and see the memes that are used to control you. Hopefully one day you will. Not everyone who claims to be doing good and working in your interest is actually working in your interest - and the bigger a collective group is, the less they care about your individual wants, needs and desires. Just saying. Peace, and Liberty !

So, would you believe James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia Hypothesis and one of the earliest and loudest proponents of AGW who now says,

Anyone who tries to predict more than five to 10 years is a bit of an idiot, because so many things can change unexpectedly.” But isn’t that exactly what he did last time we met? “I know,” he grins teasingly. “But I’ve grown up a bit since then.”

Lovelock now believes that “CO2 is going up, but nowhere near as fast as they thought it would. The computer models just weren’t reliable. In fact,” he goes on breezily, “I’m not sure the whole thing isn’t crazy, this climate change. You’ve only got to look at Singapore. It’s two-and-a-half times higher than the worst-case scenario for climate change, and it’s one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in.”

Furthermore, even the Far Left Pravda-clone of The Guardian is trying to salvage some credibility now after promoting the false alarmism for so long:
https://www.theguardian.com/en...

I cannot get a more Left-leaning source than this, and even they have finally realized that the climate is VASTLY more complex than a simple response to CO2 (let alone anthropogenic CO2). The number of you science denying alarmists is slowly decreasing, but you will cling to your cult of anthropogenic climate sin as long as you can. The majority of other scientists are no longer alarmed by the mostly-natural temperature increases since the end of the Little Ice Age.

I'm trying to save you from deep and total future embarrassment, since you're a such slow learner - and you think you know the Scientific Method better than a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Such arrogance !

So, would you believe James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia Hypothesis and one of the earliest and loudest proponents of AGW who now says,

Anyone who tries to predict more than five to 10 years is a bit of an idiot, because so many things can change unexpectedly.” But isn’t that exactly what he did last time we met? “I know,” he grins teasingly. “But I’ve grown up a bit since then.”

Lovelock now believes that “CO2 is going up, but nowhere near as fast as they thought it would. The computer models just weren’t reliable. In fact,” he goes on breezily, “I’m not sure the whole thing isn’t crazy, this climate change. You’ve only got to look at Singapore. It’s two-and-a-half times higher than the worst-case scenario for climate change, and it’s one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in.”

? Furthermore, even the Far Left Pravda-clone of The Guardian is trying to salvage some credibility now after promoting the false alarmism for so long:
https://www.theguardian.com/en...

I cannot get a more Left-leaning source than this, and even they have finally realized that the climate is VASTLY more complex than a simple response to CO2 (let alone anthropogenic CO2). The number of you science denying alarmists is slowly decreasing, but you will cling to your cult of anthropogenic climate sin as long as you can. The majority of other scientists are no longer alarmed by the mostly-natural temperature increases since the end of the Little Ice Age.

The fact is that the UK has been told they have to not only allow him his freedom, but have to also compensate him for the illegal detention they've put him under.

By a nonbinding body (WGAD) that rules in favour of almost all plaintiffs that come before it (usually unanimously, unlike in this case). Both the UK and Sweden have stated the WGAD ruling will have no bearing on the case at hand. Assange raised it in his most recent appeal with the Swedish courts (yet another in a long row of them). He lost.

The fact is that Sweden has and can interview him in the embassy, and were dragging their feet (read:political corruption).

Read: Ecuador is demanding that Sweden sign some sort of treaty - the exact details of which have not been publicly disclosed by either side - before they'll allow the prosecutors in, something that Sweden is against. This has been a stalemate for the past 16 months. Before that, Sweden had been insisting on the interview taking place in Sweden in order to follow the standard Swedish process, which is: 1) the initial investigatory phase is carried out, including any interviews 2) if the prosecutor believes charges to be likely and the subject will not voluntarily enter custody, the prosecutor recommends to a judge that the subject be formally anklagad (suspected of/charged with a crime); 3) the judge issues a warrant and the subject is brought into custody; 4) the subject is interviewed (for a second time, if there were interviews conducted in the initial phase), with every matter they are to be charged with put be put forth to them; 5) the subject is formally åtalad (charged/indicted); this begins a time limit on when the subject must be tried (although it can be extended if there are conditions that prevent the person from being tried immediately); and 6) the subject is tried (this cannot occur in absentia). As a general rule, while investigatory interviews are conducted anywhere, final interviews are conducted in Swedish custody, so that if the person is åtalad there is no risk that they could escape trial. This was the route sought by prosecutor Ny up until 2015, when - due to the shortage of time remaining on the lesser charges, and criticism from a lower court for her not seeking less conventional options to try to break the deadlock, Ny sought an interview in the Ecuadorian embassy. The deadlock on this latter issue remains to this day.

