This Is Fine

@TimStone well yeah

user15026

What does the first amendment have to do with that?

@TimStone lol he's trying to get them to up the fine to $420

@Ash not a damn thing, lol

this is the free speech == speech with no consequences fallacy

user15026

@GodEmperorDune okay that's what I thought he was mixing up

user15026

12:30 AM

What a maroon

user15026

Like seriously dude you have some fucked up priorities

plus as always, constitutional amendments deal with what the government can and cannot do, it has no bearing on companies' behavior

user15026

Yeah, that's the other part that people loooove to forget

@Ash Yeah he's just wrong but also crying about his tweets on 60 Minutes which is a whole new level of Online Poster

@TimStone please let him pull a laura loomer

12:39 AM

lol

@GodEmperorDune I think his Galaxy Brain argument is that the SEC somehow forced Tesla to review his tweets or something therefore by the transitive property sniffs and pushes up fake glasses

@TimStone that's... surprisingly coherent, if still wrong

Julius Ervin Tate, Jr., 16, is at least the 21st Columbus Police shooting of 2018, and the 12th CPD has killed. #ColumbusOIS-21 https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/vigil-for-teen-shot-and-killed-by-police-on-near-east-side

Tweeted by SURJColumbusOH on December 9, 2018 at 4:55 PM in reply to SURJColumbusOH

12:54 AM

@GodEmperorDune Yeah it's just silly because they only cared because he was doing dumb crimes online

@TimStone who knew that tweting out crimes was bad

1:45 AM

He was just doing Science

2:01 AM

doing securities fraud is free speech

2:18 AM

@Unionhawk TIL that elon is basically an older jacob whoa-l

Having dinner at a bar in Palo Alto and the amuse bouche after the meal was free cotton candy. Reconsidering all my policy disagreements with Elizabeth Warren.

Tweeted by nytdavidbrooks on December 10, 2018 at 2:07 AM

david brooks welcome to the left?

KKK leaflets dropped around Squirrel Hill last night. Thank you @SteelCityJBGC for warning folks of the white nationalist threats and activity going on, and for the good words. They want us to be afraid and silent. It won't work if we won't let it. We keep us safe.

Tweeted by MtthewRubiin on December 9, 2018 at 8:13 PM

"steel city" is a kickass nickname for Pittsburgh

3:03 AM

@Unionhawk david brooks? more like amuse douche

Pointing out some facts to Chris Christie this morning was incredibly satisfying #FactCheckedLive https://t.co/shCwSJtGuG

Tweeted by AshaRangappa_ on December 9, 2018 at 5:14 PM

yay media pushback

4:36 AM

WE WON!!! @IEC_NYU has won: 1) the creation of a committee to research non Aramark self dining 2) a seat on the contract committee in 5 yrs 3) a standing committee to divest the PIC from NYU 4) a written NYU statement supporting keeping current workers #NYUPrisonDivest ✊🏽

Tweeted by yung_mulatto_ on December 9, 2018 at 2:36 AM

(afaik Aramark services prisons or something to that effect, making divestment here a prison abolition goal)

5:07 AM

@Unionhawk hell yeah

@Unionhawk aramark services every damn thing

6:01 AM

Irish woman who married ghost of 300-year-old pirate says they have split up https://www.irishpost.com/news/irish-woman-married-ghost-300-year-old-pirate-says-split-162579?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=article&utm_medium=web via @theirishpost

Tweeted by hxhassan on December 9, 2018 at 8:25 PM

user15026

@GodEmperorDune well I suppose that's unfortunate for the pirate, as he is now both dead and alone

@Ash arrrrrrrrrrr(gh)

Memor-X

8:41 AM

@GodEmperorDune so there's where Bojack went to after King Kai's Planet blew up

12:02 PM

“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun...No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,...

Tweeted by realDonaldTrump on December 10, 2018 at 11:46 AM

....which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!

Tweeted by realDonaldTrump on December 10, 2018 at 12:00 PM

So we're at a point where he admits it, but claims it wasn't a crime, or at least not such a bad one

fredley

12:30 PM

A guide quite how fucked the next few weeks are going to be

Private Pansy

@fredley Is the fight of giant mecha-May vs. the Big Ben going to be livestreamed?

