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Last posted Oct 29, 2024 at 10:17PM EDT. Added Jan 01, 2017 at 06:26PM EST
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Gilan wrote:

Designer in Supreme Court ruling cited client who denies making wedding site request

" A Colorado web designer who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday could refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples cited a request from a man who says he never asked to work with her.
The request in dispute, from a person identified as "Stewart," wasn't the basis for the federal lawsuit filed preemptively seven years ago by web designer Lorie Smith, before she started making wedding websites. But as the case advanced, it was referenced by her attorneys when lawyers for the state of Colorado pressed Smith on whether she had sufficient grounds to sue."

…

"He added that he was a designer and "could design my own website if I need to" -- and was concerned no one had checked into the validity of the request cited by Smith until recently."
"Smith's lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said at a Friday news conference that the wedding request naming Stewart was submitted through Smith's website and denied it was fabricated. She suggested it could have been a troll making the request". "It's undisputed that the request was received," Waggoner said. "Whether that was a troll and not a genuine request, or it was someone who was looking for that, is really irrelevant to the case."
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Friday called the lawsuit a "made up case" because Smith wasn't offering wedding website services when the suit was filed.

(Counterpoint)

"Any claim that Lorie will never receive a request to create a custom website celebrating a same-sex ceremony is no longer legitimate because Lorie has received such a request," they said. Smith's Supreme Court filings briefly mentioned she received at least one request to create a website celebrating the wedding of a same-sex couple. There did not appear to be any reference to the issue in the court's decision.

Incredible, a "troll" is the best excuse that a lawyer could come up with. Even the lawyer isn't even trying to pretend that it was a valid request. Of course it's important ! She could have sent the request to herself, this goes beyond activist Judge.

Another transparent and cynical move from the Christian Nationalists, morally bankrupt as usual and any pretensions of standards is just a way for them to exert control.

Cynical is generous, this move is outright malicious and deceptive. I hope Lorie and all her cohorts see hell for this.

@Lone K.(Echoid)

It seems multiple fraudulent case made it to the Supreme Court, there's now even news that Lori's "design business" wasn't even fully implemented before she filed the suit. It was litigation bait from the start. Same thing for the Student Debt case actually, there was a false claim about Missouri's MOHELA, and it didn't even ask for the case to proceed.

This was pure cherry-picking of cases for ideological grounds, but there's the added issue of how incompetent and/or apathetic arbitrary this move was.

I'm more of a material bent, so I hope Lorie and her cohorts get counter-sued.

@Spaghetto

I'd like to point out that you're assuming motivations, that people not only dislike "Justice" Thomas, because he's unjust and corrupt, but because he's a black conservative.

It's like people who said that you can't dislike the Star Wars Sequels for valid reasons. I hated it because it was poorly paced and written, and the tokenism was just a shield for any critique.No, "you hate it because you're racist", and when the Sequels became indefensible, suddenly it was "okay there's issues, but a lot of critique was because of racism".

You're pretty much doing that.

It's a lower stakes example, but since someone mentioned how one of his issues with SJW is how they ruined media and media discussion, I don't think it's laudable to transplant that tactic into "bigger" political issues.

Last edited Jul 04, 2023 at 09:48AM EDT

Its hard for me to like corporations because "doing things for money" is one of the motivation I respect the least.

I tend to have more respect for people doing things out of hate, envy or spite (though they are also really bad) than someone doing things purely out of greed so its hard for me to like corporations as they seemingly can only care about money.

This isnt even a criticism of capitalism in general inherently I just dont respect corporate culture.

I dont even hate corporation per se (hate is a strong word) I am pretty they are often necesary (for good or for ill) I just really dont respect them, they just have very…unsympathetic motivations imo.

It's really not fair to do so, it's moronic and again childish to ignore actual experts and just paying attention to attention whores

…said Pope Leo X when Martin Luther said "indulgences are whack, and peasants should be allowed to read the Bible"

I kid, but seriously, you shouldn't blindly trust people just because they call themselves "experts". It's not a word that puts you above having your motives or veracity questioned; and indeed, the more drastic the orders are from an "expert", the more harshly you should question their intentions. It also doesn't necessarily make you right. "Expert economist" Paul Krugman, for example, has spent the last 25+ years of his career being wrong about basically everything, and people somehow still listen to him.

