Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
"...Perhaps laughter will then have formed an alliance with wisdom; perhaps only 'gay science' will remain."
User ID: 342
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
21d ago
Remember that whether Ukrainians live under oligarchic control in corrupt Ukraine, or oligarchic control in Russia, hardly affects their lives. Farmers will farm, miners will mine, CounterStrike players will бляt. From the standpoint of a prole like me, I can see the Slavic Christian happy in either region of control, having their basic needs quite met, hopefully reproducing.
Thank you for making this explicit. This is the principle ideological question at issue. Reasonable people can disagree here, of course, but all parties to the debate do need to make their position on this question clear, and anything else is just obfuscation.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
22d ago
Russia is our biggest foreign military threat
I don't understand why we're required to take a permanently antagonistic stance towards Russia.
But what about the Ukrainians? As long as they're want to keep fighting, we should support them.
I don't think that Ukraine's continued participation in the war is tethered in any direct way to the "will of the Ukrainian people" (and I'd say the same for basically any other country in a similar situation as well; Ukraine is not unique in this regard).
you personally don't give a fuck about whether Ukraine survives because you only care about America
I don't give a fuck about Ukraine as an abstract political entity, no. But I do care about the lives of individual Ukrainians, I assure you.
If I were Ukrainian my choice would be to lay down my arms and join up with Russia, without hesitation. Some things are worth fighting to the death over, and some things are not. If it truly is the "will of the people" to fight to the last man, then that too is their prerogative. But I see no reason why we should be obligated to support them in an effort that I regard as futile and self-destructive.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
23d ago
I think it just tends to happen every time current events are moving fast and there are a lot of big headlines to talk about. More people wanting to talk politics = bigger chance of some of them having dissenting views.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
23d ago
What does leftist mean to you, surely not just opposition to Trump?
I said "leftist, or at least anti-Trump". I'm aware they're not identical.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
23d ago
I'll eat crow (and probably cheer from the roof tops, I can't lie) if Trump uses this as an excuse to start a 1000 Year Trumpenreich.
Yeah I wouldn't exactly be opposed to it either. Which is how I know it won't happen. Reality is always maximally disappointing.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
23d ago
· Edited 23d ago
Signs point to Donald Trump soon invoking the Insurrection Act (paywalled, but you can get around it with Reader View):
The clock is ticking down on a crucial but little-noticed part of President Donald Trump’s first round of executive orders — the one tasking the secretaries of the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to submit a joint report, within 90 days, recommending “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act.”
Many of us are now holding our collective breath, knowing that the report and what it contains could put us on the slippery slope toward unchecked presidential power under a man with an affinity for ironfisted dictators.
Adding to the suspense was the recent “Friday Night Massacre” at the Pentagon — the firing of the nation’s top uniformed officer and removing other perceived guardrails (i.e., the top uniformed lawyers at the Army, Navy and Air Force) standing between the president and his long-stated intention to declare martial law upon returning to power.
And here's the linked EO they're referencing:
(a) Within 30 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the President, through the Homeland Security Advisor, a report outlining all actions taken to fulfill the requirements and objectives of this proclamation; and
(b) Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 essentially allows the President to declare martial law by deploying the military to "suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or rebellion".
I still don't think that Trump is going to make a serious attempt at establishing permanent one-party rule. What would be the play, exactly? Declare permanent martial law and then cancel elections in four years? I don't think there's much appetite for that, either with him or with the members of his inner circle. But then again, I also never predicted that he would cut off military aid to Ukraine either, so my predictions have already been wrong once!
It seems like we've had a slight uptick in leftist (or at least anti-Trump) posters lately so I'd be particularly interested in hearing their thoughts.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
24d ago
Honest question: if there is a covid-sized pandemic in the next four years, is there any possible scenario where The Cathedral doesn’t blame it on Trump?
And if their answer is always the same regardless, why should we care what they say?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
24d ago
I'm seeing people who had long term and stable government contracts, sometimes decades, being let go.
Uh, welcome to life I guess?
This kind of thing happens all the time in the private sector. About a year ago my company went through a round of layoffs that hit a lot of people who had been with the company for 10 or even 20 or 30 years in some cases. Yes we appreciate your service and dedication, but profitability was down this year, we can't afford to be a charity anymore, and we've identified that you don't actually do much anyway, so, buh-bye now.
