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91
Hobbies & Entertainment / Re: Films and Books
Last post by ersi -
Sergei Guriev recommended Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro in his latest (or perhaps penultimate) livestream. The little book club of my colleagues at work took it on.

I'm halfway through now and I guess I can recommend it too, even though I don't know what the final turn will be. The only other work I know from Kazuo Ishiguro is The Remains of the Day (the movie, not the book) and judging from that, no sharp turns are expected.

Klara and the Sun qualifies as science fiction. The first-person narrator Klara is an "artificial friend," preoccupied and constantly concerned with serving its human. In this sense the novel is similar with the main theme of The Remains of the Day. Also similar is the class society and the focus on mannerisms and etiquette.

But I'm expecting a science-fictiony turn in Klara and the Sun. Perhaps artificial intelligence sinking into abuse mode while failing to sense anything out of the ordinary?

As said, I'm only halfway through. Hope I did not spoil anything for anyone. Really lovely piece of literature it is.
92
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by ersi -
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
FYI: Resident Aliens are both subject to U.S. jurisdiction and protected by most constitutional provisions — one obvious exception being the right to vote in federal elections. :)
Your dilemma is as follows: If immigrants had no nominal rights, then USA would be under serious charge due to lack of legal framework for human rights at home. But if immigrants have nominal rights, then bussing them *is* human trafficking and against the law. Which way is it?

Either way I know both the legal situation and concrete facts better than you. You are not in a position to FYI anything. All your years on this forum you have provided very little factual information, but none that was not known already. Otherwise you have only provided so-called alternative facts, which are sometimes fascinating to observe for psychoanalytical purposes.

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
What? I'm now required to agree with anyone you call "conservative" or "literalist"?
An entrenched Trumpite who did not see the insurrection happening and thinks Hillary is somehow crooked while Trump is not obviously lacks sufficient epistemological acumen to agree or disagree with anything. 

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
(But I did note your failure to cite an example or culprit! :) Typical "ersi".)
The name and example is DeSantis. Come on, it's directly in the post you were responding to, inside the embedded quotes. Typical Oakdale dropping off half of the content when parsing sentences both when reading and writing. Since you are clearly overburdened with incoming information already, I won't bother you with any further details.
93
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Quote from: ersi on
The facts are as follows:

The immigrants are taken to where they do not want to go. They are not going by themselves. They are taken to where nobody expects them, i.e. they are literally dumped at the destination. The name of the crime is human trafficking.

And you are completely clueless of the fact that the American constitution has been argued (by "conservatives" and "literalists") to guarantee literally nothing to non-citizens. You really have no grasp on law. Same as on facts.
Sigh... Your set of "facts" supporting the human trafficking charge happens to be another of your delusions.

FYI: Resident Aliens are both subject to U.S. jurisdiction and protected by most constitutional provisions — one obvious exception being the right to vote in federal elections. :)
What? I'm now required to agree with anyone you call "conservative" or "literalist"? No thanks: I'm not a follower! And -even if I were- your pervasive and constant bad faith would preclude me from accepting your recommendations at face value...
(But I did note your failure to cite an example or culprit! :) Typical "ersi".)
94
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by ersi -
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Quote from: ersi on
But Trump will not be the overall winner of the presidential elections. He never got the popular vote ever once
Had you the ability and the inclination to pay attention, you'd know that winning the national popular vote doesn't matter...
I know this. Trump does not. His false argument for his victory is that he got more votes than anybody had ever seen, and he got even more the second time. Therefore "they stole it" even though all the traces of election theft are on him.

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Hillary Clinton learned that lesson the hard way! (Her husband tried to tell her...but I guess she believed her own hype. :) )
Had you the ability and the inclination to pay attention, you would actually note that Trump is yet to learn it. And he is making absolutely sure that he learns this in the hardest way anyone has ever seen.

But of course, you prefer factless partisan delusions of grand propaganda. Hillary conceded within a day. Trump has still not conceded to this day. Are you paying attention? No, you are not. Facts are not your thing.

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Quote from: ersi on
My own opinion of DeSantis is that of course he should be in jail by now too, for bussing immigrants.
Why? Once an "immigrant" is cleared by the federal authorities[1], they can go wherever they want!  In fact, the constitution guarantees such freedom of movement.
So you have not been paying any attention to this one either. The facts are as follows:

The immigrants are taken to where they do not want to go. They are not going by themselves. They are taken to where nobody expects them, i.e. they are literally dumped at the destination. The name of the crime is human trafficking.

And you are completely clueless of the fact that the American constitution has been argued (by "conservatives" and "literalists") to guarantee literally nothing to non-citizens. You really have no grasp on law. Same as on facts.

Then again, this is to be expected in the Trump cult. As you were.
1 Processed and given a court date for an administrative hearing...↵
95
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Quote from: ersi on
But Trump will not be the overall winner of the presidential elections. He never got the popular vote ever once
Had you the ability and the inclination to pay attention, you'd know that winning the national popular vote doesn't matter...
Hillary Clinton learned that lesson the hard way! (Her husband tried to tell her...but I guess she believed her own hype. :) )
Of course you wouldn't consider the possibility that Trump meant American voters were more numerous and engaged than ever before... :)

Quote from: ersi on
My own opinion of DeSantis is that of course he should be in jail by now too, for bussing immigrants.
Why? Once an "immigrant" is cleared by the federal authorities[1], they can go wherever they want! In fact, the constitution guarantees such freedom of movement.