I'd like to point out that you're assuming motivations, that people not only dislike "Justice" Thomas, because he's unjust and corrupt, but because he's a black conservative.

Yeah, and I'd like to point out that you're assuming my motivations. This was never about you or Kups, but more a general observation of shit I've seen elsewhere.

This was pure cherry-picking of cases for ideological grounds, but there's the added issue of how incompetent and/or apathetic arbitrary this move was.

This makes me curious about rulings made during more concretely "liberal" courts… so I'll go and look into that over the next couple days.

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality--judiciously, as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities" – Anonymous Bush Administration Staffer, the "reality-based community" comment.

Bush certainly did that with climate change and the IAEA.

The reverse knee-jerk reaction to discredit experts because it's inconvenient is also an issue. We see now what having amateurs who have no experience or qualifications has panned out and if you're going to mention authoritarianism, it's far-more Orwellian to have a reality where there are no facts and everything is subject to sentiment and political convenience. The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Mao's China were notoriously feels > reals.

I'm not assuming your motivation for one core criticism, you outright accused a nebulous "other", of their motivations, when you don't know their motives either. The assumption is that you were referring to us, considering this forum, but hey, if you didn't mean it that way, than the criticism has no ground.

This makes me curious about rulings made during more concretely "liberal" courts… so I'll go and look into that over the next couple days.

You do that, that'd be a productive way to go about it, see if there were any comparable outrages in the past. We'd defer to your expertise in that case.

Last edited Jul 04, 2023 at 01:10PM EDT

No!! wrote:

Things been too (relatively) nice lately now that covid is mostly gone, its too calm in fact.

Something bad is coming soon, something big and bad….

Robo-ebola, just in time for the end of the world in 2027.

The summer is pretty hot, doesn't that count? Problem is, it's not new.

I complained last year about the garden dying, and it feels like small potatoes compared to now. Only real change for example is that Texas's energy grid is still inadequate, but now a few more people dead from working in the heat made the news (some as consequence of their lack of regulation on mandating water-breaks)

Last edited Jul 10, 2023 at 05:21AM EDT

US sees surge in efforts to weaken child labor regulations

Sorry if it's lazy to just link an article, but this isn't anything new either, it's just that 10 states have loosened child labour laws. At the risk of repeating myself, those underage can now work in meat-packing, timber and bars, but can't vote or have a drink (especially since there's some who want to raise the age to vote).

"Protect the children", indeed.

Last edited Jul 12, 2023 at 08:00AM EDT

Gilan wrote:

US sees surge in efforts to weaken child labor regulations

Sorry if it's lazy to just link an article, but this isn't anything new either, it's just that 10 states have loosened child labour laws. At the risk of repeating myself, those underage can now work in meat-packing, timber and bars, but can't vote or have a drink (especially since there's some who want to raise the age to vote).

"Protect the children", indeed.

I don't see what is particularly wrong about this. Growing up I had friends who came from less-than-great economic backgrounds that didn't want to go to college, nor really could afford to do so. They did however want to have some serious part-time after school jobs that they had to go through hoops and ladders to get.

Ironically, some of them ended up making more money than a lot of my college educated friends because they started earning earlier, often in jobs most people don't realize pay really well. Nor are they saddled with debt.

Furthermore, I am guessing a lot of these roll-backs are in more rural states where options for economic advancement is much more limited. And it seems the rollbacks aren't about "safety" but the age and requirements that young people need to get work.

Reading the Guardian article suggests exactly that – many of these rollbacks are in more rural areas. What I don't like is the emotional tug-and-pull of the article, and baseless stat-throwing without backing any of it up.

What the Democrats should do is fight for better workplace safety.

And can we stop referring to 16 or 17 year olds as "children"? It's such an overwhelmingly loaded term.

Chewybunny wrote:

I don't see what is particularly wrong about this. Growing up I had friends who came from less-than-great economic backgrounds that didn't want to go to college, nor really could afford to do so. They did however want to have some serious part-time after school jobs that they had to go through hoops and ladders to get.

Ironically, some of them ended up making more money than a lot of my college educated friends because they started earning earlier, often in jobs most people don't realize pay really well. Nor are they saddled with debt.

Furthermore, I am guessing a lot of these roll-backs are in more rural states where options for economic advancement is much more limited. And it seems the rollbacks aren't about "safety" but the age and requirements that young people need to get work.

