Random Politics Thread

[ceecee]

Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF | Aviation Week Network

Although the club is not pointing fingers, there are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts community.

aviationweek.com

“I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” says Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists.

Who couldn't have predicted this?

 

[The Cat]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF | Aviation Week Network

Although the club is not pointing fingers, there are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts community.

aviationweek.com

Who couldn't have predicted this?

It just made me lol when I read about this.

 

[The Cat]

It just made me lol when I read about this.

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, sparks in the software
Flash the message "Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by
99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by
99 Decision Street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by
99 knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a superhero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scrambling the summer sky
99 red balloons go by
As 99 red balloons go by
99 dreams I have had
In every one, a red balloon
It's all over, and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go​

 

[The Cat]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

F

Woah, that space vagina is some wild stuff.

 

[The Cat]

F

Woah, that space vagina is some wild stuff.

Cold Wars are wild times for art and entertainment. Just like how there was a change in country music and action movies after 9/11, these times will change what was to what will be. If the last Cold War is any indication, we're going to get an influx of science fiction and fantasy, but it it will be more sword and sorcery rather than heroic quest, also the science fiction will be more dystopian rather than visionary. You can already see it happening...you might have already noticed and if you havent yet...you will...

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Cold Wars are wild times for art and entertainment. Just like how there was a change in country music and action movies after 9/11, these times will change what was to what will be. If the last Cold War is any indication, we're going to get an influx of science fiction and fantasy, but it it will be more sword and sorcery rather than heroic quest, also the science fiction will be more dystopian rather than visionary. You can already see it happening...you might have already noticed and if you havent yet...you will...

What do you mean by sword and sorcery?

Speaking of which I wouldn't mind seeing something like Enemy Mine, but that's not dystopian enough.

Actually, I can see the pendulum swinging the other way, and dystopias being out. I'm personally a little weary of them and I doubt I'm the only one, after the last few years. Furthermore, if you look at what was popular in the 30s and 40s, most of it wasn't doom and gloom. Nobody wanted to watch that. It's in less troubled times when people want "excitement" or "realism".

And I do know an example of a science fiction movie from the 30s called Things to Come and that's ultimately not dystopian in the end, despite the middle act.

 

[The Cat]

What do you mean by sword and sorcery?

Speaking of which I wouldn't mind seeing something like Enemy Mine, but that's not dystopian enough.

Actually, I can see the pendulum swinging the other way, and dystopias being out. I'm personally a little weary of them and I doubt I'm the only one, after the last few years. Furthermore, if you look at what was popular in the 30s and 40s, most of it wasn't doom and gloom. Nobody wanted to watch that. It's in less troubled times when people want "excitement" or "realism".

And I do know an example of a science fiction movie from the 30s called Things to Come and that's ultimately not dystopian in the end, despite the middle act.

 

[Virtual ghost]

World’s cartoonists on this week’s events

 

[Virtual ghost]

ChatGPT, Bing, DALL-E: AI comes for the creative class

Some thoughts on the future.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Republican 2024 rivals go shopping for big donors

 

[Virtual ghost]

Why Democrats Are Worried About 2024 Senate Elections

2024 Senate Election Interactive Map


Yeah, the 2024 senate map is just "impossible" for the democrats. Republicans are at 50 seats even without the swing states where democrats have to defend their 2018 success.
Plus defending places like Ohio, Montana or West Virginia will be very very hard under current circumstances. Since today these are evidently red states. Plus the standard swing states are far from certain: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. What means that the democrats have to defend 8 seats while their chances to pick up something are minimal. The best shoots are Texas and Florida and we all know this isn't going to happen. The math just says "red".

 

[Virtual ghost]

What do you guys think about "Marianne Williamson 2024" ?

Step by step it seems that this could become actual campaign.

 

[The Cat]

f

Why Democrats Are Worried About 2024 Senate Elections

2024 Senate Election Interactive Map


Yeah, the 2024 senate map is just "impossible" for the democrats. Republicans are at 50 seats even without the swing states where democrats have to defend their 2018 success.
Plus defending places like Ohio, Montana or West Virginia will be very very hard under current circumstances. Since today these are evidently red states. Plus the standard swing states are far from certain: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. What means that the democrats have to defend 8 seats while their chances to pick up something are minimal. The best shoots are Texas and Florida and we all know this isn't going to happen. The math just says "red".

Funny all it would take is dems actually playing like they want to to win.

 

[Virtual ghost]

f


Funny all it would take is dems actually playing like they want to to win.

Of course, but that probably wouldn't happen. Therefore my premise was based on "observed history".

 

[The Cat]

Of course, but that probably wouldn't happen. Therefore my premise was based on "observed history".

Ive come to think that by and large for the most part most corporate dems are more like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinima than not, and like Steve Buscemi's teeth, they're all in business for themselves.

 

[Totenkindly]

The clown car is getting buffed and oil-changed for the eventual primary.

'Woke, Inc.' author Vivek Ramaswamy enters White House race

Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur and investor and the author of “Woke, Inc.,” has entered the Republican race for president. In a video released Tuesday night, Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a “national identity crisis” that he claims...

www.yahoo.com

...Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a “national identity crisis” that he claims is driven by a left-wing ideology that has replaced “faith, patriotism and hard work” with “new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology."

“We have obsessed so much over our diversity and our difference that we forgot all the ways we’re really just the same as Americans," he says.

In a Wall Street Journal editorial published at the same time, he pledged to repeal civil service protections for federal workers if he wins, as well as work to eliminate affirmative action, including directing the Justice Department to prosecute “illegal race-based preferences."

 

[The Cat]

 

[Virtual ghost]

Which Republicans Could Vote For A Debt Ceiling Increase?