The anklagad/åtalad distinction has often been a stumbling ground in the english-speaking press because it doesn't directly map to stages in US or British legal systems, which generally only recognize one stage of charging, while Sweden has two (one to bring a subject into custody, and one to initiate a trial). However, there is significant jurisprudence that anklagad equates to being charged within the context of an EAW - whatever language one chooses to use for other contexts.

A general summary of peer-reviewed rankings of the Swedish legal system on different aspects can be found here, more detailed information about what the categories mean and how they're assessed here (extremely detailed here and here) , and more detailed information in general here.

Why didn't that happen when the top Federal rate was 90%?

Because very, very few people paid the top federal rate, because of all the loopholes. When a high tax rate without all the loopholes was passed recently in France, people did leave the country. You can get details here.

1.5% of Cubans are below the poverty line. 14.5% of Americans. Cubans have more doctors and dentists per capita than the US, and medical and dental care is free. And all this is despite the US trying to grind them into dust after both a CIA-backed invasion and 2 CIA-funded attempts to kill Castro with the help of the mafia.

One of the consequences of the trade embargo is the dropping of imports of sugar made from sugar cane. So now we have high-fructose corn syrup, and an obesiyy epidemic. In the end, the embargo harmed more Americans than Cubans. Welcome to yet another example of the law of unintended consequences.

Please cite your long list of examples of these toys being used in such a dangerous way

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-drone-near-miss-lax-20160318-story.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/07/08/two-drones-nearly-collide-with-nypd-helicopter-operators-arrested/#1294615f1db8
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/09/travel/unmanned-drone-danger/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/23/champion-skier-marcel-hirscher-has-near-miss-as-drone-falls-out-of-sky
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30369701
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/europe/uk-drone-near-miss/index.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/faa-reports-more-aircraft-drone-near-misses-1417025519
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/29/ny-bound-pilot-swerves-to-avoid-collission-with-drone.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3251543/Drone-owners-forced-register-devices-tracking-database-four-near-misses-aircraft-past-month-alone.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12180261/Number-of-near-misses-involving-drones-and-aircraft-quadruples-in-one-year.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-37042796
http://gothamist.com/2016/09/20/man_maybe_arrested_drone_crash.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/us/white-house-drone.html?_r=0
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/05/25/drone-crashes-hits-2-people-during-marblehead-parade/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/22/world/drug-drone-crashes-us-mexico-border/index.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/drone-crashes-stands-u-s-open-article-1.2348324
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/07/02/drone-crashes-in-brighton-mans-backyard/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/07/drone-crashes-into-yellowstone-hot-spring/13721055/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/drone-crash-university-kentucky-football-game-could-land-student-hot-water/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/drone-crashes-empire-state-building-man-arrested/story?id=36729221

... all wanted to get out of town quick to go home and campaign for their own re-elections (1/3 the senators elected every 2 years) or to support others in their parties in the elections.

As a result, the Senate whipped-up a "continuing resolution" bill to keep the government open and running at FY2016 levels until December, matched it with the equivalent bill from the House, and sent it to Obama for a signature, then they all abandoned DC. They'll be back after the November elections. At this point, only this court action can block Obama from giving up the ICANN oversight to the globalists, and giving places like Saudi Arabia as much input into internet control as places like the US and UK.... you know, the sort that Arrests a kid for talking on a split-screen on YouTube with a GIRL

THIS is what makes these globalist do-gooder orgs (like the UN) so dangerous: they treat all nations equally no matter whether they are run by evil rat dictators like North Korea, twisted evil monarchies like Saudi Arabia, twisted evil theocracies like Iran, or demoracies like the US, UK, France, Japan, Australia etc. It's why a Democracy like Israel which allows Jews, Christians, atheists, Muslims, etc to be citizens and even to serve in parliament is continually out-voted by 50+ Muslim-run nations where Christians, Jews, Atheists, etc are not welcome, and depending on the form of Islam: gays are jailed/killed, women are prohibited from doing things like driving cars or going to school, Bibles and Christmas decorations are forbidden and anybody with them is jailed...

there's some activists out there that manage to pull off events that gain world news attention for specific causes without being physically there.

Even if the actual impact of the event itself is nil, they still managed to put issues on the other side of the planet into the global spotlight.

They feel compelled to share their experience online. This is starting to sound like people who like to point out they don't own a TV. (And yes I know that's a satire site. It's funny because it hints at the true motivation of people who claim they like to buck the trend.)

Lots of people go offline for an extended period of time. Hikers, campers, sailors, hunters, etc. They just don't make a big deal about it (online) as the folks who do it so they can brag about it online. That's the key difference, not whether or not you choose to go offline for a while. Are you doing it to participate in an activity you can enjoy without having to be online? Or are you doing it so you can brag about it online (e.g. post selfies you took while touring Yellowstone)? That's the point musicians are trying to make at concerts when they tell people to put away their phones. It's not that phones or the Internet is evil and you need to take time away from them. It's that you have this wonderful event going on right in front of you in real life, and you're missing it because you're too busy staring at your phone. You're trying to record the experience so you can "re-live" it later, but in doing so you're missing out on the actual experience, which defeats the whole purpose.