Reading the Guardian article suggests exactly that – many of these rollbacks are in more rural areas. What I don't like is the emotional tug-and-pull of the article, and baseless stat-throwing without backing any of it up.

What the Democrats should do is fight for better workplace safety.

And can we stop referring to 16 or 17 year olds as "children"? It's such an overwhelmingly loaded term.

Gee maybe the problem is that their families are poor in the first place
nobody under 18 should ever be forced to work a job
and it's sickening you are defending child labor "overwhelmingly loaded" nice lawyer speak

Kenetic Kups wrote:

Gee maybe the problem is that their families are poor in the first place
nobody under 18 should ever be forced to work a job
and it's sickening you are defending child labor "overwhelmingly loaded" nice lawyer speak

"Why don't you just stop being poor, you fool!"

Yeah, their families are poor, and you know what may alleviate that? Having another person in the household be able to provide a bit, help out a bit, maybe even help their siblings or the next generation to have it easier. And yes it absolutely does benefit industries that could use the labor. But it also has a benefit to the person who's being employed.

Saying a 17-year-old is a "Child" and in as little as a year they suddenly become an "Adult" is ridiculous.

When someone says to you "child" in any political context, they are mostly evoking an image of a small child, an 6-10 year old. Not a goddam 17-year-old. And you KNOW this when you hear stories of a 17 year old high school jock accused of rape and the excusers come out screaming "he's just a child!"

And this is what even the article talks about: 16-17 year olds wanting to (or having to) work.

There is this notion that the author of the article, yourself, and much of modern American society has about glorification of the educated, the esteemed modern literati, as the only pathway forward to success. And that everyone must become one of them.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans are finding their own way, through small businesses, working in trades such as plumbing, electricians, etc.

It's so goddam aristocratic.

And so the author of the article laments that young adults who enter these workforces too soon will have a lesser chance of going to higher education. And how dare these "helpless little babies" be allowed to work in dangerous jobs?

Rather than advocate for better workplace safety standards, which by the way benefit all the workers, you lament that these 17 year olds have to work?

The sheer privilege.

Chewybunny wrote:

"Why don't you just stop being poor, you fool!"

Yeah, their families are poor, and you know what may alleviate that? Having another person in the household be able to provide a bit, help out a bit, maybe even help their siblings or the next generation to have it easier. And yes it absolutely does benefit industries that could use the labor. But it also has a benefit to the person who's being employed.

Saying a 17-year-old is a "Child" and in as little as a year they suddenly become an "Adult" is ridiculous.

When someone says to you "child" in any political context, they are mostly evoking an image of a small child, an 6-10 year old. Not a goddam 17-year-old. And you KNOW this when you hear stories of a 17 year old high school jock accused of rape and the excusers come out screaming "he's just a child!"

And this is what even the article talks about: 16-17 year olds wanting to (or having to) work.

There is this notion that the author of the article, yourself, and much of modern American society has about glorification of the educated, the esteemed modern literati, as the only pathway forward to success. And that everyone must become one of them.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans are finding their own way, through small businesses, working in trades such as plumbing, electricians, etc.

It's so goddam aristocratic.

And so the author of the article laments that young adults who enter these workforces too soon will have a lesser chance of going to higher education. And how dare these "helpless little babies" be allowed to work in dangerous jobs?

Rather than advocate for better workplace safety standards, which by the way benefit all the workers, you lament that these 17 year olds have to work?

The sheer privilege.

I never said "just stop being poor" i stated they shouldn't be poor in the first place, if they have children they should be eligible for help
"Rather than advocate for better workplace safety standards, which by the way benefit all the workers, you lament that these 17 year olds have to work?"
blow it out your pretentious ass
they are not adults and should not need to work, and don't for a second pretend you won't be calling it "litterally communism" the moment any law is proposed to do it mr contrarian for the sake of itself

the rest of your drivel is just the usual whining about "education bad" and how dare anyone think that people shouldn't have to work themselves to death

and since you're so triggered by me saying child how about minor, you want minors to have to work full time rather than the sane concept of monetary assistance to families who need it

@Chewybunny

I'll try to give a more in-depth answer later, although there's a few things I want to answer immediately.