12:51 PM

> In this scenario, voters might be asked to choose between Mrs. May’s plan and remaining in the European Union. So far she has ruled this out, but if she has no Plan B it might be a possibility. This would require the consent of Parliament.

This is the only sane solution

It's the only solution that makes any sense, and should happen even if the house votes "yes, we're fine with this"

"okay so you voted you wanted us to leave, but this is the best deal we're going to get... and now that you know the deal, what would you prefer?"

oh also now that it's obvious everyone running the show before lied to you about everything about brexit, consider that too

Given events in the last years, I'm pretty sure the worst possible option is the one that is going to happen, which is the no-deal Brexit

Seriously, even if 90% of the population was "Yes, let's do Brexit!", you would still vote on the actual deal

@MadScientist Yeah I got a feeling thta's what will happen too

Sanity is taking a long vacation right now, not sure it'll ever come back

Pretty much

Trump, Doug Ford, Brexit... GREAT TIMES GREAT TIMES

The one rule that would have predicted essentially every major event in the last years is "What's the dumbest possible action in this case? That is what will happen"

12:55 PM

@MadScientist wooooooo

Best timeline

Honestly that's the best summary of the last few years I've heard

That gosh darn economic anxiety

Pretty sure I read a version of this somewhere at some point, or several different ones

Kevin

1:09 PM

@MadScientist ... smocking gun. Not once, but twice?

fredley

1:29 PM

> Simon Harvey, FX analyst at Monex Europe, says that while the markets thought that uncertainty had finally peaked, a possible delay on the Brexit vote proves them wrong.

UNCERTAINTY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

1:44 PM

@fredley Are you certain about that?

Nzall

2:36 PM

Smocking

Smocking is an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments where buttons were undesirable. Smocking developed in England and has been practised since the Middle Ages and is unusual among embroidery methods in that it was often worn by laborers. Other major embroidery styles are purely decorative and represented status symbols. Smocking was practical for garments to be both form fitting and flexible, hence its name derives from smock — a farmer's work shirt. Smocking was used most...

... Is Trump confused about what kind of bullet is fired from a gun?

Kevin

I mean, he's confused about everything else so why not

@Wipqozn the only thing that's certain is uncertainty... probably

2:50 PM

@MadScientist The next stage is admitting it's a crime but then saying he can be pardoned.

3:53 PM

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:

Theresa May calls off MPs' vote on her Brexit deal - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46509288

Cc @fredley

4:17 PM

@Wipqozn 🔥🔥🔥 :/ 🔥🔥🔥

This is fine.

4:31 PM

Reuters: U.N. members adopt global migration pact-Moroccan foreign minister.
https://mobile-reuters-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1O90YS

5:07 PM

1/ A quick thread on my new story out today. John Podesta, the former Clinton campaign chairman, talked to me about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and its impact on his and family's lives https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/john-podesta-pizzagate-766489/

Tweeted by AndyKroll on December 10, 2018 at 4:32 PM

> Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who is often a thorn in Trump’s side

lmao

@puzzlepiece87 uhhhh since the primary this hasn’t been true

> Rand Paul criticized the entire category of “conspiracy” crimes, making the libertarian argument that people get caught up in crimes they weren’t directly involved in, such as a young woman carrying cash for her drug-dealer boyfriend.

Who among us hasn't just been carrying cash around for others?

Little known fact when Rand Paul had the lawn dispute with his neighbor he was actually and unknowingly trafficking huge amounts of drug cash on his person

@puzzlepiece87 Oh what timing.

@Yuuki It's not timing, it's a direct response.

> The loudest defense of Trump came from Senator Rand Paul, though it was broad and indirect.

5:13 PM

Oh, Rand Paul was born in the 60s so I suppose he doesn't really remember the heyday of the Mafia and organized crime.

@Yuuki oh oops, I misunderstood where you were going with that

I'm reading an article about how the new Dem House is reacting to the latest indictments

Trying to get a feel for the investigations they'll do (good) and whether they consider impeachment something to go for (bad at this time)

> If we get this way and if we’re gonna prosecute people and put them in jail for campaign-finance violations

Yes good go on

> we’re gonna become a banana republic where every president gets prosecuted and everybody gets thrown in jail when they’re done with office.