That's the important thing - that you prioritize your enjoyment of that real-world experience while it's happening over your ability to re-live it later or share the experience online. Not how many hours or days you can go while offline.

The First Amendment in the United States Constitution is very clear on the role of the press as a named protected profession.
The Pentagon Papers did test the mil/gov printing issue.
Other nations like the UK, Australia have different views on material or book chapters.
"NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked files" (21 August 2013)
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
Sledgehammer Politics (23 Aug 2013)
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/art...
Other nations "freedoms" are very different and limited when their fully democratic mil/gov's get interested in the media.
The change in the ability to find a site or link to a site, comment, publish, promote, sell or participate could get very chilling. Even the most "free" Western nations could subvert any US protected freedoms of speech online to a global mix of other nations legal systems, NGO's, mil, gov and SJW interests.

Obama fired the head of the IRS for illegally targeting the Tea Party saying his actions were "inexcusable".
Peter Thiel being sued by Labor Department, or is NBC news a liar?

You have lost even more credibility by calling me a liar on well known issues. You convinced no one and shamed yourself in the process.

So, I think a lesson must be taught to Russia:
That interfering with the voting processes of a democracy is close to a declaration of war.

I think the lesson is already being taught: to the US administration for interference in the internal processes of the Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/co...

Have you actually read some of the stuff coming out of the mouths of these new-money tech company CEO's?

The good folks at Google are convinced that their search engine and data mining algorithms will both cure cancer and eventually make us immortal:

http://income-outcome.com/goog...

Good ol' Elon "Batshit Crazy" Musk took a look around at all the VR gear coming out and decided we're likely already living in someone else's video game:

https://www.theguardian.com/te...

Well, I suppose that helps him rationalize, doesn't it? "That SpaceX rocket and a few hundred million dollars worth of payload didn't blow up, those are just REALLY good particle shaders." "Ah, Autopilot wasn't responsible for that fatal crash, someone needed to free up some memory to create another instance of Universe()."

The long and the short of it is, these people are convinced YOU are going to die, not them. In fact they're so convinced of it that Musk doesn't want anyone going on a Mars mission unless they're WILLING to die, let alone accepting of the fact. Musk, on the other hand? He's not taking any risk. He wants cannon fodder for Mars because he has NO plans on assuming ANY of the risk. He's going to live forever, at least in his own head...and if it doesn't, well, it's all just a simulation anyway so nothing is either gained or lost...because you never existed in the first place.

That's how afraid these rich fucks are, they've fleeced themselves into believing they're going to be the ones that reality doesn't apply to.

That doesn't bother me near like what articles like this: "Europe needs many more babies to avert a population disaster" https://amp.theguardian.com/wo...

World wide we have a shitload of extra people that would love to have a job. It's not necessary to go oh crap we aren't going to have enough people in 20 years because that is NOT what's happening. Just increase immigration to compensate and better outcomes for all.

The UK has faced a fine line between getting malware down into a computer of interest and very different staff then showing the case file to the press for some reason.
The new idea is to have expert staff with the best skills found in what was the Government Technical Assistance Centre, National Technical Assistance Centre, Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch to help police in new roles but never show any raw or live data to any other police.
The data collection was perfect and never leaked but too many then saw raw data much later.
The huge problem was that courts, private detectives, ex staff, former staff and the press got full reports of ongoing case work as files moved down and around different UK police networks well after secret collection and while case work was very active.
So find the staff with the ability to enter computers but can be kept away from all other police, the press, ex staff, private detectives.
Courts and other police will then be kept out of the raw data work.
CIB3 and other efforts where ended just as investigations found the vast scale of data movement.
"Journalists caught on tape in police bugging" 21 September 2002
https://www.theguardian.com/uk...

New report estimates enough natural gas is leaking to negate climate benefits

Methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over short periods of time and 30 times more potent over the long term.

The leaks are the equivalent to the greenhouse gases produced by 5.6m cars.

"With 3% leakage, we’re being sold climate benefits when what we are really getting is marginally less climate damage."

It's not a religious thing as the Pope himself is preaching for actions to combat CC >>

Link

Why does everyone keep saying Russia works with Trump? I have yet to see anything along those lines other than a couple of comments from Trump about Putin.

I suspect the payment of 12.7M by Russia to Trumps Campaign Manager Paul Manaforte and the subsequent removal of the arming of the Ukraine from the RNC platform might have something to do with it.

Your sad attempt at post-rationalization and logic are what is "funny."

Not nearly as "funny" as how you keep refusing to examine Republicans today. No matter how much you want to blind yourself to the stark, true reality, of it.

First, I noticed you conveniently left out the blatant behavior of Democrats racists and bigots (especially the "leadership") that is happening today. The DNC emails (classified as a "today" event) just scratch the surface. An inconvenient truth I know.