"Why don't you just stop being poor, you fool!
Yeah, their families are poor, and you know what may alleviate that? Having another person in the household be able to provide a bit, help out a bit, maybe even help their siblings or the next generation to have it easier.

So the answer is to put the burden on the worker? Now it's not enough for one person to work for a household, nor two, so why not get the whole family working? May as well restart serfdom at this rate.What does actually help the next generation is education, especially with the current technological trends. Fair access so you don't strangle Mozart in the crib.

No, it's not a moral failing to be against repealing of child labour. If anything, it's a neo-liberal tendency to paint exploitation as an opportunity, and like 'trickle down economics' is all a lie. It's a race to the bottom, and that's known because this issue of loosening child labour regulations isn't new, nor is it slowing down.

It's not new either that kids who work don't do as well at school, and that is more likely to keep they and their family from social mobility than any contravention against them working. Especially hungry kids as Republicans Declare Banning Universal Free School Meals a 2024 Priority

Furthermore, I am guessing a lot of these roll-backs are in more rural states where options for economic advancement is much more limited

I grew up in a rural area, and my grandmother was adamant the rest of the family focused on school. It worked, this is not a rural issue, it's a political issue.

And can we stop referring to 16 or 17 year olds as "children"? It's such an overwhelmingly loaded term.

14 actually, and at timber & meat-packing plants. Forgive me if I still refer to teens as "kids".

The smile of an ogress

The above also absolved businesses of injuries caused to those young workers, even those caused by the business themselves and puts the onus on reporting on the worker (those young who are easy to bully). It's also known that the youth also has a statistical increase for dangerous accidents.

16 is also quite young to die to an industrial accident

I said "Protect the children", because a mixture of deregulation on labour laws, repeal of laws on abortion, religious education and social net makes that sound like a sick joke. The states doing this are heading straight into third-world standards.

Last edited Jul 12, 2023 at 04:43PM EDT

>So the answer is to put the burden on the worker?
Unironically, yes.
There is no guarantee that a higher education is going to translate into higher wages. Especially these days when that higher education comes with at least ten to fifteen years of debt payments that are increasingly impossible to meet. Here's the thing:

The US has a 40% college dropout rate for undergraduates. 89% of low-income first-generation students drop out, which is four times higher than second-generation students. 43% of students who have enrolled for a 2-year public school dropped out before even getting a degree. 50% of students at public universities drop out. And this doesn't even include race components which make these statistics even worse.

This idea that we should be pushing everyone to go through higher education, saddled with debt, is asinine when the reality is that not everyone is capable of, or should go to college. Even if you remove the tuition factor, even if you make college admission and tuition tax-funded entirely, you are still dedicating 2-6 years of your life that you could have been working and making money, to having to invest that time, and life-upkeep costs towards something that there is a high probability you'd never finish.

It is cruel to put set up a system that promises young people, many of whom do not have the support system, the intelligence, or the dedication, to pursue a higher degree.

Especially now a days, when it's becoming increasingly clear that AI is going to be greatly affecting the job market of people who largely come out of higher education. NOT the labor-intensive jobs, but the office-level, white collar jobs.

I grew up as an immigrant, and among immigrants. You know what makes so many immigrants in the US succeed? The mentality of generational wealth growth, a long-term view: the first generation of immigrants come to the US and work their asses off to create the conditions for the second generation (their kids) to have better opportunities or ability to create wealth, so that their children, the third generation, has the luxury to pursue their dreams better.

It baffles me that there is so little institutional attention paid to how millions of Americans, millions of immigrants, are able to build successful lives in the US without having a higher education. Work apprenticeships, small businesses, multiple jobs.

Why aren't we encouraging young men and women to become entrepreneurs? To pursue trade careers, such as electricians, plumbing, locksmithing, welding, etc.

Hell we don't even teach our students that college itself is an investment.

The article talked about one case of a 14-year-old working in logging. Most of these have to do with 16–17-year-olds. And it's a damn tragedy that they would die from an industrial accident, but it seems to me that issue has to do with workplace safety, NOT the fact that there was a young person working there.

Teens are not kids. Young adults are not kids.
A 16 year old is completely and totally in a different place in life than a 10 year old. And referring to them as "kids" is stupid. My stance on this stems from how often people refer to 16-17 year olds doing horrible shit and getting consequences for it as "kids".

