Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[jonottawa]

Now let's get back to the REAL issue, is it Bernie's fault that President Trump won the election? :P

 

Dem blame game rages over Clinton loss

[diana_eva]

Adam, if I snuck into China or Afghanistan or Nigeria or Israel or Japan or Mexico or Korea (either one) and demanded government services and protested against the government, how would I be treated?

 

How about if you snuck into a bridge forum, made zero bridge contribution to the bridge community and whined about how you are treated for posting non-bridge stuff in the only off-topic forum of many? Maybe the rest of the community feels you should make some effort to fit in.

[jonottawa]

How about if you snuck into a bridge forum, made zero bridge contribution to the bridge community and whined about how you are treated for posting non-bridge stuff in the only off-topic forum of many? Maybe the rest of the community feels you should make some effort to fit in.

Diana, I'd post in the bridge section of the forum, but my signature (a direct quote, as everyone knows) would probably get me banned. :P As I recall the WC has looser rules than the rest of the forum.

 

But if it makes you feel better I will stop complaining about the harassment of Kaitlyn and about the incredibly nasty tone of and repeated personal attacks by my adversaries here. You have made your position clear.

[Winstonm]

Kaitlyn

 

Richard has challenged you on this notion. The videos were, irrc, done by the same criminal who put together the fraudulently edited Planned Parenthood videos and have been shown to be just as false.

 

On that one: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-26/the-planned-parenthood-video-scandal-may-be-over

 

As for O'Keefe, even Fox has reported his criminal record, that long predates the ACORN and PP frauds, yet I strongly suspect that you accept his lies as facts.

 

I keep thinking that surely just once....just once...you'd pause for one minute while typing your beliefs and ask....is this true? Can I check?

 

But no, so far you are batting 100%.

 

As a simple example of how this ignorance and laziness plays out...you have repeatedly said that you voted for what even you agree is a vile, dangerous, despicable excuse for a human being to be your President because, awful though he will be, he won't be as bad as HRC.

 

I challenge you to list the facts on which you base that value judgement. Note that I am not interested in arguing the value-based portion of that. Your view is as entitled to respect as mine, and more, since you are a US citizen and I am not.

 

However, I am also challenging you to google each of the facts that you set out.

 

You will absolutely find confirmation for all of these facts, but look at which sources say what. Are there sources that are neutral that confirm? The sites that support you...what are the 'facts' and the sources?

 

I doubt that you will do this because you are lazy, but I hope I am wrong.

 

I no longer buy her schtick. You can't purposefully remain that clueless without a malicious motivation.

[cherdano]

President Trump loves women & has hired a lot of them.

Indeed, he loves women so much that he bought a beauty pageant so he could walk into the teenage contestants' changing rooms while they were naked and pretend that's a normal thing to do.

President Trump loves legal immigrants & has hired a lot of them.

I thought he loves Melania? (Who came to the US as an illegal immigrant.)

And no, he hasn't appointed any racists or anti-Semites to anything.

It's just bad luck for Trump that his most ardent supporters on twitter and bridge forums are racists. Has nothing to do with his campaign!

[awm]

My family has been here for four generations. My grandparents' grandparents were refugees from places in eastern Europe where people of their faith were considered unwelcome, and sometimes brutally murdered for being non-christians. Back in the late 19th century, my grandparents' grandparents were allowed into the US even though they were viewed as "different" from most Americans.

 

They were not very educated, but they worked hard. My grandparents parents grew up in the US, but some of them arrived here as children. One great grandfather was a barber, another worked for the post office. One was a doctor and among the first to give the polio vaccine.

 

Both my grandfathers served in the US army in the 2nd world war. Both graduated college. One remained in the reserves for decades afterward. My father was lucky to get a desk job with the Navy during Vietnam and never saw active duty, but he spent his career teaching mathematics to future naval officers at the US Naval Academy.

 

I'm an American. I've barely lived anywhere else.

 

But when our president appoints "white nationalists" to the government, when he runs ads showing Clinton next to a star of David and a pile of money saying she is corrupt, when he runs a TV ad blaming economic woes in America on "Jewish bankers", when his supporters talk about allowing "only Christian refugees" into the country or requiring members of a religious faith to register with the government and suggests surveillance of their place of worship...

 

When these things happen, I do not feel welcome in my country. I don't feel proud to be American when America elects such a man. Honestly I feel scared that just maybe, the pogroms my grandparents grandparents fled in Poland and Austria and Russia just might happen here as well. It makes me sad because I loved the place I thought my country was, but not so much the place that almost half of voters seem to want it to become.

[diana_eva]

Diana, I'd post in the bridge section of the forum, but my signature (a direct quote, as everyone knows) would probably get me banned. :P

 

BS as usual. I can teach you how to delete your signature if that's what worries you.

