see it as a means to measure the tolerance (and/or apathy) of voters.

none of these laws are constitutional. vicious outwardly; violent and inwardly vile. they are testing the water to see how far they can go before the tide sweeps them away.

bad brains, black hearts, stewed minds & wanton desires.

i blame Reagan.

then you laugh from head to toe.

please try to define the 'unhinged' part? what is so funny about caring about others not in your family, in your Party, not in your field of ideology, or even in your state?

that's the separation. deep empathy versus emotional apathy.

the morality of putting an unattached stranger's judgment ahead of a woman and her doctors is more heinous than holy. the facts bear this out.

would spend more time 'enlighting' but doubt that's your gig: b/w. by-the-book. my way or the highway.

hard to grow flowers in a salt mine.

* * * *

also amazed by the amount of less-than-stellar perspicaciousness of people that use 'stupid' as a counterpoint.

B: "yer just stoopid."
L: "oh. that's why you don't make sense." {how does this guy find his ass to wipe? nope. doesn't have to. he laughed it off.}

* * * *

buy their albums. save them. support them. rescue dying fetus from annilation.

RTJ | Walking In The Snow lyrics...

Get a dose a dirty code to go, been cold since Co-Flow
I got wire or two unlodgin', I'll set a fire down below
I'll hang it up when you say, "Sorry, I didn't know"
Prolly got a year or ten to go so let's go
I don't really know how to go slow
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker's cold (Ayy)
You in the wrong mode, you open and closin' your hole, it's a no go
This whole world's a shit moat, filled to the brim like GitMo
When you think it don't get mo' low it limbo 'til the sticks on flo'
All oppression's born of lies, I don't make the rules, I'm just one guy
All due respect, if getting spit on's how respect is now defined
Hungry for truth but you got screwed and drank the Kool-Aid, there's a line
It end directly at the edge of a mass grave, that's their design
Funny fact about a cage, they're never built for just one group
So when that cage is done with them and you're still poor, it come for you
The newest lowest on the totem, well golly gee, you have been used
You helped to fuel the death machine that down the line will kill you too (Oops)
Pseudo-Christians, y'all indifferent
Kids in prisons ain't a sin? Shit
If even one scrap a what Jesus taught connected, you'd feel different
What a disingenuous way to piss away existence, I don't get it
I'd say you lost your goddamn minds if y'all possessed one to begin with

Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold (Cold, cold)

Yeah, ho, Gangsta Boo, Run the Jewels
We back on our shit, and it's cold as fuck

The way I see it you're probably freest from the ages one to four
Around the age of five you're shipped away for your body to be stored
They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores
And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest
And usually the lowest scores the poorest and they look like me
And every day on evening news they feed you fear for free
And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me
And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy
But truly the travesty, you've been robbed of your empathy
Replaced it with apathy, I wish I could magically
Fast forward the future so then you can face it
And see how fucked up it'll be
I promise I'm honest, they coming for you
The day after they comin' for me
I'm readin' Chomsky, I read Bukowski
I'm layin' low for a week
I said somethin' on behalf of my people
And I popped up in Wikileaks
Thank God that I'm covered, the devil is smothered
And you know the evil don't sleep
Dick Gregory told me a couple of secrets before he laid down in his grave
All of us serve the same masters, all of us nothin' but slaves
Never forget in the story of Jesus, the hero was killed by the state

Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold
Just got done walkin' in the snow
Goddamn, that motherfucker cold (Cold, cold)

Who really wanna run it with the Jewel Runners?
Go hellfire hot in a new sauna
It's a cold winter baby and a cruel summer
I suicide bomb in the blue Hummer
And emerge out the side, not a bruise on 'em
Bad news come in two son, do somethin'
Treat beats like a wet thigh, chew on 'em
Got a stroke row crew on 'em, move on 'em
We be the heroes, the breakers of chains and the busters of locks (Locks, locks)
You be them suckers supportin' them snitches that talk to the cops
This the Illmatic of turning your face into fucker foie gras
I'm not so sure opportunities knocking, it's prolly the law
Word to the old school tape decks
I get Radio Raheem respect
My Nike pendant sacred, similar to the Ghostface bracelet
Fire in the hole, oh no joke
Prolly go broke just off smoke
Fuck are we gonna do, not smoke?
Get a job, play the role, be adults?
Nah, I'ma do me, arigato