Last edited Jul 13, 2023 at 12:21PM EDT

@Chewybunny

Unironically yes

Another sacrifice demanded of the worker, I'd like to point out that the spiel of the "American Dream": is becoming increasingly hollow with the Global Social Mobility Index ranking them at 27. Consider how even the Republican's base is conscious of that (even if they blamed other countries for that instead of their own parasitical leaders).

I'd like to point out that college isn't the same thing as high-school. Tertiary education isn't necessary,y but secondary education is. I'm willing to talk about colleges being over-emphasized, but this is a completely different topic.

This isn't deferring from college to work in apprenticeship. It's having teens work in sawmills, bars or meat-packing factories, there is no future from that, debatable transferable skills, nor is there wealth being saved for a future generation with our current economy.

It is ensuring a generational cycle of ignorance and dedicated "cheap labour". The US is going backwards here, most countries want to reduce that pool amongst their population not increase it. I know so because some here have had quite a lot to say about unskilled immigration.

that issue has to do with workplace safety, NOT the fact that there was a young person working there.

Than maybe those Republicans could pass some bills for worker's safety, instead of lowering age requirements and trying to pass the responsibility of the other party to do their job for them !

But we both know that will never happen, instead they'll keep cutting standards. That's the slippery slope.

The danger and age is linked, one reason why we don't have junior employees work difficult jobs is that they're at greater risk of dying, there's a reason why certain jobs have an age requirement.

Why aren't we encouraging young men and women to become entrepreneurs? To pursue trade careers, such as electricians, plumbing, locksmithing, welding, etc.

Germany has a system of different schooling with differences between the Hauptschule and the Gymasium. It is very interesting and useful.

This is not what the US is doing. At all. They are not creating skilled workers or entrepreneurs, this move creates unskilled labour. This is not an economic opportunity, it's economic damnation. Especially as we move to a need of some kind of skills, we have enough bodies in the world. Give it a generation and China will have reversed with the prior US in terms of industries they specialize in.

You know what would create more trade skills? Setup alternative schooling, but that means actually building something.

The article talked about one case of a 14-year-old working in logging. Most of these have to do with 16–17-year-olds

If a 14 appears, than the standard is at age 14. Focusing on 16-17 makes it sound "less bad", but if 14 is perfectly legal, than the criticism can be on letting people work age 14. Look, if law was set to an insane 6, would it make sense for you to want to focus on 16? We discuss the limits of the law set, not the ones you wish.

Same for all of the above, you're talking about college, but at the ages mentioned it's not college which is in question. It's high school or even middle school.

Last edited Jul 13, 2023 at 02:20PM EDT

@Gilan
>Another sacrifice demanded of the worker, I'd like to point out that the spiel of the "American Dream": is becoming increasingly hollow with the Global Social Mobility Index ranking them at 27.

I am going to take the WEF ranking report, that is based entirely on methodology that has no scientific consensus or grounding in, with a grain of salt, thank you very much.

>Tertiary education isn't necessary,y but secondary education is. I'm willing to talk about colleges being over-emphasized, but this is a completely different topic.

Actually, this is a major part of the heart of my topic on this issue. I agree, tertiary education isn't necessary. But there is a lot of social pressure in the US to get one.

I also strongly disagree with you on the premise that there is no future for these teens, because they started working in these fields earlier. The real problem is that we've created a society where the only future for anyone is only in big-cities. Luckily, that may be changing, and I hope it does. Remote working, better infrastructure and a more diverse culture would greatly improve the prospects of people in more rural areas.

>he US is going backwards here, most countries want to reduce that pool amongst their population not increase it.

So why are these countries so desperate to import cheap labor, largely from the middle east?

>Than maybe those Republicans could pass some bills for worker's safety, instead of lowering age requirements and trying to pass the responsibility of the other party to do their job for them !

>Germany has a system of different schooling with differences between the Hauptschule and the Gymasium. It is very interesting and useful.

>You know what would create more trade skills? Setup alternative schooling, but that means actually building something.

100% agreed.
150% agreed. In fact.
I actually think the US would do well to adapt the German model here.

We're talking about college because I point out that the article specifically laments that these workers are harming their college prospects, which of all arguments I think is the most horseshit.

@Chewybunny

I am going to take the WEF ranking report, that is based entirely on methodology that has no scientific consensus or grounding in, with a grain of salt, thank you very much.