[jonottawa]

It makes me sad because I loved the place I thought my country was, but not so much the place that almost half of voters seem to want it to become.

Not quite. Half the voters loved what their country was but not so much the place it has become. That's why the slogan is Make America Great Again.

[cherdano]

Not quite. Half the voters loved what their country was but not so much the place it has become. That's why the slogan is Make America Great Again.

When, exactly, was America great?

[hrothgar]

Diana, I'd post in the bridge section of the forum, but my signature (a direct quote, as everyone knows) would probably get me banned. :P As I recall the WC has looser rules than the rest of the forum.

 

And yet you didn't post anything in the bridge related forums for years before you changed your sig...

[jonottawa]

First Brexit, then Trump, now Italy faces its political shockwave

 

Turns out folks just aren't that into Globalism.

 

 

Cool beans, I can hang out in the Advanced Members Lounge now! :P

[MrAce]

..........The answer is, I'd realize that I'm in HIS country & that I have no right to impose MY values on HIM in HIS country. (And I'd pray that I got out of there alive.)...........

 

Actually you are right!

After D.T, illegal immigrants realized that they are in YOUR country and started to pay more respect to YOUR values.

Two nights ago in a local bar, a drunk illegal immigrant, instead of posing HIS values, decided to respect YOURS, and grabbed a waitress, a white married young woman, by her tits, and treated her like a bitch!

4 other DISRESPECTFUL immigrants, including myself, who has no RESPECT to YOUR VALUES, had to stop the man from paying his respect to YOUR values!

 

This would have been my exact testimony, had the cops arrived. Manager called them but they never showed up. Perhaps Texas Law Enforcement also respects YOUR VALUES and seen it as a normal behavior or they were just too busy as usual. Only God knows!

 

Of course you can argue that this is not YOUR VALUE, just because the guy was not a star but a drunk immigrant! But life ain't perfect and I did not ask you to vote for that immigrant anyway!

[mike777]

First Brexit, then Trump, now Italy faces its political shockwave

 

Turns out folks just aren't that into Globalism.

 

 

Cool beans, I can hang out in the Advanced Members Lounge now! :P

 

 

Ya not sure why so many in the uSA, UK, Italy are not into globalism.....they invented it, well not really but but none of these countries would exist without it.

 

----

 

 

See the Bronze age, Cyprus and how Bronze was made......globalism.

[Kaitlyn S]

You will absolutely find confirmation for all of these facts, but look at which sources say what. Are there sources that are neutral that confirm? The sites that support you...what are the 'facts' and the sources?

 

I doubt that you will do this because you are lazy, but I hope I am wrong.

 

I no longer buy her schtick. You can't purposefully remain that clueless without a malicious motivation.

 

I appreciate you guys trying to show me the light, that the liberals have it all right and I've been a fool who has listened to charlatans. Mind you, there are many that are still calling your side the charlatans. But you have tried.

 

And I had this weird impression that the "Water Cooler" is a place where people can toss around ideas. You are telling me instead that I need to do more research than is required for a typical college course. While I'm not disputing that I'm somewhat lazy, if I'm going to something that feels like work in my free time, I would prefer to create my Bidding Problems for I/N players and perhaps maybe a few bridge movies for players to enjoy. I realize that being well informed is good. However, I've done a lot of political research and look where it has got me. I'm being told that I've wasted probably thousands of hours looking at the "wrong" shows and websites. So far I've received positive feedback on my bridge problems so I don't feel like that is time wasted.

 

Trust me when I tell you that I'm not being malicious and it was not a schtick. I simply posted my ideas. You told me that my ideas are based on ignorance. I know my ideas are based on very much research; however you are telling me that my research has all been misguided. It is possible that you're right but at this point I really don't feel like starting over. Maybe someday, maybe soon. But how would you feel if you had put thousands of hours into something and then been told by several people that it was all a sham? Be serious now.

[Kaitlyn S]

Two nights ago in a local bar, a drunk illegal immigrant, instead of posing HIS values, decided to respect YOURS, and grabbed a waitress, a white married young woman, by her tits, and treated her like a bitch!

Isn't that kind of what happened in Germany, except it was a lot of immigrants?

[diana_eva]

But how would you feel if you had put thousands of hours into something and then been told by several people that it was all a sham? Be serious now.

 

When I first learned how to play bridge I had a LOT of bad ideas and habits picked from random people. I was told repeatedly it was all a sham. I had to unlearn everything I've worked so hard to learn and start over from scratch. I don't regret it.

[hrothgar]

Trust me when I tell you that I'm not being malicious and it was not a schtick. I simply posted my ideas. You told me that my ideas are based on ignorance. I know my ideas are based on very much research; however you are telling me that my research has all been misguided. It is possible that you're right but at this point I really don't feel like starting over. Maybe someday, maybe soon. But how would you feel if you had put thousands of hours into something and then been told by several people that it was all a sham? Be serious now.

