@carnivorum said
So we agree that there is no scientific explanation what so ever for the existence of duons.

So it should be clear to everybody that the only rational explanation is intelligent design.

And there we have our Intelligent Designer.

We call Him "God".

It is really that simple.

It is really that simple.

Only to the simple-minded.

Just because we don't currently have an explanation for something, it does not follow that the only possible explanation is "God did it," and even if it did, it still would not follow that the 'god' who did it is identical with Yahweh much less that Yahweh is identical with an obstreperous Jew who got himself crucified in the Levant about 2,000 years ago. There isn't merely a gap in your reasoning; it's chasm wide enough for the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group to reverse course in.

@averagejoe1 said
What are we to be considering for making a decision? Influencing an election is not a crime. Fact from Avjoe.

Don’t mince words. Interfering in one is, and so is falsifying financial records pertaining to a campaign. I expect Marauder can cite chapter and verse.

@sonhouse said
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/27/us/tennessee-governor-signs-school-guns-bill/index.html#:~:text=Tennessee%20Gov.%20Bill%20Lee%20signed,to%20the%20General%20Assembly's%20website.

Yeah, that will stop crazed teenagers from killing kids, give guns to teachers who don't even know how to shoot. Or how about the scenario where some bad kids attack the teacher, steal the gun and ...[text shortened]... eh? Nice putting yet more guns right next to kids who may kill if they could get their hands on one.

Only in Amerika is this not considered insane.

@mchill said
But for me, I do not want answers anymore.

I understand, those answers can be painful. Biden puts experienced professionals in charge of government departments. Trump - Family members, TV show hosts, ex models and playmates (colorful, but not very effective!) So, I can understand why you don't want answers. 😲

We know where cronyism leads: straight to banana republic.

When he says “drain the swamp” what he means is: replace the civil service by his cronies ( people like Manafort, Stone, Flynn ). “Only the best”, remember that? It’s all spelled out under the name Project 2025.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/27/politics/trump-federal-workers-2nd-term-invs/index.html

@suzianne said
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

Yup, that's the script.

@no1marauder said
"Pecker also revealed that his tabloid had never had a "catch-and-kill" agreement with Trump prior to his candidacy for president." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/top-3-takeaways-from-day-6-of-trump-s-hush-money-trial/ar-AA1nxddF

OUCH.

<<Conroy says Trump's comment that Pecker is "nice" is a message to other witnesses.
Prosecutor Chris Conroy also cites Donald Trump's comments at his event this morning where he spoke about tabloid publisher David Pecker, in which he said that Pecker was "nice."

"This is a message to Pecker. Be nice. It’s a message to others," Conroy says, adding the message to other witnesses is that Trump has a platform and will comment on their testimony.>>

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-04-25-24/h_53f857fdd1b34f89fe47660e967879b1



FYI:

"Be nice" is Trumpspeak. Translated into plain English it means: be 'nice' to Donald; if you're not 'nice' to Donald, Donald won't like you and Donald will screw you; being 'nice' means saying nothing that might get Donald upset or in trouble; saying anything that might get Donald upset or in trouble will make Donald not like you and your daughters; being 'nice' means never ever spilling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because that will get Donald upset and in trouble and then he really really won't like you and Donald has many many very 'nice' friends standing back and standing by who will make your life miserable, if you're not 'nice'.

This message will also have been directed at Mark Meadows and 10 other defendants indicted in AZ.






The above clarification courtesy of the grammar guy.

@suzianne said
Or just abolish the electoral college completely.

Direct popular vote (one person, one vote) is more fair and equitable. Not counting my vote because the guy I voted for didn't get the majority in my state is just adding insult to injury.

Trump's people are pressuring NE to change how their electors vote. In most states, it's winner take all, but in NE, electors vote proportionately (some voted Biden, some voted Trump last time, same as the Cornhuskers themselves voted). Trump's people figured out that every EC vote counts, so they are pressuring NE to adopt the winner-take-all system. It's gerrymandering with a different name.

And yes, the EC should have been abolished a long time ago.

@no1marauder said
Pecker's testimony today didn't tell us anything we've haven't known for years, but it got into evidence that Trump was directly involved in scheming with Pecker and others for them to use funds to help his campaign far in excess of legally allowable limits. This bolsters two of the theories regarding the intent to commit another crime which elevates the falsification of ...[text shortened]... and kill" payments were to protect Trump's family rather than directly linked to the 2016 election.

"At least if he wins, I'll be pardoned for electoral fraud."


https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/25/politics/video/sketch-artist-trump-hush-money-trial-elizabeth-williams-ebof-sot-digvid


Pecker cannot have not known what he was letting himself in for.

@pettytalk said
I see that living in the shed with Herman's goat has done you some good. A very impressive listing of who is who in the world of the spirit of true philosophy. Let us add Pythagoras to the list, and it will get us closer to the essence of the spirit of the Holy Ghost.

When the body is shed, only the spirit remains. Or if we want to scare the children, it's a ghost of a ...[text shortened]... he handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSxWCosMM0

Pythagoras didn't fit nearly as well into the Christian scheme of things as Plato did. For two reasons, I suspect.

First, he maintained that there is intelligible order in the cosmos, permeating all phenomena, which he called Harmonia. It is nothing to do with any deity, it is utterly dis-personal, can be apprehended by reason alone, and is especially manifest in mathematical proportions (for example in musical chords). There isn't any 'nether world' for Pythagoras -- there is just this world, mathematically ordered. Plato, on the other hand, postulated a 'nether world' of perfect Forms, and it was easy for early Christian theologians to interpret this 'nether world' as the abode of God and his angels.

Second, Pythagoras mostly likely held Orphic ideas about the afterlife, whereby the psyche migrated to other beings (not necessarily humans). He reportedly recognized a former friend in the body of a dog, and a river was heard to speak to him (Christians would have denounced such things as necromancy, demonology, or witchcraft). That doesn't quite fit in with the Christian scheme of things, whereby the soul lives only once and is promoted/demoted to the 'nether world' forever.


And yes, Herman's goat is very well-read in classics.

@suzianne said
May they all rot in hell.

I'll be satisfied if they just rot in a penitentiary.

@shavixmir said
My God.

Are these fake electors the same “alternative” electors republicans here have been saying “is a thing”?

Crazy world the US of A.

Yes.

The defense is that they were backups just in case a legal challenge to the result of the election were to have succeeded. The prosecution says, no, it wasn't that at all--they were going to try to get Pence to use the fake electors' votes instead of the genuine ones all along, but Pence didn't play along with it.

Instead of voter ID, America should implement elector ID.

@pettytalk said
"Christianity is Platonism for the masses." -- Nietzsche

Judaism for gentiles. (They don't have to refrain from eating pork or circumcise their sons.)

@suzianne said
This is an interesting take.

The Catholics overthink everything. It’s a habit they picked up after Origen read Plato, and they can’t walk it back it now after so many centuries of torturing logic to make the incredible credible.

Protestants put less emphasis on the doctrines (the Trinity and all that) and more on the personal conviction aspect.

@mott-the-hoople said
slavery was good for the economy too

If you think it was, then I suggest you offer yourself into slavery, work for no wages until you can't anymore, then come back and tell us how you liked it. Oh, and don't forget to tell us what useful skills you learned along the way (harnessing an ox behind a plow, how to use a hoe and sharpen an axe, pulling bugs out of cotton balls, etc).