I mean as far as every President is committing felonies with their campaign money, sure!

Who among us, buddy

@puzzlepiece87 That's... not what a banana republic is?

Although given the definition of a banana republic is a country where the government is controlled by big business interests for the sake of extracting commodities, the US is pretty close to a banana republic.

cough cough two sides to the climate "debate" cough

5:43 PM

Maybe Rand Paul thinks that it has to be banana companies in control to be a banana republic.... so his climate denialism is trying to get the US to the right grow temp for bananas, thus trump is helping his plans come to fruition

6:56 PM

I asked Trump world if his chief of staff selection actually mattered. Given the president's management style, reluctance to change, and continuing influence of Javanka, most said that ultimately it didn't matter who took the job. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tariniparti/trump-chief-staff-white-house-kelly

Tweeted by tparti on December 10, 2018 at 6:47 PM

7:30 PM

> A new paper in the journal Injury Epidemiology offers some insights into the best strategies to ensure survival in the brutal world of Westeros.

What? I wonder if that's a respected journal, if they're publishing "scientific" papers from Game of Thrones? Are academic journals allowed to have fun?

user15026

@puzzlepiece87 I am not sure why this is a problem, pop sci papers like that show up more often in stuff?

@Ash Not necessarily a problem, I just didn't realize it would be encouraged.

Academics are allowed to have hobbies too, I just expected to see it more on an open publishing platform.

user15026

Not all journals do, but some do to like...be like "hey we exist and look at us having fun don't you wanna do what we do"

@puzzlepiece87 It looks like it's basically "Given a set of constraints (the state of the world of Westeros), how would [the thing we're studying] be affected". Which seems like a perfectly fine academic paper

user15026

To like shed some light on the field, as it were

7:34 PM

Makes sense, thanks for the context!

I mean, just based on your description

Survival curves (epidemology) for Game of Thrones based on different traits

> If Westeros managed to stabilize its government, expand commerce, invest in public institutions and infrastructure, and emphasize knowledge and reason when setting policy, that would go a long way to reducing the violence over time. Of course, that would kill all the dramatic tension and the show's popularity would plummet. Hence, the authors conclude, "It seems unlikely any such changes will occur before the last episode of the final season reaches television screens worldwide."

Heh

OK, it looks like it's more of a statistical study of factors predicting death in the show. Which also seems like a reasonable academic paper

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:

France yellow vest protests: Macron promises wage rise - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46513189

7:51 PM

Well, Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Mobutu Sese Seko—the Congolese dictator who paid for lobbying to seek entry into the US

Tweeted by annalecta on December 10, 2018 at 7:21 PM in reply to annalecta

Did not know that doing god's work involved blood diamonds but

You'll be happy to know that, per the thread, Virginia's AG decided that while Robertson was definitely misleading he was also the AG's biggest donor so nbd

BREAKING: French President Marcon promises to scrap a tax hike on poor and low-income retirees.

Tweeted by AP on December 10, 2018 at 7:14 PM

Honestly he will still be lucky if all he loses out of this is an election

Never dictate the headline over the phone. (h/t @NeilMcMahon)

Tweeted by MarkHarrisNYC on December 10, 2018 at 7:05 PM

8:41 PM

Top Bloomberg executives to be charged in construction bribery scheme https://thebea.st/2RUmu5u

Tweeted by thedailybeast on December 10, 2018 at 7:29 PM

He’s running, folks

Garcetti's speech at USC on human rights interrupted by protesters; event has turned into a shouting match/Q&A between Garcetti and protesters angry about LAPD, homelessness, gentrification and Olympics. Many in audience also applauding him.

Tweeted by dakotacdsmith on December 10, 2018 at 6:13 PM

(Garcetti is the mayor of Los Angeles)

SaintWacko

9:08 PM

@GodEmperorDune I have never seen a group of people so desperate to delude themselves

@SaintWacko cough organized religion cough

9:24 PM

@GodEmperorDune ಠ_ಠ

9:54 PM

@murgatroid99 I would let you know what I think about this post but I'd probably end up saying something like "ok Sam Harris" instead of making a coherent point about how bad faith this is.

@Unionhawk I acknowledge that my comment is controversial. And maybe kind of mean. But I don't think "bad faith" is right, except in a humorous double meaning sense.