Actually, you just didn't provide any actual evidence for your accusation. I suppose I could have demanded you provide support to your allegations, but I never figured you would.

That said, if you do want something public, try something like this from a Ohio Republican.

“If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault. You’ve had every opportunity, it was given to you,” she said.

Ah, good to know that she's so very sure of people's life experiences. Too bad for her the Pigford case was settled in the last 50 years. Too bad the racism in state death penalty cases was in the last 50 years. Too bad for her the CIA was selling crack cocaine in black neighborhoods in the 1980s. Too bad for her banks have admitted to racial discrimination in the past few years!

“You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have. You had all the advantages and didn’t take advantage of it. It’s not our fault, certainly.”

No, wait, she just doesn't want it to be her fault. Even if she was shown the discrepancy in schools, the lack of college acceptance, she'd never believe it. She'd think that they got all sorts of gifts and hand-ups, and that's that!

“Growing up as a kid, there was no racism, believe me. We were just all kids going to school.”

Oh my, a kid going to school, that's a clear sign of a wide experience in life outside her own experiences, isn't it?

Asked about segregation and the civil rights movement, she replied: “I never experienced it. I never saw that as anything.”

Huh, wait, apparently she never experienced it, so...maybe she should have realized she didn't know what she was talking about?

Miller added: “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this ... Now, with the people with the guns, and shooting up neighborhoods, and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and I think that’s the philosophy that Obama has perpetuated on America.”

Notice how she didn't identify anything Obama said or did. She just wants to blame him, so it's HIS fault. It's got to be Obama. Somehow.

Miller dismissed the suggestion that Trump was exploiting racist or prejudiced views among some voters as “the media making stuff up”. Instead, she said of the Republican nominee: “He’s very willing to talk about issues that have never been discussed publicly.”

Like his tax records and his business dealings?

When it was pointed out that some people might find her remarks offensive, Miller replied: “I don’t care, it’s the truth.”

Ah well, she has the truth then, I guess that's that, isn't it?

Also you left out the tremendous influence, Sanger and Byrd had and continues to have on Hillary which ends up in concrete actions today. How do we know? Because these facts have come from Hillary's own mouth, words came out of her mouth (not yours) about this influence and that is incontrovertible.

W

The best nonviolent way of breaking North Korea is to let the common people know how the other Koreans live. We could try smuggling in flash drives, since the DPRK uses them to distribute official TV programming. Efforts like this are underway, but a more effective means of getting them in are needed:
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

North Korea owes its very existence to keeping people in the dark about the outside world. As soon as that information gets through, it's Venezuela time.

Keep passwords safe. Buy a typewriter, get a sheet of paper from your networked printer, insert in typewriter, type out passwords, buy a 1 ton safe, stick piece of paper in safe, lock safe. Whilst they and I mean they, plural (a 1 ton safe is a 1 ton safe for a reason), can drive to your offices and steal that safe, it is kind of hard to not notice it missing and to be able to re secure you system again.

The problem with securing computers with computers is you can no longer see them breaking in successfully, sure you can see the lame failures, but not the skilled success until it is way too late. https://www.theguardian.com/wo..., https://www.theguardian.com/wo.... Computers are shit at security because you can not see what is going on and there are just so, so many ways to hack it and all from safe remote locations, hacking a safe, up close and personal and extreme risk, it is just the way it is.

They used to produce computers with hard wired switchs to prevent firmware being overwritten, no direct access phsyically impossible to hack remotely, hard wired switches to shut down wireless network cards, switch off no power to that card what so ever. So your core data server should have a hard wired switch to prevent writing to it, except when authorised and with direct personal access (to hack you have to write to read).

Keep passwords safe. Buy a typewriter, get a sheet of paper from your networked printer, insert in typewriter, type out passwords, buy a 1 ton safe, stick piece of paper in safe, lock safe. Whilst they and I mean they, plural (a 1 ton safe is a 1 ton safe for a reason), can drive to your offices and steal that safe, it is kind of hard to not notice it missing and to be able to re secure you system again.

The problem with securing computers with computers is you can no longer see them breaking in successfully, sure you can see the lame failures, but not the skilled success until it is way too late. https://www.theguardian.com/wo..., https://www.theguardian.com/wo.... Computers are shit at security because you can not see what is going on and there are just so, so many ways to hack it and all from safe remote locations, hacking a safe, up close and personal and extreme risk, it is just the way it is.

They used to produce computers with hard wired switchs to prevent firmware being overwritten, no direct access phsyically impossible to hack remotely, hard wired switches to shut down wireless network cards, switch off no power to that card what so ever. So your core data server should have a hard wired switch to prevent writing to it, except when authorised and with direct personal access (to hack you have to write to read).