That's fair, but it's not the only source about comparative social mobility getting lower for the US, it was just the most immediate with a ranking. The rhetoric of "sticking it for the American Dream" is pretty discredited, to be overtly cynical, it's like hearing someone say about invasions to install democracies (that used to be popular).

That's the case even among the American Right, do I have to prove that there was a general malaise among the "abandoned" of the Red States? That they couldn't raise a family and living with what their grandparents used to do?

On this very forum I recall someone here (maybe you, I'm not sure) talked about why the Rust Belt turned Red ! Than there was a claim that the American Dream was in trouble. Why the sudden about face?

In The changing geography of social mobility in the United States , for example, a lot of South & Middle America especially as seeing that "American Dream" slip away. Cutting working age regulations is not sticking it to the Billionaire's club that is the WEF.

I also strongly disagree with you on the premise that there is no future for these teens, because they started working in these fields earlier.

The jobs available to them are pure manual labour, the type of job matters !

To once again reference my grandparent's generation who had to work these jobs young (it's anecdotal evidence, I know, but they worked there), there is no future there, they'll be doing the same thing until the end and those jobs use you up and give shit-pay. You don't even make enough capital to start being an entrepreneur. If you want to do something for the next generation you don't slot them into that.

Which is why the previous "American Dream" rhetoric of doing it for the next generation outraged me, they're leaving the next generation poorer off, it's metaphorically eating their own children ! You know why I mentioned cutting of aid for school lunches?Because it's removing options to do anything else, to climb that ladder. This is not giving an option, it's taking it away. It's only an opportunity for bosses who can have easily bully-able workers.

Remote working, better infrastructure and a more diverse culture would greatly improve the prospects of people in more rural areas.

You don't remote-work a "killing floor scrubber's job, or any of these other jobs and diverse culture and infrastructure is like worker's regulations with these red states:

It would be nice if they did implement them. Do either of us believe they will ever implement them? They haven't and they could, so it's safe to say they won't. There's no use blaming democrats for what is state policy.

These proposed measures are silicon valley being out of touch.

So why are these countries so desperate to import cheap labor, largely from the middle east?

I also said "amongst their population".

Political history, a lot of Europe has anti-immigration parties gaining popularity/in power. In France, there isn't enough jobs for a lot of immigrants, we've had a glut of people doing nothing, because there's too many workers and not enough jobs (And yet we don't have enough skilled workers). Same for other countries, and with technological trends it's going to get worse.

Despite the words of people like Gina Rhinehart who say we need to compete with 2$ African miners, turning your own population back into borderline serfs isn't the answer. If anything, it'll worsen the disparity of people with not enough work and constantly unfilled positions due to lack of requirements. It's only an "opportunity" for those who want to reduce costs.

Which is pure short-term thinking, because having a population which has means is also a good-way to stimulate an economy. A struggling population is not a good base for a strong-economy !

I actually think the US would do well to adapt the German model here.

The Germans were the first to adapt Kindergartens of good-quality, and their alternative schooling is of quality and assisted by some form of welfare (and it's not pure socialist sentiment, even the German Empire understood it's value in investment).

The early-work? Those are apprenticeships, there's a whole system in place. This is not what the US is doing. You're focusing on the "benefits" of lowered working ages, without taking into consideration the rest of the work needed, that's my criticism. A policy needs it's whole package, because isolated from the rest of the work, it turns into something completely different.

If a country promises to bulldoze a neigborhood, and than rebuild it into something new and modernized, that's good, right? However, what happens if they simply bulldoze? Than it's simply destruction. Most of the time you expect to see a blueprint of the new neighborhood, not cheer on the bulldozers on the assumption that something will be built afterwards.

That metaphor got a bit twisted at the end, because most measures like alternative schools should be done before the lowering of working age.

-.We're talking about college because I point out that the article specifically laments that these workers are harming their college prospects, which of all arguments I think is the most horseshit

Not doing well in secondary education certainly does harm college prospects. As well as most other prospects. Jobs like specialty carpenters (which is great demand) that I know are expected to complete secondary school by the way.

No!! wrote:

I do NOT trust De Santis, he is planning shit…shady shit

Given the chance he'd bring plantations and slavery back out of spite. He's a monster, and so are all the people who enable him. I don't care how nice they act.

thebigguy123 wrote:

Given the chance he'd bring plantations and slavery back out of spite. He's a monster, and so are all the people who enable him. I don't care how nice they act.

