The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

trump's algorithm processing program has become so weirdly fast and immediate that it's now like some kind of uncanny valley violation. the robot is not sentient. the programming has gone from "the causation loop is clear to observers with 15 seconds worth of thought" to "even trump idiots cannot not see this immediately."

After reading that piece I believe we must all be professors.

We're all gonna feel awful once Amy Wax's neurologist finally detects that softball-sized tumor in her brain.

And now having read Chotiner's interview with Bill Owens I believe we must all be reverends.

have asked many sophisticated, knowledgeable people that question, and I have never gotten anything close to a plausible answer

even an uncouth dilettante like me knows about "Guns Germs & Steel"

left me asking the question, 'are you capable of assembling a sandwich without assistance?'

wow, leave the lex out of this

I have asked many sophisticated, knowledgeable people that question, and I have never gotten anything close to a plausible answer

This stupid asshole and his stupid friends and associates have never heard of colonialism? More likely they heard about it and immediately forgot about it.

she spends 75% of the time rolling her eyes at the choice of words, refusing to acknowledge that these words exist, and have viable definitions that apply to the real world and current events.

aimless, give the interview a read, but here's her answer for you:

I think colonialism as an explanation is just a nonstarter. Colonialism came very late on the scene. It took advantage of these discrepancies in sophistication and modernity, in advancement in technology, in science. One thing that’s quite striking is there is essentially no science being done in a place like Malaysia. No science, no technology coming out. I consider that very closely related to the lack of commitment to empiricism, the lack of a cultural practice of attention to evidence, rigor, analysis, facts. They all work together, so I think that when we say colonialism, do they mean that if it weren’t for colonialism, Malaysia would be Denmark? Does anybody really believe that, honestly and truly? I think it’s a nonstarter.

well i've read enough

Just real quick

Why are there so many shithole countries? Of course the moment you say that, people just get outraged: Oh, my God, you are a racist for saying that. And that, of course, lets them off the hook; they don’t have to answer the question, which is convenient.

...

What is your answer?

I don’t have one.

I mean there couldn't have been more than like a minute or two that elapsed between those utterances.

Shaping the minds of our youth.

'If I say this, they can't sack me, as it would only prove my point.'

Insisting Trump is a 'serial monogamist'?!

btw I love it when Trump uses the word "hereby."

she's not going to get fired. she's been saying this shit for awhile. She just can't teach first year courses anymore which seems more like a reward.

perhaps, amy wax, it is you who are the nonstarter

i'm sure trump would be fine with the next US president ordering his companies to do things

Amy, I wanted to ask- in your essay entitled "How Race and Culture are Intertwined", it appears the entirety of the text is dedicated to your description, in great detail, of the process of you personally defecting into your own hand. By the second page, where you describe the temperature, it became clear that you were not actually driving towards making any larger point. What was your reason for writing this?

typo whoops

I am reading that as if "typo whoops" was her answer

for all her promotion of 'empiricism' it sounds like her agenda consists of insisting on the existence of 'obvious' realities that must be explained while systematically sowing untutored skepticism about any and all authoritative inquiries into those realities. like a newspaper website commenter.

"have you noticed there is more crime in minority neighbourhoods? on average, i mean? it's an incredibly understudied subject in 2019. it's like people don't want to go there. i don't get it. you mention it at academic conferences and you get called a moron!"

i was thinking more "like a racist seinfeld routine"
http://ksassets.timeincuk.net/wp/uploads/sites/55/2017/08/GettyImages-692779742-920x584.jpg

When I go to the opera in Munich, an afternoon performance, full-length, designated for children, of “The Magic Flute” or something, I also notice it. These young children sit quietly, well behaved. They wouldn’t dream of creating a ruckus, just like they wouldn’t dream of littering.

What's the deal with all of these rude people giving the stinkeye every time I start screaming my uninformed opinions into their faces?

My favorite is the Berkshires part. It's like a Beckett play.

