Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "CNN" channel.

  1. TBH, if he warranted this much attention, I would think that it would warrant being careful enough to have something that would stick. It's not even just the amount of harassment of this guy, but it's even worse when you realize all the other crime going on that isn't being taken seriously so they can harass him.
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  2.  @austinbutler1291  Suspected non-citizens and at this point with the election 6 days away, any citizens that are caught up in this may not even have time to correct the record to get to vote. The state had plenty of time to deal with the problem, they just chose to wait until the last minute knowing that there was a period before the election that they wouldn't be allowed to remove anybody on a large scale. They could still remove individuals if they had specific knowledge that they weren't eligible, but that doesn't remove enough Democrats from the pool.
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  3. That's like saying that the Russians shouldn't need our permission to visit Alaska. Taiwan is their property according to them, the one China policy is more or less just something we say, it's not something that we're generally acting on. We make lip service to it and ask permission if we're going to go over there in an official policy just because it's the compromise that we've made to let the PRC save face. It's not generally acknowledged in the US, but the PRC has a number of "autonomous regions" including Tibet and Taiwan that are largely governed independently of the greater PRC. Doing something this stupid could easily cause problems not just of the PRC attacking us or our allies, but of sparking an internal civil war as there's a great deal of national regulatory action that is already being ignored by some of the provinces and other provinces are only nominally a part of the country. Not to mention that the whole thing is rather precarious and if the current leader loses the support of the People's Congress, there could well be a bloody struggle to replace him. When he was elevated to his current position, it was only the 2nd or so time that it had been done without bloodshed. And up until then it had been done every 10 years for decades, meaning that it was usually a bloody affair.
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  4.  @mrwascallyt9865  TBH, that doesn't mean much, before somebody takes the stand there's typically depositions where the attorneys ask a ton of questions, the ones on with the witness on the stand are typically either some of the ones that had been asked or are a response to questions that the opposing counsel asked. So, for her to claim not to know credibly is unlikely as she would have had to have already answered that question for the attorney to know to have the particular statement prepared to enter into evidence as her acknowledgement would likely be sufficient.
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  5.  @MaynardsSpaceship  If you can, some of us are needed to ensure that people are fed, not to mention the medical workers that are needed to treat everything.
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  6. Being an unforgivable asshole is now a legitimate self-preservation strategy.
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  7. This reminds me a bit of what I've heard about the Johnson administration when they were waging the Vietnam campaigns. He was micromanaging far more of it than was appropriate for somebody in his position, much of which is best left to lower ranking officers and possibly NCOs.
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  8.  @marymassey3843  When precisely did she lie under oath? Nobody bothered to do an investigation on the matter, but we do know from Kavanaugh's drinking buddies that he perjured himself when he claimed he never blacked out from drinking. We also know from common sensed that boofing is not farting. Honestly, what sort of moron thinks that there are people that old have never farted and are looking forward to doing that for the first time?
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  9. You don't get rich like that without exploiting other people. Nobody works that hard or efficiently. That money he has was only possible because we have tax and regulatory systems that are set up to take money from the poor and give them to the rich. I think it's cool and all, but let's be honest about the fact that you don't get that kind of money legitimately. It all comes from rightwing policies designed to rob the poor to enrich the rich.
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  10.  @SilentEcho9194  you can blame Steve Jobs for that problem, it used to be possible to disable transmission completely with a switch, but now it's completely impossible on most phones.
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  11. @UCjGRW5qik-9PLkAbB-S1ipg Sure it is, why wouldn't it be? If that's going to be the standard, then we are really not a very free society. There's a relatively small number of rights specifically stated in the Constitution, most of which were only ones that were important in the 18th century.
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  12. To some extent, most of this is what we already thought, but it's great to have an expert explaining a bit more about what may have happened. There will be an investigation and probably recriminations, but I'd be surprised if what she's saying isn't most of it.
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  13. Yep, Russia does have a history of hostage taking, so to give them the justification by breaking their laws is just ridiculous. Anybody who legitimately needs to travel to a country like that needs to be very aware of what the rules are and the resulting consequences of breaking them.
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  14.  Khalid  why make it illegal? The laws of thermodynamics pretty much ensure that this will never be better than a standard bullet train.