No, I take back "mean". I take issue with religion, as an institution and as a cultural meme. And I believe that the statement SaintWacko made is also an accurate description of those things.

10:19 PM

What happens when Yandex blurs out secret and semi-secret Turkish/Israeli military facilities in its satellite imagery? Well, you find out exactly where the places are, and then you check them on other mapping services that haven't blurred them out. https://fas.org/blogs/security/2018/12/widespread-blurring-of-satellite-images-reveals-secret-facilities/?fbclid=IwAR0gGzQTL_OG_bq-HUNxr7ydlVFTc9i-dov5GMWbA1Z1fxurUgVjj6X2dIw

Tweeted by bellingcat on December 10, 2018 at 10:16 PM

@murgatroid99 This is honestly why I didn't bother.

I'm not going to argue with an unbannable about whether me being a religious person is on any level the same thing as believing that Hillary Clinton has already been arrested and prosecuted

It's a waste of my time and energy

@Unionhawk just bop him with that candy cane from your avi

@Unionhawk And there's the trick. The difference between this and all of the other groups we regularly shit on in this room is that this group is one you're a part of. You're emotionally invested.

I think you missed the part where I said I'm not doing this

@murgatroid99 i'm not emotionally invested in organized religion and comparing it to Qanon was a dick move tbh

10:26 PM

Kindly do not @ me again

Thanks

@murgatroid99 Depends on which variant exactly. There is plenty of religious beliefs that are fundamentally about unprovable things. I think that's a different category than anything that actually contradicts aspects of the material world.

@MadScientist In my opinion, there isn't much real difference between believing something for which there is no evidence, and believing something that contradicts evidence. But I think there are reasonable arguments on either side of that.

Trump administration halts study that would use fetal tissue "to discover a cure for HIV" https://wapo.st/2RIB000

Tweeted by washingtonpost on December 10, 2018 at 2:32 PM

where's that op ed about how trump would be the most pro LGBTQ president ever?

@GodEmperorDune The intention of my original comment was just to compare it with that one statement, not with QAnon in general.

@TimStone Ugh gosh why is everything eternal 2016. All of the corruption.

10:39 PM

@Unionhawk I much prefer this President Marcon to President Macron.

@AP French President Macon promises to scrap a tax hike on poor and low-income retirees. http://apne.ws/HY4t52U

Tweeted by AP on December 10, 2018 at 7:26 PM in reply to AP

President Macon also sounds like a nice guy.

Ah, I see other people noticed.

@Yuuki who is macon things better for the yellow vests?

user15026

@murgatroid99 this is not okay. This is being rude for the sake of it.

@Ash Rudeness was honestly not my intention there. Are you referring to what I said, or how I said it? Or both?

@murgatroid99 it came across as both to me

user15026

@murgatroid99 both

user15026

10:49 PM

I don't see how you expected that to be read as anything but rude, claiming that people of faith are as deluded as conspiracy theorist of one of the more awful and harmful conspiracies in recent memory

user15026

I know very well that you aren't religious and do not understand those who are, but I kinda expected a bit more respect instead of outright hostility

calling out @uni for being emotionally invested after he disagreed was also rude

Britain has fallen https://t.co/WFPV6DwFbc

Tweeted by juliamacfarlane on December 10, 2018 at 9:06 PM

this is the mace drama

an MP was upset about how the brexit vote was delayed so he grabbed the ceremonial mace

the rest of parliament was upset with him, as the linked video shows

11:07 PM

Come on, man, if you're going to take the ornamental mace in front of everyone as protest, commit.

@Ash I think I projected my own thoughts on the topic onto others to the point that I misjudged the emotional impact of my words. In my mind, what I said was just a statement of opinion/perspective, not an attack on individual people. I see now that I was mistaken and I'm sorry that I said it. In the future I will keep my thoughts about religion to myself.

Mace of the United States House of Representatives

the US also has a ceremonial mace that happens to be a literal fasces

The Mace of the United States House of Representatives, also called the Mace of the Republic is one of the oldest symbols of the United States government. It symbolises the governmental authority of the United States, and more specifically, the legislative authority of the House of Representatives. == History == In one of its first resolutions, the U.S. House of Representatives of the 1st Federal Congress (April 14, 1789) established the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. The resolution stated "a proper symbol of office shall be provided for the Sergeant at Arms, of such form and device as the Speaker...