First of all, they cheated (Uh-huh)
'Cause if one of them black and the other one white (Uh-huh)
So if you don't like 'em, you automatically racist (Ah, oh, well)

Yeah, this is indeed proof he is running a cult. The largest cult in history. All the evangelical churches, TBN, CBN, 700 Club, Jim Baker, Fox "News" all of them full in love with him, believing he is some sort of anointed one... All they care about is he is appointing anti-abortion judges (not pro-life, as none of these people who follow him are against the death penalty or war), judges that are against LGBTQIA+ rights, and rolling back those rights rapidly, he's moved the embassy to Jerusalem (a move that if Obama did, they'd just say it was proof he was the anti-christ), he's bashing the mainstream media, he's doing everything he can to appeal to the evangelical base, and they are more and more in love with him each day. And he does it, because they are 100% guaranteed to vote. He knows that the moderate and liberal Christians can't be counted on to vote, so the odds are ever in his favor. That's why the GOP won't stand up to him, they know where the votes are guaranteed to be at. They know they can't appeal to reason, to the moderate base, because the guaranteed voters are following him with a cult like fanaticism.

The danger is, those who love him are far more guaranteed to vote than those who have an apathy about him. It doesn't matter what his approval ratings are, those who disapprove aren't guaranteed votes. Those that love him are guaranteed to vote.

Right now, downstairs I hear Fox "News" reporting how CNN hasn't apologized or retracted some story, ignoring how Fox hasn't apologized or retracted most of their blatant lies.

Pretty good video. Specific things:

Too many prostitutes: Most of the non-Thai people that complain about this went to the wrong places in Thailand. Pattaya was a tiny fishing village before the Vietnam war. Then, soldiers started getting shipped into the country for R&R. The Thai government didn't really know what to do with them, so they sorta passed the buck and decided to send them to Pattaya to relax. Bunch of stressed out dudes there, nothing to do, high demand for alternate activities ... the market answered.

Fast forward to today, and Pattaya knows exactly what put it on the map. I hate that place -- it is like what would happen if you took the worst/sleaziest elements of Vegas and Tijuana, and then built a "city" around it. Shittiest beach in Thailand, chock full of sleaze, disgusting. However, it is one of the most major tourist destinations. Gee, why could that be? Is it in spite of the nature of the place, or because of it? No false advertising here, you know what you're getting when you book a trip there. And if that is your thing, more power to ya.

Now, I don't want to act like prostitution exists in Pattaya and Soi Cowboy / Patpong in Bangkok, and is absent elsewhere. Far from it. Every town, down on to tiny ones, likely has a red-light district and brothels. The ones you hear about are sex tourism pits like those major ones, but the trade is alive and well pretty much everywhere -- and mostly caters to local Thais.

I've honestly never been to such an establishment or sought those services (in 11 years of being here), but I don't care that they are available. The most significant negative is that they are NOT well-regulated like, say, what I've heard about Amsterdam. Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand. So the de-facto situation is that brothels have to pay protection money to police in order to avoid getting shut down or "inspected", etc.

Corruption is a major problem -- much worse than prostitution, in my opinion.


Too many ladyboys: It is certainly true that there are more trans people per capita here than pretty much anywhere else that I know of. It took me a while, being a country kid from Kansas, but I see that in pretty much the same light as the German narrator in the video at this point. Acceptance is good. You do you, man.

As a stereotype on the flip side of the coin, I think the ladyboys tend to be great in custom interaction kinds of jobs. Cashiers at 7-11, waitpeople at restaurants, etc. Polite, attentive, helpful. And often the most willing to attempt to use English. A lot of the best students that I've taught English to have been ladyboy leaning.


Freedom: I'm with @Mordhaus here. When your personal liberty is mainly due to the apathy / incompetence of the governing authority, and they may choose to get off their asses and revoke that at any time ... perhaps it isn't something to brag about. Very basic stuff like dissenting speech and protesting is met with being carted off for little re-education chats, etc. Pretty scary shit, actually.


Basically I tend to think that just like anywhere on Earth, there's a lot of good here and plenty of bad too. There's plenty of legitimate gripes with cultural elements and stuff in Thailand, but the most common ones (that the video pretty accurately listed) are pretty insignificant in my opinion.