Yeah I agree guy would make homosexuality illegal again if he was allowed

Seems we're reaching the 'They're going to put y'all back in chains' stage a year early this go around.

A rather forboding indicator of the levels of hysteria they will be trying to have you reach by this time next year.

Last edited Jul 21, 2023 at 01:12PM EDT

thebigguy123 wrote:

Given the chance he'd bring plantations and slavery back out of spite. He's a monster, and so are all the people who enable him. I don't care how nice they act.

What exclusive exposure to terminally online left-wing fearmongering does to a mf

That said, I do think there's something "off" about him, though it could just be that his attempt at 2024 candidacy seems ill-advised, too soon.

Anyway, in more significant news, the oldest guy in the American government did a funny and leaked a peculiar document. Despite it being technically unclassified, the FBI were really tight-lipped about this one until they got pressured to share it with lawmakers this June.

It's unclear when or if the FBI (or any other investigative body) followed through on the information provided by this informant. But it's interesting nonetheless, given its date.

Spaghetto wrote:

What exclusive exposure to terminally online left-wing fearmongering does to a mf

That said, I do think there's something "off" about him, though it could just be that his attempt at 2024 candidacy seems ill-advised, too soon.

Yeah it's totally not like he's a fascist who's currently rewriting history to justify slavery

Lets imagine, merely for the sake of the thought experiment, that we aren't intercontinental telepaths and thus cannot know precisely to what you are referring without you telling us directly.

Last edited Jul 21, 2023 at 02:20PM EDT

Spaghetto wrote:

What exclusive exposure to terminally online left-wing fearmongering does to a mf

That said, I do think there's something "off" about him, though it could just be that his attempt at 2024 candidacy seems ill-advised, too soon.

Considering how little my own "left-wing fearmongering" has managed to sink in, it can't be that.

Anyway, I've thought something was wrong with De Santis for quite a while now. His policies, unsavory allegation of personal misconduct & past in Guantánamo, financial mismanagement & incompetence and personal lack of charisma.

Really, everyone here can take their pick of reasons to not like this guy.

De Santis is old Republican policies (pre-Trump) with an extremist flair. Old institutions, but completely out of control.

Take for example the after-effects of his sponsoring of groups like "Moms against Liberty", the dire version of your regular run of the mill moral guardians. Recent news is they finally got labelled as an "extremist" group

No surprise since the last time they were mentioned here, one had been convicted of harassement. We can't blame access to the internet, some of the cases are of direct intimidation.

Look I am all for diversity but it gotta make sense

The japanese where the MAIN ENEMIES of the USA, like massive bitter hatred at the time the only way japanese people were going to show up and it actually be historically acurate it would be them getting murdered one way or another….KIND OF A PROBLEM.

Couldnt you have them as an ally to Oppenheimer in some way? NO, it was 1926 during ww2, racial tensions werent…the best to say the least just saying.

I think people forget how full of hatred people were at the time, racist lynchings were still going on and they would keep going on strong for another 40 freaking years, KKK was going strong too ,Japan had attacked the USA unprovoked and they were PISSED. FUCKING SUPERMAN was telling people to "slap a jap" for god sake!

I'll actually take the opposite position and slightly agree with Anthony (even if it's probably for different reasons).

That there wasn't really a French person in Dunkirk, nor even a slight POV from a Japanese person in Oppenheimer is annoying. WWII in general suffer from a lot of myths. How many think the liberation of France's are only the Normandy Landings and US, when the whole Canadians and Brits were also heavily involved?

Yes, the Japanese wouldn't be an ally, but it's no use papering over the hatred the US did have towards the Japanese during that time (some of it justified, but still). It'll be interesting in having to think on that in context of the aftermath of the bomb vaporizing cities of Japanese people.

Well, it is what it is. Dunkirk's focus was on the British evacuating and Oppenheimer is still a very good political drama and movie in general. Movies need to tighten their scope to make for a compelling story, and sometimes that means some perspectives are lost on the way.

Last edited Jul 23, 2023 at 06:28AM EDT

Eh? One of the main characters in Dunkirk, Gibson, is a french soldier impersonating a dead british infantryman to try to get on a boat early.