The shock and confusion coming from a lot of federal employees over the fact that they, too, are capable of being let go shows just how unique and privileged their position was.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
25d ago
Trump pauses aid to Ukraine after fiery meeting with Zelenskyy:
The Trump administration is pausing all aid to Ukraine, including weapons in transit or in Poland.
The pause comes days after a contentious meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump in the White House.
I guess that settles the question of his authority over this matter!
One analysis I've heard is that everything -- both the reduction in US aid and the increase in European defense spending -- is part of an elaborate pre-constructed kayfabe to facilitate the transfer of US military resources from Europe to the Pacific. These types of "actually everything is under control, it's just nation-states acting in their own rational self-interest" stories always strike me as just a bit too convenient. Certainly many would like to believe that the adults actually have everything under control at all times -- but that doesn't make it reality. I have no trouble believing that this was a genuinely impulsive decision on Trump's part, and that he's not following any particular ideological roadmap. I mean, he might be. But he also might not be.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
25d ago
As is frequently the case with these sorts of things, the coverup was worse than the crime. He was charged for attempting to establish a quid pro quo with Zelensky, but there's no indication that the mere act of withholding the aid itself was an impeachable offense.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
25d ago
According to this, the funding for Ukraine is drawn from multiple sources, and at least some of those sources are under the direct control of the President/DoD:
Pursuant to a delegation by the President, we have used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions since August 2021 to provide Ukraine military assistance totaling approximately $31.7 billion from DoD stockpiles.
On September 26, 2024, the Department notified Congress of the intent to direct the drawdown of up to approximately $5.55 billion in defense articles and services from DoD stocks for military assistance to Ukraine under Presidential Drawdown Authority.
Would be a bit odd if the President couldn't simply decline to exercise the Presidential Drawdown Authority. It wouldn't be much of an Authority in that case.
So, there are some funding sources that couldn't be canceled without getting into legally murky area, but Trump could choose to cancel a significant portion of it right away.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
25d ago
If Trump has no power to withhold ongoing support from Zelensky
Well he certainly seems to think he does:
Donald Trump is expected to discuss cancelling military aid to Ukraine when he meets with key advisors later today.
The president will speak with senior advisers, including Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, to consider a range of options, including cancelling aid that was approved and paid for by the Biden administration, the New York Times reported.
I confess to being ignorant of the mechanics of how all this works, and a cursory Google search didn't turn up much, so if someone with more expertise wants to chime in please do. But the news articles coming out today seem to indicate that the President and his national security team have essentially unilateral power to withhold aid from Ukraine if they choose to.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
26d ago
I draw the line at the borders of the United States and countries we have pre-existing security agreements with.
I don’t advocate for pulling out of NATO.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
27d ago
I’ll just come out and say it: I don’t see a good reason for why Ukraine shouldn’t simply be annexed by Russia (or at least, brought into the Russian sphere of influence with a pro-Russian government).
Zelensky is right. Without security guarantees from the US, there’s a high chance that Russia will keep coming back every 5-10 years and taking another bite out of the country until they’ve either taken the whole thing or installed a proxy government. I don’t think it’s in the US’s best interests to provide security guarantees to Ukraine (and it seems that multiple US administrations have agreed with me, otherwise Obama would have sent in troops in 2014 and Biden would have sent in troops in 2022). So why don’t we simply get it over with and let Russia have it? That’s the long-term stable equilibrium.
I imagine that’s the position that the “it’s for their own good” camp is gesturing towards but doesn’t articulate.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
27d ago
There’s an obvious objection to homosexuality being mostly genetic, and that’s that we should expect at least some selection against it.
You could make the same argument about Down's Syndrome and cystic fibrosis. But they still keep happening. (Note that I also pointed out that "biological basis" is not equivalent to "simple heritable Mendelian trait" -- one hypothesis is that the level of testosterone that a fetus is exposed to in the womb has an impact on sexual orientation, for example.)
I'm saying that homosexuality should be thought of as an illness, a disorder of the reproductive system. Congenital defects that impact the reproductive system are well-documented (e.g. various types of intersex conditions). Disadvantageous traits are selected against, sure, but evolution can't insulate us from all possible illness. Things still break down and go wrong.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
28d ago
No, they probably are not.
What is your position on HBD in general, and the genetic basis of IQ in particular?
From the study that was linked in the article you linked:
In aggregate, all tested genetic variants accounted for 8 to 25% of variation in male and female same-sex sexual behavior [...] Same-sex sexual behavior is influenced by not one or a few genes but many.