People walked right into this themselves. No, the data wasn't stolen, because it's part of the general online business model to collect and sell it. A few people raised alarm about this for years. No one listened.
Even now nothing will change, because:
1) We've allowed the collection and sale of user data to become irreversibly entrenched into the world economy, and
2) The same majority of the populace who already showed apathy in the face of privacy-advocate's concerns will not change their lifestyles over this.

Q: Do you know the difference between ignorance and apathy?

A: I don't know and I don't care.

Given the polls put support for gay marriage in Aus between 65 and 85%, the only way the no vote will win is through voter apathy.

Conservatives are motivated and will fill out their postal votes. Staunch equal rights activist will of course vote yes. The middle ground in Australia is mostly apathetic and that's where you might find this whole thing falls on it's tits unfortunately.

Annnnnd the plebiscite is not binding... So if the gov still doesn't want to go ahead with it, they don't actually need to (although I suspect they will cop a short term shellacking in the polls because of it).

Sad thing is, the current PM is on record repeatedly as being in favour of same sex marriage, but he is only in power because of right wing power brokers in his party and if he came out openly in support (ironic, I know...) he would likely be spilled out of office.

Fuck politics.

I just didn't get the joke, or rather, it rubbed me the wrong way, but we're basically in agreement with varying levels of importance applied to the subject, no?

I personally hate social media, but I can't disregard how easy it is to reach people and spread ideas. There's a reason one of the first steps toward suppressing citizen actions in some countries today is shutting down those networks. The Arab Spring had to organize first and it would not have happened if that communication medium was not in place. That was my first thought when I saw this video. I still think it encourages apathy more than anything, but I get that it's a joke and I just didn't appreciate it. Did not mean to poop on the party! I'm sorry! @3@

Yeah, I do. It's the whole reason the Arab Spring happened. Literally from peoples tweets and posts on social media. It's how ideas spread today, as lame as it sounds.
I realize it gets tiresome to see people spread their opinions online that way. I have to wade through just as much of it as anyone else, but I felt like this video was encouraging apathy by making fun of people who did that. Basically saying "your opinion doesn't really matter, no one wants to see it, so why bother trying?"

I'm as surprised as most everyone at how the election turned out. In the week or so leading up to election night, I considered the possibility that Trump might win the popular vote but lose the electoral college, but not the other way around.

Still, as someone who thinks the electoral college is bullshit, consider this thing from all angles:

Hypothetical Possibility 1: At first, when I thought that Trump might win the popular vote but lose the electoral college, I thought that would be a good thing going forward. Both sides would have been screwed out of a victory by the idiotic system in recent memory, which might push for bipartisan support to scrap it.

But thinking further ... I don't think that would have actually panned out. The GOP establishment wouldn't have seen that as "their" candidate getting screwed, they would have been happy. They might have had to pay lip service to the idea of reconsidering the electoral college to pander to angry Republican voters who felt cheated out of a Trump presidency, but they could easily have just left it at that and sat on the issue until apathy took over again.


Possibility 2: The likely reality. Trump will win by electoral votes but lose the popular vote, and that will stand. The Senate and House are both Republican controlled, and the Supreme Court will very likely swing further in that direction. Possibly a LOT.

That sounds terrible. And it definitely means that in the short term, there will be absolutely zero traction for anyone wanting to push the idea of getting rid of the electoral college. BUT -- it also sets up a gold-plated opportunity to see real, actual movement on that front in 2 years. Think Trump is going to be horrendous? Think GOP-controlled Legislature will be abysmal? Look on the bright side -- if those expectations are correct, the blowback in midterm elections won't be a "wave". It'll be a fuckin' tsunami. And that's what we need to have a shot at killing the electoral college.


Possibility 3: Faithless Elector rampage. You can argue, with some merit, that the electoral college was intended to prevent or safeguard against exactly the kind of situation that we are in now. And I'd love to see President Bernie myself. But what would actually result if enough electors swapped to make that happen?

First, NYTimes projects Trump getting 306 electoral votes. That would mean that 37 faithless electors would have to happen to flip the election. You have to go back more than 100 years to find an election where there has been more than 1 faithless elector. There has only been 1 election with more than 37 faithless electors, and that was in 1872 because the candidate died. So realistically, it would be close to impossible to pull this off. (all info from wikipedia)

But forget the odds and just assume that it did happen. I think that would be a strategically terrible idea for Democrats, liberals, etc. Trump won because enough people didn't like the prospect of President Hillary and/or actually wanted to see what Trump himself could do. In either case, his voters generally aren't going to give him a whole lot of leash to screw things up or fail to deliver on their expectations. It will be next to impossible for him to keep those swing people happy. If Trump is 1/10th as terrible as the average Democrat expects him to be, he will alienate all of those people in very short order.