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  15.  @randal_gibbons  orbital and suborbital space travel will happen before this does. That at least is plausible. Roughly 90 minutes between any two places on earth and uses a lot less than the near infinite energy thus would take.
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  16.  @randal_gibbons  imagine jumping off a bridge into the water. If you're not treat high, it's fun, if you're several hundred feet up, it's fatal even though you can sink in it. The science on this is known and it's not ever going to be better than bullet trains or flying machines, it's just not possible without violating the laws of thermodynamics.
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  17. Yes, and it's just 14 years. In some countries, this would either be life or the death penalty. Whether or not that's an appropriate penalty, that is what the penalty is.
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  18.  @Yubyop  So, they vote down the confirmation if they don't like him. They didn't even go through with any of the process and wouldn't have confirmed anybody that the President nominated, that's not constitutional, and a part of what led to the lack of legitimacy in the court. For decades there have been justices added to the court that are not qualified as long as they're friendly to corporations, expansive on government rights and will vote the right way on abortion rights.
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  19. Nearly infinite cash would be required to operate it over a nontrivial distance. The world's largest vacuum chamber is a small fraction of the volume of tube needed just to go between nearby towns. You wouldn't even be able to get up to speed snd slowed in that distance.
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  20.  @beach-px5dy  ATC contributed to it, but from what I understand was in contact with the helicopter warning that it was on a collision course. I don't know why the ATC didn't tell the jet to just abort the landing attempt and come around for another go when the helicopter didn't appear to be properly responding to what was going on.
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  21. Precisely, this is just the latest sign that the people recognize that the court lacks any legitimacy after that cute maneuver by McConnell to refuse to seat Obama's nominee and the nomination of more justices that are clearly not qualified, including several that perjured themselves during their confirmation hearings. This has been a long time coming, it's just getting faster. Legalizing all manner of corruption and allowing things like GITMO and DHS to get away with murder is hardly making things better.
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  22. Russia has a history of taking hostages on questionable grounds. It happens periodically and it's really best not to give them the opportunity.
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  23. Because Russia. If we're going to be upset with them over their laws, there's far better things to be upset with.
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  24.  @TheDrAstrov  If you're going to astroturf, please do so in the language you're responding to. If you're not astroturfing, please do it in the language you're responding to.
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  25.  @jimmason8502  Pot is a good choice for that kind of problem, more so than the other options. Just not if you're living in or traveling to/through countries where it's illegal.
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  26. @Hope Fliers or the local Macdonald's is out of macnuggets.
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  27.  @Powderlover1  That's no more, or less, true today than it was decades ago when this compromise was struck. The PRC got to save face, and Taiwan got to operate as the ROC in a largely independent fashion. It's not a stable arrangement, and as long as our corrupt politicians aren't so arrogant as to poke the (panda) bear, it would probably hold out long enough for the PRC size to shrink and the people to start seeing that there can be a better life for them in their own country. It remains to be seen what comes of it, but it won't be anything good.
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  28.  @FhillipFry  How is that different from the other autonomous regions in the PRC that don't start with a T? Taiwan is only different in terms of being the ROC and where the government of China fled when Mao was consolidating power.
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  29. Yes, by a lot. This isn't that much faster than what trains in the US can manage now.
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  30.  @robertlee8805  what hyperloop is going 600mph? None of them are or will, they depend on a vacuum that can't be created or maintained.
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  31.  @randal_gibbons  that didn't require a rewrite of the same laws of thermodynamics that were required to build the thing in the first place.
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  32. Why? Her vote isn't sufficient to change anything. The Dems needed 2 GOP votes to flip. Only one did and in exchange we had Manchin voting the wrong way yet again. If Chucky the shoe had some actual integrity, Manchin would be off every committee he's on and not receive any party support. This is so bad that he should be excommunicated from the party even if it means losing the seat.
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  33. Considering that he perjured himself multiple times and thinks that perjury is a high crime, the GOP shouldn't be voting to confirm him. And that's best case, worst case is that all the allegations are true, so he's not just guilty of perjury, but of those sex crimes as well.
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  34. I feel like we need a change of laws to make submitting false accusations of voting fraud a crime that carries with it loss of voting privileges. I'm not suggesting that it be automatic, but if there's no basis for the belief that there's actual fraud when the report was made, there should be consequences for the parties that are benefiting from the witch hunt.