These stories are always submitted by "Anonymous" claiming obliquely that the Echo is a "sleeper hit". There are a lot of "research" companies that claim that Amazon has sold a bunch too. All lies.
Notice these two links ALSO claim a "sleeper hit" (exact words):

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...
https://www.theguardian.com/te...

I call PR bullshit here. I doubt they have sold many Echos at all.

The Echo is a hit? Citation, please.

I have my doubts too, but apparently it is so...

Amazon Echo turns into a sleeper hit, offsetting Fire's failure

Amazon Echo sales reach 3M units as consumer awareness grows, research firm says

She has a name': Amazon's Alexa is a sleeper hit, with serious superfine

How Amazon's Echo Ended Up a Surprise Hit

The Amazon Echo Is Winning the Race to a Screenless Future

Even though I got modded down to -1000000 for calling Trump (and his supporters) racist, here is a real time/real world example. This happened right after I put up my post, and it's a morning news story today (September 23rd).

Ohio Trump campaign chair Kathy Miller says there was 'no racism' before Obama

Kathy Miller called the Black Lives Matter movement ‘a stupid waste of time’ and said low African American voter turnout could be due to ‘the way they’re raised’,

Donald Trump’s campaign chair in a prominent Ohio county has claimed there was “no racism” during the 1960s and said black people who have not succeeded over the past half-century only have themselves to blame.

Kathy Miller, who is white and chair of the Republican nominee’s campaign in Mahoning County, made the remarks during a taped interview with the Guardian’s Anywhere but Washington series of election videos.

So, someone in Trump's Ohio support group thinks that black culture praising the "thug culture" is a problem. How does that show Donald Trump is racist?

Trump is like Romney: they both think a lot of people in this country are intrinsically inferior, and they base their opinion on wealth and race.

Romney didn't say that 47% of Americans are "deplorables", as Hillary Clinton said 25% of them are. He said 47% are receiving government money, and unlikely to vote for someone who wants to limit it.

They're rich white boys who were 'born on third base and think they hit a home run', and that regular people are scum.

So Kathy Miller resigned, but that is irrelevant. Her racist remarks are completely in line with how Trump is promoting his campaign. She just said out loud what Trump and many Republicans believe. It's a revival of the White Citizens Councils of the 1950's, which were the cleaned up version of the KKK.

Are you saying it was the Republican version of the Democrat's KKK?

Ohio Trump campaign chair Kathy Miller says there was 'no racism' before Obama

Kathy Miller called the Black Lives Matter movement ‘a stupid waste of time’ and said low African American voter turnout could be due to ‘the way they’re raised’,

Donald Trump’s campaign chair in a prominent Ohio county has claimed there was “no racism” during the 1960s and said black people who have not succeeded over the past half-century only have themselves to blame.

Kathy Miller, who is white and chair of the Republican nominee’s campaign in Mahoning County, made the remarks during a taped interview with the Guardian’s Anywhere but Washington series of election videos.

Trump is like Romney: they both think a lot of people in this country are intrinsically inferior, and they base their opinion on wealth and race. They're rich white boys who were 'born on third base and think they hit a home run', and that regular people are scum.

So Kathy Miller resigned, but that is irrelevant. Her racist remarks are completely in line with how Trump is promoting his campaign. She just said out loud what Trump and many Republicans believe. It's a revival of the White Citizens Councils of the 1950's, which were the cleaned up version of the KKK.

Ahem.

https://www.theguardian.com/co...

Re Question 2: Why is this worse than lobbyists who actually screw us over and make our lives miserable?
Lets say a wealthy person wants free speech but has no real free time in the day to engage in a long online conversation. They hire one person to be that online persona putting in say five hours a day.
What if the message is always been drowned out by facts and reality? Hire 10 people to each be 10 or 100 accounts each with their own story and time zone, ip?
In the end you just go big and go with what a gov enjoys:
"Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media " (18 March 2011)
https://www.theguardian.com/te...
British army creates team of Facebook warriors (31 January 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk...
Re 'Really. I honestly want to know."
The "tell" is usually one person with a lot of accounts cleaning up after bad news about a nation, their faith or their side of politics, gov, mil or agency, having a few hours to get their spin over, before going full AC again.
Posting initial news reports or early opinion hoping to sway readers, hoping nobody will actually read the links and follow up with real news.
Virtue signalling is the big slip up most of the accounts just cannot avoid. Eg. a party political personality trait, pushing a "security clearances" past to add validity, patriotism, nationalism, jingoism, the same sob story again and again usually gets past the smart hearts and minds effort. i.e. the person befuddles their role due to their own gov work or some mil experience.
The better way is to set up a left or right think tank and have them hire based on life experience. The jargon, slang, life stories are then indistinguishable from actual account users, the spin can be perfected over years of account use. No needing tens of fake accounts, fake ip's, no fear of linguistic analysis, just perfected astroturfing for hire. The staff are happy and on message and if suited can be rolled out on book tours, public speaking, for comedy.
The better lobbyists are using well funded authors, comedians, public speakers rather than vast amounts of easily detectable online accounts.