But if faithless electors "stole" the presidency from him (and you know that's how it would be perceived)? Oh, man ... he'd effectively be a political martyr. The anger and backlash would likely be apocalyptic and/or lead to revolt. Worse than almost any realistic way that Trump himself might fuck things up as the President. Even if that was somehow avoided, which I tend to think would be impossible, whoever got installed as President would have the shortest leash of all time, and a massively hostile and motivated Legislature that they would be forced to attempt to work with. Better have some sacrificial lamb to put in there that has zero political future, and even then they would probably cause massive damage to their party by association when they inevitably fall.

No, I think the clear best option is to let Trump (and the GOP) dig his own grave over the next year or two, and then graciously ride the wave of comeuppance.

Of course, it didn't help that it really wasn't funny.

That's not to do with the all women cast though because I don't like most of the comedies from Hollywood - especially the ones from the new gang of male comedy leads that they just churn out one after another.

In fact, of all recent American comedies the ones that have stood out to me have been The Other Woman and The Heat, both of which are all female leads with very little male involvement. I can't think of any male led ones that I liked, certainly nowhere near as much as those two.

But one line that made a lot of sense in there was when it said "proves once and for all that girls can make middle of the road studio-mandated franchise bait just as well as the boys!" -- which is a really good point. Men are churning out all those shit comedies, why not women too? I don't like any of them, and they deserve equality in my apathy.

I have an admitted bias towards Sanders, but the fact he leads by larger numbers in all polls against Trump, even Fox's poll, I think speaks volumes about where the voting public is at. They want an outsider.

If they think that Trump's, apparent fascism will turn voters to Hilary, they are mis-reading the voting public. What is more likely to happen is voter apathy, especially among independent voters if there's even a hint of real controversy coming out just in time for the general election. Democratic turn out keeps going down, so they can't count on their base to make it up. Also, Trump has already started to change his tone, to bring down his rhetoric to appeal to the general populous. If they think they'll stick a flip-flop label to him, it won't stick. Trump is on a whole other level in the public mind for some reason.

This election is too important to let the Republicans win and I don't know if they get that or don't care because Trump has donated tons in the past to them so they are willing to take a chance with him in. We'll lose what little respect in the world that we managed to gain since Bush's wars that Obama built back up. We'll lose our bids for the Olympics and World Cup, both of which are heavily in our favor at the moment, but a Trump presidency, at least at current rhetoric levels, would turn the voting committees off, and might turn them off even if he tones the no Muslims can visit, bit off. The very perception of hate in this nation will turn them off vetting us when there are other qualified bids. Then there's the Supreme Court vacancy, it would be great to throw back the fact they wouldn't vet the moderate they asked for by name, and have a liberal as a President and take back over the Senate in one election and get a far more liberal nominee passed, at the going rate we may continue to have a court leaning to the right if Trump wins.

Would Sanders get to push much of any of his agenda? No. The Republicans and even many Democrats would push back. Congress will continue to be deadlocked against the President like it is against Obama, perhaps to even higher levels. But it will move the conversation. The fact that he wins period would show where the American public actually wants to go.

I'm seriously concerned about what's going on. It's like they want to give the presidency to Trump.

@ChaosEngine

i do not see anyone here defending anything.

now maybe we can view stephen's commentary "dismissive and belittling" as @entr0py pointed out,but i think the deeper issue was prefaced quite succinctly by stephen in his characterization of american,and western societies,as being "infantilized".

where words have become the final bastion of totality in communication and are judged strictly on a word by word basis.so much so that some on the left have been pushing harder and harder to have certain words removed from our lexicon,because they represent negative thoughts/feelings/actions or they may represent a trauma,or horrific violent memory for some people.

but this is the wrong approach.
excising words will not erase those feelings/thoughts/emotions.this will just force people to come up or use different terminology to express those feelings/thoughts.actions that once had words to at least to attempt to express those horrors and/or offenses.

which will just equate to a whole new slew of verbiage being found offensive and in dire need of being castrated from our collective vocabulary.