 

I seem to recall a comment on your part a week or two back that you needed to get ready for Orlando...

 

I don't suppose that you can point at a bridge score for any of the events down there that might prove that you actually exist and aren't a random troll?

[diana_eva]

I seem to recall a comment on your part a week or two back that you needed to get ready for Orlando...

 

I don't suppose that you can point at a bridge score for any of the events down there that might prove that you actually exist and aren't a random troll?

 

She's not a troll, cut it out. She might be posting under an alias, that's not against the BBF rules.

[mikeh]

I appreciate you guys trying to show me the light, that the liberals have it all right and I've been a fool who has listened to charlatans. Mind you, there are many that are still calling your side the charlatans. But you have tried.

 

And I had this weird impression that the "Water Cooler" is a place where people can toss around ideas. You are telling me instead that I need to do more research than is required for a typical college course. While I'm not disputing that I'm somewhat lazy, if I'm going to something that feels like work in my free time, I would prefer to create my Bidding Problems for I/N players and perhaps maybe a few bridge movies for players to enjoy. I realize that being well informed is good. However, I've done a lot of political research and look where it has got me. I'm being told that I've wasted probably thousands of hours looking at the "wrong" shows and websites. So far I've received positive feedback on my bridge problems so I don't feel like that is time wasted.

 

Trust me when I tell you that I'm not being malicious and it was not a schtick. I simply posted my ideas. You told me that my ideas are based on ignorance. I know my ideas are based on very much research; however you are telling me that my research has all been misguided. It is possible that you're right but at this point I really don't feel like starting over. Maybe someday, maybe soon. But how would you feel if you had put thousands of hours into something and then been told by several people that it was all a sham? Be serious now.

Gimme a break

 

I, if not others, have repeatedly suggested you use google. Using the common sense search terms... at most 3 or 4 words....you can find how silly your notions are. The socialist professor story generates evidence of its being a made up story in 1 second. The Clinton murder nonsense....type Clinton murders into google....and you claim we are asking you to spend thousands of hours? Personally, had you checked out every story I called you out on, which was 9I think) literally every one, you might spend a couple of hours, but only if you actually read a few of the references.

[y66]

I appreciate you guys trying to show me the light, that the liberals have it all right and I've been a fool who has listened to charlatans. Mind you, there are many that are still calling your side the charlatans. But you have tried.

 

And I had this weird impression that the "Water Cooler" is a place where people can toss around ideas. You are telling me instead that I need to do more research than is required for a typical college course. While I'm not disputing that I'm somewhat lazy, if I'm going to something that feels like work in my free time, I would prefer to create my Bidding Problems for I/N players and perhaps maybe a few bridge movies for players to enjoy. I realize that being well informed is good. However, I've done a lot of political research and look where it has got me. I'm being told that I've wasted probably thousands of hours looking at the "wrong" shows and websites. So far I've received positive feedback on my bridge problems so I don't feel like that is time wasted.

 

Trust me when I tell you that I'm not being malicious and it was not a schtick. I simply posted my ideas. You told me that my ideas are based on ignorance. I know my ideas are based on very much research; however you are telling me that my research has all been misguided. It is possible that you're right but at this point I really don't feel like starting over. Maybe someday, maybe soon. But how would you feel if you had put thousands of hours into something and then been told by several people that it was all a sham? Be serious now.

I feel sure you know that the important question is how are you going to spend the next 1,000 hours? Did you ever read At The Table? Check out the chapter titled "Moose". I'm guessing those late night sessions, Bobby Goldman's relentless search for the truth and the lumps Hamman took from Moose and his teammates are among his happiest bridge memories. The next chapter is titled "The Juggernaut"!

 

From The white flight of Derek Black:

 

Late this summer, for the first time in years, he traveled to Florida to see them. At a time of increasingly contentious rhetoric, he wanted to hear what his father had to say. They sat in the house and talked about graduate school and Don’s new German shepherd. But after a while, their conversation turned back to ideology, the topic they had always preferred.

 

Don, who usually didn’t vote, said he was going to support Trump.

 

Derek said he had taken an online political quiz, and his views aligned 97 percent with Hillary Clinton’s.

 

Don said immigration restrictions sounded like a good start.

 

Derek said he actually believed in more immigration, because he had been studying the social and economic benefits of diversity.

 

Don thought that would result in a white genocide.

 

Derek thought race was a false concept anyway.

 

They sat across from each other, searching for ways to bridge the divide. The bay was one block away. Just across from there was Mar-a-Lago, where Trump had lived and vacationed for so many years, once installing an 80-foot pole for a gigantic American flag.

 

“Who would have thought he’d be the one to take it mainstream?” Don said, and in a moment of so much division, it was the one point on which they agreed.