Re Question 2: Why is this worse than lobbyists who actually screw us over and make our lives miserable?
Lets say a wealthy person wants free speech but has no real free time in the day to engage in a long online conversation. They hire one person to be that online persona putting in say five hours a day.
What if the message is always been drowned out by facts and reality? Hire 10 people to each be 10 or 100 accounts each with their own story and time zone, ip?
In the end you just go big and go with what a gov enjoys:
"Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media " (18 March 2011)
https://www.theguardian.com/te...
British army creates team of Facebook warriors (31 January 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk...
Re 'Really. I honestly want to know."
The "tell" is usually one person with a lot of accounts cleaning up after bad news about a nation, their faith or their side of politics, gov, mil or agency, having a few hours to get their spin over, before going full AC again.
Posting initial news reports or early opinion hoping to sway readers, hoping nobody will actually read the links and follow up with real news.
Virtue signalling is the big slip up most of the accounts just cannot avoid. Eg. a party political personality trait, pushing a "security clearances" past to add validity, patriotism, nationalism, jingoism, the same sob story again and again usually gets past the smart hearts and minds effort. i.e. the person befuddles their role due to their own gov work or some mil experience.
The better way is to set up a left or right think tank and have them hire based on life experience. The jargon, slang, life stories are then indistinguishable from actual account users, the spin can be perfected over years of account use. No needing tens of fake accounts, fake ip's, no fear of linguistic analysis, just perfected astroturfing for hire. The staff are happy and on message and if suited can be rolled out on book tours, public speaking, for comedy.
The better lobbyists are using well funded authors, comedians, public speakers rather than vast amounts of easily detectable online accounts.

Apparently it's perfectly safe...so vaping companies say AND there's been some studies to say that vaping is so much better for you than smoking...

You should believe vaping is safe...except if you suspect that the lack of decades of data makes it difficult to determine AND if you suspect studies are influenced, falsified, wrong or completely malicious.

Because respectable bodies of research were never going to lie for money and they never do:

This -> https://www.statnews.com/2016/...

The eagle-eyed reader will notice this is a research about sugar. Nothing to do with smoking or vaping...after all another supposedly respectable body already said vaping is 95% healthier. Public Health England, a government affiliated body no less. -> https://www.theguardian.com/so...

Some searching leads to this 113 page piece of "research" that was no carried out by the UK government of course but rather an "independent researcher" which actually are:
McNeill A, Brose LS, Calder R, Hitchman SC
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &
Neuroscience,
National Addiction Centre,

Hajek P, McRobbie H (Chapters 9 and 10)
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine

A link deeper and you find the actual full paper -> https://www.gov.uk/government/...

This is some people's minds cements the belief that vaping is 95% safer than smoking cigarettes. the author of that "study" which is more like a search on Pubmed gave two key factors for this 95% figure:

That there is less than 5% known carcinogens in vaping (assuming your sucking on the same "juice" and that there is currently no associated health risk.

Read it if you like -> https://www.gov.uk/government/...

So really this thought that vaping is so much healthier has some good concepts behind it what it lacks is proof and data. All we found is that we have no data to say it's unhealthy. If it causes genetic damage or increased mutation that is only apparent many years later we have no clue.

Just think what the tobacco industry is worth. What the vaping industry will be worth...can you honestly beliee they will not pub their weight into anything much like the sugar lobby once did? -in fact we already know the tobacco industry has covered up decades of research and used their expertise to counter anything that made them look bad.

95% healthier...once this flawed concept is in the public's mind it takes another fucking decade to tell them otherwise. Once upon a time Kent cigarettes had asbestos filters that increased cancer rates many times over compared to regular smoking. They were the product of "research" and were thought to be "healthy"...remember that.

Just continue vaping. It's safe. Anything coming out of a miniaturized "fog machine" is so much better for you. Honest.

As an added bonus it's cheaper than your previous addiction platform too!

And forget that they reduced American's product competition by enforcing the round corners patent. Let's forget that they patented the "slide to open" (like the doors). Isn't slide to open even more outrageous than ring-silencing patents? Or at least about the same?
Let's forget that they just applied for the paper bag patent

Let's forget that they are constantly buying patents to profit from them in the exact same way these "patent trolls" do. Not every patent they buy becomes a product of their own, many are buried and many are just for collecting money from others use. This was a troll vs troll situation, let's not pretend Apple was on the high moral ground.

These patents are there just to make every product cost more and destroy any competition from small companies, humanity is losing.

I don't think many people would disagree with you that it's a hellhole but things like this make it easier for people to understand. It's not easy to comprehend what it's like to live in a true, card carrying hell hole.

There are a few hints available.

Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag

In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town is home to Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, where thousands of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held. Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them. . . .