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  35.  @ErikCrowKrahe  what's more awesome is going through space to get where you want to go. It's faster, more flexible, more fun and just as fatal if you screw it up.
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  36.  @thirstfast1025  we've been putting trains in tubes since the 19th century, the issue is that you hit a point where you can't increase the speed and capacity enough to compete with the aerospace industry.
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  37. This seems foolish of her. These are some pretty serious crimes even if the goal is something that's relatively banal.
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  38. I don't think that giving lipservice to the PRC while effectively undermining them and their "control" of the island is really that big of a deal. People who are saying otherwise are ignorant about what the current status quo is. We pretty much just say that Taiwan is part of the PRC, and that's more or less the end of it. We're still ensuring that they have military gear to help put off an invasion and other things that wouldn't be consistent with us considering the island to be owned by the PRC.
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  39. No, the message is that we need to deal with our corruption before we lecture foreign nations about it. How precisely does she have the right to drag us into something that's at most a cold war and more of a rivalry while orchestrating the movies that gave most of the power that the PRC has to it?
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  40. It must be nice to live in a state where your vote actually matters. Politicians mostly don't even bother to campaign here and the President rarely even bothers to make promises during the campaign for things we want. Time to end the electoral college. Why should small states and ones that are evenly divided be the only ones that count?
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  41.  @Himmiefan  The tower was clearly adequately staffed at the time, it appears to have been a combination of an unclear command and a helicopter that wasn't flying at the altitude it was supposed to be at. Having more controllers isn't likely to have had much of an impact on this.
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  42. They've been doing that sort of thing around here for decades. The GOP isn't popular enough to win state wide races, but they are close enough to come close at times. So, logically rather than trying to offer up policies that might be more mainstream they kept insisting that it was elections fraud. It was absolutely hilarious when one of the gubernatorial races went to the courts and the GOP didn't just fail to get any of the Democratic votes tossed, they did wind up losing a few votes due to various issues. This is probably going to be increasingly common as the Democrats keep letting the GOP get away with gerrymandering and rigging elections by setting up an absurd set of standards that allow them to remove just the voters that they think are going to vote against them from the rolls.
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  43.  @poruatokin  yes, the main issue with it was cost and the ultimate development of better telecommunications equipment. The sonic boom wasn't anymore of an issue for it than other aircraft capable of supersonic speed. The sr-71 otoh, leaked like a sieve at lower speeds and would have issues with that.
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  44.  @poruatokin  it's the same problem, the energy necessary to make any meaningful reduction dooms this. You're not going to drop pressure enough to compete with the aerospace industry that just had to get the items up to where pressure drops on it's own and isn't constrained to specify routes. Bullet trains themselves already go so fast that you're not going to benefit much from a reduction in air pressure, as those who need even faster just fly. Additionally, tunneling is expensive and inflexible to begin with.
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  45.  @rixtrix11  Yep, we'll have to see if there's an answer for why the helicopter was up there. The altimeter should have indicated the proper altitude. We don't know if it was ignored, if it was broken in some fashion. Presumably, the night vision gear doesn't prevent it from being read.
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  46.  @beach-px5dy  From what I've heard, having just one up there isn't necessarily a problem and there's others on site that can come up if there's a need. Also, if that airport is at all like the one here, it quiets down a fair bit at night.
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  47. Not necessarily some people are so delusional that nothing shy of that will clue them into the fact that their marriage is even in trouble. The problem tends to be that by the time the threat is made, one party has so miserably failed to pay attention to the marriage or put work into it, that there's not much that can be done to fix things.
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  48.  @lolawants2008  Non-smart phones had better methods of locking the keypad that wouldn't just go off and dial 911 in your pocket. There was a massive public awareness campaign covering that. Most of the buttdials to 911 are specifically because Steve Jobs wouldn't allow a physical method of preventing it that wasn't subject to butt dials.
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  49. It's easy to be moral when you can count on all of your fellow party members, including Manchin, to vote to confirm. They didn't need her vote, had Flake not Flaked out, that would have made it a tougher decision.
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  50. Why stop now? They've been nominated unqualified judges for the post for decades now. Thomas, Scalia and now Kavanaugh are the most egregious examples. They're put on the court specifically because they're known to be incompetent in a way that's convenient for the donors.
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