Last edited Jul 23, 2023 at 09:52AM EDT

A deserter who masquerades as a Brit, and who had a particularly messy death. I didn't count him, but yeah, there is effectively one French soldier.

I personally enjoyed Dunkirk, to defend the movie, and although I did hear some people complaining about when I exited the theater, the whole "representation" complaint was effectively, petty "hurt nationalist feelings". Were they expecting any kind of glory from such a defeat?

It's just, I wish more WWII movies had some Poles, Yugoslavs or soldiers of the greater British Empire and their fronts. Than again, can you reproach Warner Bros or Universal Studios for having Americans? Those countries could make their own movies.

The Chinese have certainly done their fair share of WWII movies (of varying quality, some are good, some are pure CCP propaganda).

“Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people" – Heinrich Heine

De Santis, the candidate who was for banning books was a Nazi (which was obvious, but with the reticence of that word around here, not only policies but an outright nazi symbol was necessary). It was definitely the canary in the coal mine.

Also, to give support to something Kups said earlier, Florida did have an issue with saying "slavery built useful skills". Christie says DeSantis has only himself to blame for Florida education controversy

Gilan wrote:

A deserter who masquerades as a Brit, and who had a particularly messy death. I didn't count him, but yeah, there is effectively one French soldier.

I personally enjoyed Dunkirk, to defend the movie, and although I did hear some people complaining about when I exited the theater, the whole "representation" complaint was effectively, petty "hurt nationalist feelings". Were they expecting any kind of glory from such a defeat?

It's just, I wish more WWII movies had some Poles, Yugoslavs or soldiers of the greater British Empire and their fronts. Than again, can you reproach Warner Bros or Universal Studios for having Americans? Those countries could make their own movies.

The Chinese have certainly done their fair share of WWII movies (of varying quality, some are good, some are pure CCP propaganda).

Hard to bemoan the absence of the obscure when the mainstream depictions are themselves so shoddy.

We live in an era of amazing CGI and the people in charge of it are frustratingly reluctant to use it to portray the past in it's true scale and glory. When was the last time we saw something historical that reached the peter jackson level? Kingdom of Heaven? Alexander? Gladiator?

Most of the time we're lucky to get one of those "pretend 300 extras is actually 15000 and that all those medieval knights forgot to bring their colour and pagentry to battle today, we've got a budget to keep to" flicks. The men at Dunkirk should have been packed shoulder to shoulder on a beach littered with an army's worth of war material, instead the feeling of isolation was a bigger threat than the luftwaffe.

And by god is it hard to find one in the last 10 years without some stupid subverting of expectations.

Take 2019's The King;

"yeah we're going to take England's premier warrior king, a man taught to fight since boyhood, has several battles and a major siege under his belt, once took an arrow to the face and lived, and we're gonna cast a lanky, barely out of thier teens weed of a boy as him. Then we're gonna dial his epic charisma down 15 notches and have this supposed 15th century King meeky sit there as the wife, who is effectively his hostage won in battle, has suddenly transformed into a 20th century gender studies freshman to verbally dress him down."

Christ, I can only imagine what a frenchman feels over it's depiction of the young Charles the Victorious.

I am getting sick of watching the post colonial masturbation aids hollywood dipshits pretend is history.

After seeing Josephine strutting about revolutionary france with short messy hair telling napoleon "you think you're great, you are just a tiny little brute who is nothing without me" in the trailer, I find I am looking forward to Ridley Scott's Napoleon with equal parts excitement and dread.

Last edited Jul 29, 2023 at 04:51PM EDT

So, small correction, the Dauphin in The King wasn't supposed to be the future Charles the Victorious but his older brother Lois, who wasnt historically at Agincourt on account of being too busy dying of dysentry in Rouen.

It did seem a bit wierd how the guy who earned the moniker "The Victorious" and "The Well-Served" was supposed to be too dumb to orchestrate an assassination attempt.

News flying completely under the radar.
You want to know what a horrible security joke California is?

In Reedley, California, in Fresno County (east of San Francisco), the FBI and CDC raided an illegally operated bio-lab in March and have since then been evaluating all the pathogens that the biolab has been working on.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested the substances and detected at least 20 potentially infectious agents, including coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis and herpes, according to a Health and Human Services letter dated June 6.

Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material."

This lab is entirely run by Chinese shell companies, most likely with ties to the CCP.

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