Witnesses have described watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed. They are left to an agonising death while scientists take notes. The allegations offer the most shocking glimpse so far of Kim Jong-il's North Korean regime.

Kwon Hyuk, who has changed his name, was the former military attaché at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. He was also the chief of management at Camp 22. In the BBC's This World documentary, to be broadcast tonight, Hyuk claims he now wants the world to know what is happening.

'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,' he said. 'The parents, son and and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.'

Hyuk has drawn detailed diagrams of the gas chamber he saw. He said: 'The glass chamber is sealed airtight. It is 3.5 metres wide, 3m long and 2.2m high_ [There] is the injection tube going through the unit. Normally, a family sticks together and individual prisoners stand separately around the corners. Scientists observe the entire process from above, through the glass.'

He explains how he had believed this treatment was justified. 'At the time I felt that they thoroughly deserved such a death. Because all of us were led to believe that all the bad things that were happening to North Korea were their fault; that we were poor, divided and not making progress as a country.

'It would be a total lie for me to say I feel sympathetic about the children dying such a painful death. Under the society and the regime I was in at the time, I only felt that they were the enemies. So I felt no sympathy or pity for them at all.'

His testimony is backed up by Soon Ok-lee, who was imprisoned for seven years. 'An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners,' she said. 'One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream from those who had eaten them. They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes they were quite dead.'

Kim curses defectors’ families for three generations

North Korea has ordered the “unconditional punishment” of three generations of the family of anyone escaping from the country and given border guards orders to shoot suspected fugitives on sight.

Inside a North Korean prison camp: satellite analysis reveals prison life and death

Not much is known about Camp 25, but one thing is sure – the innocuous name given to this North Korean political prison camp does no justice to the human suffering that goes on within.

And, who are you now?

Someone with more experience with the family court system than you.

Also, since you seem quite slow: A legal guardian taking their child back isn't kidnapping. https://www.theguardian.com/wo... Even in a foreign country, usually harsh on foreigners, a mother trying to kidnap her child was not charged. Rarely would such a charge be laid.

But if you want to argue that Lebanon is more rational than the USA, and the reasonable result of "arrested for kidnapping", being "released and told not to do it again" would never happen in the insane USA, then go for it. Similar examples are harder to find in the US, because the parents wouldn't have been arrested in the first place, but if you are so certain find an example. Go on, I dare you. Show me a single example in the US of two parents, taking their child from anyone and being charged with "kidnapping". It's legally impossible. But you know more about everything than everyone else combined. We should just call you Mr. Trump.

They were ALL being racist.

So, Hillary Clinton is a racist too, in your opinion?

Trump lied through his teeth about Duke.

Even if he did, lying is not racist. I already explained several times here, why any disavowals of David Duke would've been a mistake for Trump.

Show me proof that he's biased against other races.

Whether he is or not, it is not racist to suspect him of being. Unless you are willing to "disavow" all suspicions of White judges being biased against non-White defendants.

The Middle East has nearly 400 million muslims spread apart in the various countries in the area.

Dude, however you spin it, "Muslim" does not mean "Arab" and religion is not race...

He could have easily said "I condemned him 15 years ago, and I am again today."

If condemned him back then, why is he being asked to condemn him again? Who else should he condemn — and would he have the time to talk about anything else, if he undertook to disavow each and every character, his opponents wish him to disavow?

Still waiting for Clinton to disavow Al Sharpton the anti-Semite. And Seddique Mateen — the homophobe and Taliban-supporter. and Lezley McSpadden, whose sole claim to fame is raising a robber-son...

If all of your citations come from sites like brietbart, theamericanfreedomparty.us, or other OBVIOUS biased, partisan sources, you have no foundation for a legitimate argument.

They may be partisan, but the information is still valid. You obviously wish to extricate yourself from an inconvenient argument... You have my permission to bugger off — I do not wish to repeat myself for your sake.

And today you have unprecedented dieback of essential coral heads and reefs, whales washing up on shore in record numbers, seals and walrus having significant difficulties with their habitats, massive reductions in polar ice, the near complete disappearance of the glacier at glacier national park, severe population reductions of oceanic tuna, and a whole host of other things.

More fear mongering my good sir?

And today you have unprecedented dieback of essential coral heads and reefs, whales washing up on shore in record numbers, seals and walrus having significant difficulties with their habitats, massive reductions in polar ice, the near complete disappearance of the glacier at glacier national park, severe population reductions of oceanic tuna, and a whole host of other things.

More fear mongering my good sir?

I'm waiting for the autonomous trucks

Here you go.

When George Bush II was challenged about the oil companies writing his energy policies, he said "Ya gotta dance with those what brung ya".

This article explains quite well.

The way politicians work is via quid pro quos. A large donor gives them (specifically a shell organization) money or other enticements, and they provide favorable legislation for the donor. I don't think there were entities large enough to rival countries back in the days of the Constituion, so this threat to the republic is a new one. There was that Oxfam study earlier this year which stated 62 people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world. WalMart has more revenue than Norway's GDP, for example.