We can get into the weeds over what exactly "8 to 25% of variation" means -- how many recalcitrant homosexuals should we expect to find in a given population, how easy is it to change one's sexual orientation or set someone on a different path of development via environmental factors -- but nonetheless, the paper states plainly that there is a genetic component. (The introduction to the paper also makes no mention of epigenetic factors or the pre-natal uterine environment, both of which could conceivably contribute to someone being "born that way" despite not being part of the genome proper.)
The article you directly linked states:
The scientists behind the study do not mince words regarding this conclusion. The study’s first author, Andrea Ganna, stated to the New York Times, “it will be basically impossible to predict one’s sexual activity or orientation just from genetics.”
but this is just a caricature of the hereditarian position. There's a genetic component to IQ too, but no one thinks that you can predict someone's IQ just from genetics either (environmental factors can easily lower it).
I'm always surprised at the number of people who take a staunchly "realist" position on the biological reality of sex and race differences, but who stubbornly refuse to believe that homosexuality is anything but a matter of political propaganda and personal choice. I think there's a clear ideological motivation at work, stemming from the hope that we could eradicate homosexuality if we simply got the LGBT propaganda out of schools (much like how leftists think we could close the black-white achievement gap if we simply devised the proper education program; both projects are futile).
Look at it this way: there's a stunningly diverse range of maladies that the human body and brain can be afflicted with. People can be born without eyes and limbs, they can be born sterile, they can be born with profound mental retardation; is it that much of a stretch to think that a male could be born liking other males too? A healthy, properly functioning human is heterosexual; but there's always a possibility that an organism can simply go wrong and start functioning improperly.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
28d ago
I could understand this all better if it was just Trump doing it alone. Sort of a lower class rebellion against the educated class. But what really has me confused is the fact that it’s being spearheaded by Musk and “tech” people.
There's a strong anti-academia sentiment even among highly educated tech professionals. We have youtube to serve the needs of undergraduate education. And as for research, they assume that 99% of it is bullshit, and the 1% of it that isn't bullshit can be carried out under the auspices of private corporations.
I've always been a staunch defender of academia, so I'm sympathetic to your position. But after enduring decades of the total ideological capture of the academy by the left, I can't say that I'm disappointed or surprised that the right is pushing back and taking action.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
28d ago
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
28d ago
The whole thing was planned
Planned by whom?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
28d ago
I can't tell what Trump (or Vance) is actually mad about besides Zelensky not being sufficiently obsequious.
Zelensky, essentially unprompted, heavily implied that diplomacy with Putin would be ineffective without concrete security guarantees (i.e. a promise of boots on the ground, if not now then at least in the future). Trump and Vance didn't think it was the right time to be discussing that. It spiraled out from there.
You can argue that it should have been handled better, but I don't think you can say that the exchange was irrational, or that it was solely based on an abstract notion of "disrespect".
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
30d ago
The Brevity thing is the most important piece of advice about writing or speech.
Absolutely not! Good heavens.
As with many questions of this type, the answer to "how long should it be?" is always "as long as it should be". Sometimes that will be quite short, and other times it will be quite long. Context and purpose matter. When I'm looking up technical documentation at work, I usually do want it to give me the answer I'm looking for as fast as possible with little ado. But thankfully, people can write things other than technical documentation.
In general, if someone is a good writer, then we would prefer him to write more rather than less. More of a good thing is good! Saying that you prefer writing to always be as short as possible is a bit like saying that the best sandwich is the one with the least meat on it. We would have to assume that such a person is not much of a meat eater to begin with.
Not everyone is a lover of words, and that's fine. There are plenty of things I don't care about either. I have little taste for music, for example, beyond the most superficial enjoyment. Which is why I make no attempt to generalize my musical preferences into universally applicable strictures.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
1mo ago
"Brevity is the soul of wit" - Hamlet
You'd believe that lunatic?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
1mo ago
I am flabbergasted by people, including the person who came up with the Chinese Room thought experiment, Searle, not seeing what seems to me to be the obvious conclusion:
The room speaks Chinese.
Searle literally addressed this objection in his very first paper on the Chinese Room.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
1mo ago
Starting to understand Putin's complaints about how US foreign policy seems to swerve wildly depending on who's in office.
How is it going to fight NATO if it can't even take more than 1/5th of Ukraine?
Yes Russia's progress has been slowed heavily thanks to US aid. But presumably "fighting NATO" would imply levels of direct involvement from the US and its allies beyond what we've seen in Ukraine.
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