[Kaitlyn S]

Gimme a break

 

I, if not others, have repeatedly suggested you use google. Using the common sense search terms... at most 3 or 4 words....you can find how silly your notions are. The socialist professor story generates evidence of its being a made up story in 1 second. The Clinton murder nonsense....type Clinton murders into google....and you claim we are asking you to spend thousands of hours? Personally, had you checked out every story I called you out on, which was 9I think) literally every one, you might spend a couple of hours, but only if you actually read a few of the references.

Did you know that Google shows you what they think you want to see? A poster on another site challenged me as you are now to look something up. He told me to look up, as he had, the percentage of Muslims in the USA that wanted Sharia law. I posted my top 10 hits. He thought I was full of crap since every one of my top 10 hits said that 51% or more of Muslims in the USA wanted Sharia law. Not surprisingly, he got different results. One of the other posters pointed out to him that I was not full of crap, but I was getting sites that Google thought I wanted to see. (I have since been to some more liberal sties so I don't think I would get those 10 hits anymore.)

 

They do the same with their autofill. He typed in Muslim and got suggestions like Muslim women. I typed in Muslim and all my suggestions had to do with jihad.

 

So I could indeed follow your suggestion to do a simple Google search on things and they would simply back up my preconceived notions. In fact, a few months ago I did Google "Clinton murders." Nine of the top ten hits all were alt-right wing sites which said that they happened and not to believe any clueless liberals that tell you otherwise. I'm dead serious! The tenth one was Snopes that said that many of the rumors were proven false but many of them have not been checked yet. (Of course some of the other sites claimed that Snopes was a liberal front. What am I supposed to think? I did my research, and that's what came up. Honestly. My bias was already cooked into the search engine.)

 

By the way, your bias is also reflected in your Google searches.

 

If you'd like, I'd try an experiment, Give me any hot-button search term and we'll each post our top five links I'll bet mine are alt-right and yours are alt-left.

[Kaitlyn S]

She's not a troll, cut it out. She might be posting under an alias, that's not against the BBF rules.

True.

 

This year I came back to BBO after several years off. I couldn't log into the forums with my old username so I used this one. My name is not Kaitlyn Smith. However, I would have no problem posting any of the same posts in the Water Cooler under my real name. However, I would not have been able to post honestly about bridge experiences, at least about negative ones.

 

My spouse works for the ACBL. We have, in the last year, been told that speaking badly about any of ACBL's products or services is unacceptable. This makes it impossible to speak about my true feelings about tournament bridge under my real name without compromising my spouse's position.

 

I think I'd be allowed to type: ♥ The masterpoint :♥ is such ♥ a wonderful ♥ thing! ♥ Everybody ♥ should try ♥ to get ♥ as many ♥ as possible! ♥

 

If someone thinks I'm trolling, you'll have to trust me when I tell you that I posted much more obnoxiously under my old username which identified me. In fact, one of the people calling Kaitlyn S a troll likely called my real name a troll also! However, the ACBL didn't have as many issues with free speech then so I was able to post opinions with abandon.

 

So, as long as anybody can link my ideas to Kaitlyn Smith's ideas, I will not be likely to be posting on BridgeWinners.

[mike777]

"If you'd like, I'd try an experiment, Give me any hot-button search term and we'll each post our top five links I'll bet mine are alt-right and yours are alt-left. "

 

 

By 2050 AI IQ will measure, any standard accepted measurement , millions of times greater than the sum of all of humans.

 

 

I allow you to choose all posts.

[Kaitlyn S]

"If you'd like, I'd try an experiment, Give me any hot-button search term and we'll each post our top five links I'll bet mine are alt-right and yours are alt-left. "

 

 

By 2050 AI IQ will measure, any standard accepted measurement , millions of times greater than the sum of all of humans.

 

 

I allow you to choose all posts.

LOL why would we get different hits with that search? There's nothing political there and we might agree.

 

But in any event, my top five are:

 

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

 

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html

 

http://nautil.us/issue/18/genius/super_intelligent-humans-are-coming

 

http://marvin.cs.uidaho.edu/About/quotes.html

 

http://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/files/1450667434_Belsky_RO669_PNAS%202015_Quantification%20Of%20Biologica%20Aging%20inYoungAdults.pdf

[diana_eva]

LOL why would we get different hits with that search? There's nothing political there and we might agree.

 

But in any event, my top five are:

 

http://waitbutwhy.co...volution-1.html

 

http://waitbutwhy.co...volution-2.html

 

http://nautil.us/iss...mans-are-coming

 

http://marvin.cs.uid...out/quotes.html

 

http://dunedinstudy....YoungAdults.pdf

 

I think he's just posting a mike777 aphorism about AI (how google's search engine is optimized to show you search results that are likely to be relevant to you based on previous searches and visits), not suggesting that you search that phrase.