Notices by Thunderstrike (tstrike78@mastodon.social)

@br00t4c

In fairness, there is precedent.

#StarTrek #DS9

@br00t4c

Do not--and I cannot emphasize this enough--threaten me with a good time.

Only in Trump-land can the idea of people having more rights be seen as a bad thing. Please--and I cannot emphasize this enough, either--fuck right off.

@br00t4c

Every time I think this idiot has hit rock bottom he proves me wrong. Apparently, there's always room for him to get worse.

@br00t4c

There are three kinds of lies in the world: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

The country is not actually made up of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. If we could achieve 100% Democrats would win overwhelmingly on a national level and the GOP would be insignificant. The framing of this article makes it sound as if everything is in the hands of independents, but it is not. This election will be determined by turnout and energy; Harris clearly has that advantage.

@br00t4c

Even if it were true (and I'm not saying it is), WTF cares? Do you know how hard it is to process information on the fly like that and then apply it within seconds against a rambling debate opponent? Even if this were to be true, I'd be deeply impressed.

This isn't a fucking sports competition. It's not like the president is ever (or should ever) go into any kind of negotiation without lots of prep and knowledgable advisors in the room.

@br00t4c

And I am, in turn, disgusted by Megyn Kelly as a human being, so I'm going to call that even.

@br00t4c

Seriously, when Dick Fucking Cheney thinks you're an awful Republican you have fully jumped the shark.

@br00t4c

At 60 days out from Election Day, it's not just mail-in voting that's at risk. If all of those ballots have to be reprinted to remove his name, that's going to be a nightmare to get them all re-ordered and reproofed in time for Election Day.

On the other hand, maybe that's the plan. What if the court orders something that the printers and the registrars of voters are simply logistically incapable of accomplishing? Has that ever happened before?

The transformative experience of my youth was not #TheBreakfastClub , although I acknkowlege the brilliance. It wasn't #Patton , although I acknowledge the genious. It wasn't #TheGodfather , although I admit that it was powerful.

It was Commander Riker ordering to fire on his mentor, his friend, the man he looked up to more than anyone in the world.

It was #StarTrek #TNG. It was "The Best of Both Worlds". It was "Fire".

It's always the smallest of things.

@fribbledom

@br00t4c

At the end of the day, it's a non-issue. I and most normal people don't care that much about what color Air Force One is or how the Oval Office is decorated.

It's weird that it's such a big deal to him, though. Add it to the list.

@br00t4c

Pretty sure they were going to do that anyway. It is their way.

@Radical_EgoCom

Einstein famously insisted that "God does not play dice with the universe", but decades of quantum theory has prettymuch proven that, on some level at least, random chance does, indeed, govern the universe. There will always be some amount of random chance that plays into everything, therefore determinism is impossible regardless of how much human beings would prefer to believe in the orderliness of the universe.

@Radical_EgoCom

That's where we disagree.

What you're describing is a theory of determinism itself, but quantum theory tells us that on a subatomic level it is simply impossible to make predictions past a certain level of accuracy. Not beyond our current ability, flatly impossible. All you can do is approximate probabilities. So that means there will always be an element of random chance and unpredictability in everything that happens.

@Radical_EgoCom

That makes no sense. Chaos is defined, on a basic level, as predictability that breaks down over time (and therefore becomes unpredictable). But if determinism is defined as all events being determined by previous events so that chains of events could not have occurred any other way, that should be predictable on some level (even if we humans can't do it). The universe cannot be both predictable and unpredictable at the same time.

@Radical_EgoCom

The existence of Hawking Radiation emanating from black holes is a pretty good example of this. We actually *can* predict that in a broad, general sense, but the smaller you get in scale the more difficult it becomes to make predictions about individual particles because it comes down to random chance.

@ryanhoulihan

I don't know who Reneé Rapp is, but I saw Jaime Pressly on Mom for the first time last night (Hulu) and I could not take my eyes off her. I kept having to rewind to listen to what she was actually saying. So there's that.

Whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, the Republican Party is not the least bit interested in solving it. They are interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

#FamousMovieLines

Actual conversation with my son:

"I think because you introduced us to the Muppets so young, when I see Kermit the Frog my brain doesn't go 'There's a puppet.' My brain goes 'That is my friend Kermit and I am very happy to see him.'"

The biggest lie #StarTrek ever told me was that adults would be reasonable and mature and try to be helpful to others. The reality has turned out to be that adults are frequently unreasonable and petty and largely uninterested in anyone's viewpoint other than their own.

In the long run, Earth and humanity are doomed.