So, I don't think the Founders saw this coming. Might need a carefully crafted amendment to deal with this issue.

AC nobody expects a secret US grand jury investigation.
"EPIC Partially Prevails in FOIA Case, Wikileaks Investigation Ongoing"
https://epic.org/foia/doj/wiki...
US government still hunting WikiLeaks as Obama targets whistleblowers (6 March 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/me...
more at http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj...
"The FBI's "still active and ongoing" probe of WikiLeaks" (March 06, 2015)
http://www.courthousenews.com/...
from https://epic.org/foia/doj/wiki...
i.e. "... the Department of Justice and FBI’s multi-subject investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of classified information published on WikiLeaks, which is “still active and ongoing” and remains in the investigative stage."

because it was 'recording voters' opinions on [a] variety of topics for further processing and analysis by the candidate's team'.

How horrible that people in Russia express their own opinions rather than those of Putin's. This plague of free thought must be shut down. The Russian people must not be allowed freedom to speak as evidenced by Putin making it a crime for mothers whose sons died while invading Ukraine from speaking out about their son's deaths.

Imagine what would happen if the Russian people spoke freely about the corruption of Putin and his oligarch friends. How would Putin ever live with himself if freedom of speech were allowed? The horror.

No more FBI aircraft to track over any US city.
https://www.theguardian.com/us... (Tuesday 2 June 2015)
24/7 aerostats looking down. Tracking cell phones, computer use. With the NSA and OVERHEAD like options even wifi.
https://theintercept.com/2016/...
Total domestic drag net surveillance.
DHS Uses Wartime Mega-Camera to Watch Border (04.02.12)
https://www.wired.com/2012/04/...

Had it been a man who had sent a video of his girlfriend having sex, the feminists and their white-knight heroes wouldn't delay in assigning blame to the evil man for releasing a sex tape of said woman, especially if the motivation was to make her jealous. The fact that he'd committed suicide wouldn't even be noticed (we know this because in real life, suicides are a problem of mostly men, and the media could care less about it until they begin to rise amongst women).

But it was a woman who did it. So naturally it's time to lineup and defend her from anybody who dares say anything mean about it. Women can only be victims, right?

The male Russian life expectancy is actually around 64. It dipped mid 90s but has rebounded up to 64.7.

I live in Maryland, so it doesn't matter who I vote for, the state will go Democrat. I am likely voting for Johnson, not because I like him, but because it will help the next election to have a large showing for the Libertarian Party.

My main issue is that Johnson has come out and said he is going to disband the NSA (except the remote offices), and the IRS. So, who does he expect to secure government communications, or analyse the intel coming in from those remote locations, and who does he expect will collect taxes to support the country? This most basic of lack of understanding scares the hell out of me if he were to become president. Also, both of these agencies are executive branch, so it is within the power of the president to actually follow through with this.

He also said he is going to pardon Snowden, which would be a very big mistake. Snowden committed treason, he may have revealed some things that might have been illegal or unconstitutional, but he also caused many problems worldwide. Snowden revealed how the NSA tracked Russia, which led to this:

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

which caused the annexation of Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine issues. Snowden has Ukrainian blood on his hands.

The Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg had an article in the Guardian about how the big media players are getting too much control over the information flow. I think it's a timid and diplomatic article and I would put it in stronger words. But at least we should be able to see that the danger exists that information flow is massaged to suit big powers. If google search buries a link then it does not exist. If google ads decides you're publishing information they don't like, they lock you out and you'll think twice after that. Mainstream media already stick to extremely narrow narratives, it will spread beyond that.

https://www.theguardian.com/co...

Media consumption today is increasingly digitized, but even more so it is curated. News and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard have overtaken traditional news outlets as our primary sources of information, of news, of connection to the world around us. They have become our most frequently visited sites, especially among the younger generations, and have empowered the public to create and share their own content. With this ease of access to information in today’s world, comes a great responsibility to enact policies that make positive contributions to society.

By exercising such overarching editorial rights, large corporations that ought to bring us closer together as human beings through transparency, end up altering history, and altering the truth. Already, Facebook and other media outlets’ algorithms narrow the range of content one sees based on past preferences and interests. This limits the kind of stories one sees, and in turn restricts access to a holistic outlook for the user. We run the risk of creating parallel societies in which some people are not aware of the real issues facing the world, and this is only exacerbated by such editorial oversight. As we move towards a more automated world, this is not a responsibility that should be surrendered to machines only.

Article 12, but I'm not complaining about government spying, obviously. You can't be honestly saying that's "what they were up to", but I'll bait: read about the whole country wiretap thing (Bahamas). And the kiddie porn GCHQ related article.

GCHQ will have to block themselves off from the rest of the UK. Quite ironic.