What I consider to be DeSantis' strong points you likely decry — so we needn't go into his record of electoral success and his record as governor. Yes, he's Trump-y enough for me, with the advantage of being eligible to serve two terms — time enough to right the ship!
1 Processed and given a court date for an administrative hearing...↵
96
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by ersi -
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Are you off your meds, ersi? :)
I take this as one of your regular reflexive projections. Being a hyperpartisan hypocrite you think everyone else is a hyperpartisan hypocrite, and also, being on meds you think everybody else must be on meds as well.

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
(BTW: I still prefer DeSantis for the 2024 nomination... Hope my mentioning it again doesn't cause you any "cognitive dissonance"; as if that were a possibility!)
Sure enough this can be a possibility for you. It fits with your characteristic pattern by adding another layer of compulsive delusion. DeSantis is the Trumpiest of all Republican candidates. Maybe Ramaswamy would be Trumpier, but his skin colour prevents him from getting sponsors and supporters.

However, I have to warn you on two points. First, DeSantis is an actual politician. This means he is professionally guaranteed to disappoint you. He says Trumpy stuff, but he may very well turn around after he gets what he wants. And what does he want? As a politician, he wants the office, and do nothing with it. (On second thoughts, Trump also betrayed every promised value and principle once he got into office - actually he had already demonstrated that he has nothing to do with those values before he got into office -, but his supporters disregard this reality and stay with the Trump cult, so maybe this point will not deter you at all.)

Second, Trump is making sure that in the current Republican party no other candidate has a chance, except when Trump is literally gagged, handcuffed and thrown in jail. Or dies on the campaign trail. So if you want to stick with the likeliest winner among Republicans, it's Trump. But Trump will not be the overall winner of the presidential elections. He never got the popular vote ever once, despite his false claims to the contrary (which again should have been handled in the court system years ago, if law and order matters) and this time the establishment will make sure his election manipulations are actionably countered.

Edit: My own opinion of DeSantis is that of course he should be in jail by now too, for bussing immigrants. Or is there no legal punishment for that in USA? So much for being a law-and-order country then...
97
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Are you off your meds, ersi? :) Your hallucinatory world must be fascinating — as a case study!

(BTW: I still prefer DeSantis for the 2024 nomination... Hope my mentioning it again doesn't cause you any "cognitive dissonance"; as if that were a possibility!)
98
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by ersi -
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
But we'll see what happens, no?
So you lay all your love and hopes on Trump because he might become good in the future? Wait, this cannot be. You lay all your love and hopes on Trump because he is a Republican who worships power regardless of principles and so do you. You condone insurrection — as long as it is your guy doing it. This takes some major lack of legal and moral sensibilities.

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on
Quote from: ersi on
Trump should have been stopped at the latest when he was pimping together with Jeffrey Epstein back in the 90's
You mean when he barred Epstein from his clubs? Let's add libel to the list...
Wow, you were able to dig up a fact for once! Well done! Trump banned Epstein from his parties in 2008 after Epstein had already become a legally certified pedophile. However, I spoke about 90's, when Trump and Epstein were, hm, very intimate business partners in the same business servicing (themselves first of all but also) the Hollywood & financial & (worldwide!) political elite who were keeping it under the radar.[1] They are both pimps.

Since you are a hypocrite with no principles, you are perfectly fine with a pimp (and a dictator insurrectionist, obstructor of justice, tax evader, business fraudster, serial adulterer etc. etc.) if he is in your beloved political party. But here's a minor hilarious note: in 2008 Trump was a Democrat, so how can you possibly look favourably at the fact that he banned Epstein? Oh, right, you have no principles, therefore anything goes.

Well, you are in good company with Trump: He has no principles either, neither moral, legal or political! His main desire is to do stuff like shoot people on the Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and get away with it. And to pay no taxes because that makes him smart. Is there something similar you need to get away with too? You can open up here, we won't tell anyone :)

Until now I assumed you still had some way to go until absolute irreversible depravity. I didn't realise I had some way to go to drop all assumptions.
1 Edit: As a corollary, Trump has/shares dirt (in Russian, kompromat) on those people. This partly explains why the political elite (of both parties) and the judicial system pamper him on issues that would get an average person ostracised and jailed many times over. It's not due process that protects him. It's corrupt privilege. This corruption is part of why it can be reasonably expected that Supreme Court lets him off the hook with all aspects of the insurrection. The other part is that it is a solid political tradition that the president of USA has no accountability, and Trump did the insurrection while he was president, so there. For the same reasons, a similar outcome can be expected in the election theft case (which Trump will naturally appeal all the way to the Supreme Court), but perhaps not (one would hope, if law and order matters) in the case of theft of state documents, because that one he perpetrated while moving out of office.↵
99
DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Slogans and name-calling, and an incredulous bias are what you offer?

The New York civil trial (with no plaintiff!) is likely to lead to a U.S. Supreme Court case... :) While you may not like it or even understand it, the federal constitution is the supreme law of the land; and this use of prosecutorial over-reach is an affront to due process.
But we'll see what happens, no?


Quote from: ersi on
Trump should have been stopped at the latest when he was pimping together with Jeffrey Epstein back in the 90's
You mean when he barred Epstein from his clubs? Let's add libel to the list...
100
DnD Central / Re: If the Confederates had won.....!
Last post by OakdaleFTL -
Quote from: ersi on
Trump's pro-KKK comments
I assume you meant his "many fine people on both sides" comment on the so-called Tiki Torch protests way back when, over the tearing down of statues in public spaces... Of course, you think the only respectable opinion about such is acquiescence to the Mob! Just as you approve of any Democrat talking point... (Not that I think you believe such! But it's your wont to argue...)

About Haley "representing" the Republican Party, we have a way of determining if, indeed, she is the standard bearer: Primaries and caucuses. We shall see whether a sufficient majority of Republicans think she should be The Candidate in the general election...