yet the left (extreme left i grant) appears hell bent on not only attempting to control speech but to also judge those who DO use speech that they find offensive.

this is censorship with prejudice and to claim otherwise is the lie.

just look at your first comment.
you "used" to like stephen fry's opinion,until he became callous and dismissive with what?

words.

but do you REALLY think his attitude and compassion towards those who have suffered emotional trauma is truly dismissive?

well..i do not think so.i have spoken to you enough times to have a modicum of understandings in regards to you,as a person,that you have far more depth of character.

yet it is the WORDS that have hung you up.

look man,words are inert.they are things that are only given life,meaning and context when we add our own subjectivity to them.

words are inadequate.they will ALWAYS be inadequate.
which is why we admire and praise those of us who have a command of words that can reach into our own understandings and extract meaning in a way that blossoms like a spring flower and can create worlds in which we can play,and even share with other people.

i am intimately aware of this deficiency.i do not have an economy of words,and only on rare occasions can i relay,convey and express with ANY form of reductionism.

i struggle to express not only my opinion,but the intent,humanity and compassion of my opinion.

if the extreme left gets their way,the tools we have to express ourselves becomes lesser.

and in the process,WE become lesser.because the tools for dissent,debate,discussion and even..ironically..to expose the more venal and bigoted of our society,will have been reduced to words that offend nobody.

there is danger here,and no good will come from it.no matter if the intent sounds just and the goal compassionate.

freedom of speech is the right to speak freely.
to espouse our opinions,philosophy and yes,our bigotry and prejudice,with legal immunity,but NOT social impunity.

so while we have a right to free speech.
we do not have a right to not be offended,and maybe we need to be offended sometimes.to shake us from our own self-induced apathy and our adoration of digital hallucinations.

so when the westboro baptist church says the most hateful,vitriolic and disgusting admonishments,all in the name of god.
we can be offended by them,and then ridicule them relentlessly.

would stripping words from the english language prevent this group from espousing their own brand of hate?

of course not.they would just find new words.

so what do we do then?
make words illegal?
criminally libel?

so don't judge mr fry too harshly.
he is just pointing to the dangers of controlling speech and the new trend of the perpetually offended.

the extreme right attempts to control morality,and there is serious danger in that practice.
the extreme left attempts to control how we communicate,and hence how we interact,and there is great danger in that as well.

This is precisely why a large part of me actually wants Trump to win.

We're way too complacent. There has been a slow, steady, gradual decline that has lulled us into apathy -- even though the state of politics and "democracy" in the US (and arguably globally as a result) is absolutely pathetic and appalling at this point.

It is looking more and more likely that the general election will be Trump vs Clinton.

First of all, that alone demonstrates just how fucked we are. Our final two choices are likely to be the two people with the highest negative opinion numbers out of all the candidates. The cream didn't rise to the top, and instead the two biggest turds managed to avoid being flushed. South Park seems oddly prophetic; we have really ended up with turd sandwich vs. giant douche. I just can't tell which is which.

Second, I notice that a LOT of people (including "establishment" Republicans) are scared shitless by the prospect of a Trump presidency. In a Trump vs Clinton election, they say that they would easily prefer to vote for Clinton -- perhaps couched with the "lesser of two evils" descriptor, but still vote for Clinton.

I agree with the idea that Clinton is the lesser of those two evils. But that, in combination with our current level of apathy, makes me MORE afraid of a Clinton presidency than a Trump one. Clinton is a slick, dirty politician. People think they are going to dodge the Trump bullet by voting for her, but she is the archetype of what got us into this situation. She tells people only what she thinks they want to hear, while doing exactly what her donors (megacorporations) want her to do whenever the camera isn't on. A Clinton presidency will keep the masses just placated enough to NOT boil over.

Meanwhile, Trump seems like enough of a perfect storm that he could actually screw things up bad enough to make the masses stand up and take notice. Maybe that kind of slap in the face is what we need.

Clinton presidency: "Fuck it."
Trump presidency: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"


In a hypothetical scenario where the general election was Trump vs Sanders, it would be much harder for me to be "pro" Trump. Because Sanders seems like maybe he's got the right mindset to change things for the better the *right* way. On the other hand, I kinda felt the same way about Obama. So, even in a Trump vs Sanders scenario, a big part of me would be "hoping" for Trump to win. Because *something* has got to snap us out of our apathy.