Judges surprise attorneys for Trump’s bankers by asking about his tax returns

The hearing featured arguments over whether Deutsche Bank, Capital One should have to comply with subpoenas from Congress

By Renae MerleAugust 23 at 1:51 PM
NEW YORK – Attorneys for Deutsche Bank and Capital One repeatedly refused to tell a federal appeals court Friday whether the banks have President Trump’s tax returns, citing “contractual obligations” for rebuffing the court’s questions.

Trump is appealing a district court ruling that cleared the way for the banks to hand over years of financial records from the president, his three eldest children and the president’s companies to two House committees.

Toward the end of Friday’s hearing, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit considering the appeal asked the banks’ attorneys whether the documents subject to the subpoenas could potentially include the president’s tax returns.

“I am not asking you for the content of them at all,” said Judge Jon O. Newman.

“We’re not in a position to answer that question,” said Raphael Prober, the attorney for Deutsche Bank, the president’s largest creditor.

“It is a fairly important question in this case,” Newman said.

lol

Very opinionated and speaks subjectively and through anecdotes. Can't say this was the best professor I've had, avoid if you can.

https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=561675

A thoroughly unpleasant human being. Obsessed with her own victimization at the hands of forces she believes deserve blame for being victims themselves. Uses anecdotal evidence and uncareful interpretations of social scientific data to support many of her policy prescriptions. Decent instructor when she can just stick to the course content.

are students still using RMP? I'm getting fewer and fewer reviews. I wonder if they just bitch on What'sapp chat rooms.

JUST IN: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent 3 weeks of radiation treatment this summer after the discovery a cancerous tumor on her pancreas. Full statement below (h/t @JanCBS) pic.twitter.com/t7kDQghHVZ

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) August 23, 2019

*grimace*

ugh

I've looked at SCOTUS as lost since November '16, and the Warren Court as a historical outlier (which it legit is), so.

My MIL had a similar ablation to treat Gallbladder cancer, she never recovered and died shortly after. She was only 57.

Bye bye, America. Bye bye.

she's a human being. let her live out her life in dignity.

lol

_Very opinionated and speaks subjectively and through anecdotes. Can't say this was the best professor I've had, avoid if you can._

https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=561675🕸

The endless nitpicking over the word racism is extremely crazy making. Like, we get it, you want to say and a bunch of racist stuff without being called racist. No one is fooled by your rules lawyering.

otm, though I'll take Wax's suggestion and happily call her evil as well

blindly opinionated ignorance accomplishes a lot of evil in the world and she has that in abundance, but evil inheres in specific actions and words, and people tend to be mixed bags of the good, the bad and the indifferent.

No, I think she's probably just evil

A thoroughly unpleasant human being. Obsessed with her own victimization at the hands of forces she believes deserve blame for being victims themselves. Uses anecdotal evidence and uncareful interpretations of social scientific data to support many of her policy prescriptions.

why does this person hate conservatives?? liberal indoctrination via higher ed system clearly already taken hold

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a like-for-like response to a recent U.S. missile test, which he said showed that Washington aimed to deploy previously banned missiles around the world.

wot a cozy relationship

Chris Hayes is discussing the Ku Klux Klan Act and Enforcement Act, Johnson and Grant, on MSNBC. I'm choking up. This shit is never said aloud.

he made the connection to El Paso and Dayton -- white supremacy as existential threat as much as Al Qaeda.

Yes! I hardly ever catch his show but it’s been on while I’m straightening up the house

I love now

Trump, struggling to speak, cites "somebody who came in the other day" to make a fact-free claim that "tech companies" manipulated 15 million votes in Hillary Clinton's favor in 2016.

He then seems to have a hard time remembering Emmanuel Macron's name. pic.twitter.com/6cau7KqATY

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 24, 2019

ugh just die already

that's a great encapsulation of trump as president

has anyone written a feature article on trump's habit of giving press conferences under the roar of the helicopter? aesthetically it is one thing i will always associate with his presidency, the high frequencies of the spinning blades