> In accordance with the House Rules, on the rare occasion that a member becomes unruly, the Sergeant at Arms, upon order of the Speaker, lifts the mace from its pedestal and presents it before the offenders, thereby restoring order.

Since the members are able to edit the Congressional Record before it goes to print, there is no mention of the actual use of the mace in this capacity.[citation needed] A recent recorded threat to present the mace was on July 29, 1994, when Rep. Maxine Waters interrupted Rep. Peter T. King on the floor of the House, although the mace was ultimately not presen…

Of course, it was mentioned in this capacity when Maxine Waters (black woman) interrupted Peter King (white man).

given that there were literal brawls in the senate around civil war times, i'm 100% certain that the mace was used

nice that they could selectively edit it out of the record books though

@GodEmperorDune From my perspective, he is always criticizing institutions that I have positive feelings about, and as soon as it went the other way he says I'm acting in bad faith. But given how other people reacted I shouldn't have said that

11:18 PM

@murgatroid99 he is not even the only religious person in this room

@GodEmperorDune I generally believe in capitalism. Should it still be acceptable to say bad things about capitalism (or capitalists) in this room?

@murgatroid99 just so i understand, are you equating your belief in capitalism with religious people's belief in their religion?

excuse me for a second

@GodEmperorDune Maybe, for the purpose of comparison, I should have said that I have positive feelings about capitalism, and I am emotionally and personally invested in it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

11:29 PM

@Unionhawk Probably not helping.

I apologized for what I said, and now I'm trying to understand where and how we draw this line that I clearly misjudged

Okay, I'll take a stab at it.

This room was placed in timeout for 2 minutes; the topic of this room is "The news discussion offshoot of the Bridge. Stars reserved for news items. Discussion should primarily be about news topics. " - conversation should be limited to that topic.

Actually, let me stop you there for a second

I get what you're saying @murgatroid99 about how this room can be really bad for mocking people who hold different opinions and beliefs than the norm in this room is, and we should honestly all be better about that, but we shouldn't really go around mocking people for their faith either. It's something folks hold really deeply, and so we should probably just leave the topic alone all together.

Somebody obviously had fun programming that expanding countdown lol

@puzzlepiece87 Yes

So, let's all move on

11:39 PM

I'll do my part by heading home. Best wishes to everyone this evening.

Incredible story: -> Philly police permanently forfeit homes of suspected drug users/dealers, no conviction required -> Homes are auctioned off to highest bidder -> In some cases those homes are bought by "police officers trying their hands at real estate investment" https://twitter.com/rw_briggs/status/1072119779580895233

Tweeted by _cingraham on December 10, 2018 at 5:18 PM

philly wut u doing

please place gritty in charge until we can figure out what is going on

so am I still allowed to say things like "capitalism creates a lower class held in permanent precarity by design and must be abolished in favor of an economic system that takes care of people" or no

@Unionhawk Yes, but let's not mock people because they disagree with you or believe capitalism is a thing that actually works (or has a capacity to work).

Let's also just avoid the topic of religion all together, and additionally, that qanon post really isn't news. We're basically just posting it to laugh at a bunch of people, which really isn't cool, so I'm just going to delete it.

@Unionhawk You probably shouldn’t reply to “I think capitalism works” with “HAHAHAHAHAHA” though.

Like folks who think the earth is flat is, uh, something, but doesn't mean we'd allow folks to just going around mocking them in the room. Same for Qanon.

@Yuuki Agreed, but I was just going to try and let that conversation be for now.

11:52 PM

BREAKING: The Supreme Court just rejected a case that could have allowed states to cut Planned Parenthood out of their Medicaid programs. Justices ROBERTS and KAVANAUGH joined with the court's progressives to preserve @PPFA's public funding https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/10/supreme-court-planned-parenthood-defunding-case-845056

Tweeted by AliceOllstein on December 10, 2018 at 3:21 PM

breaking from 8 hours ago but yeah

@GodEmperorDune Good

Glad to see Kavanaugh isn't just voting for party lines

There will be other things he'll vote on which we'll largely disagree with, I'm sure, but at least he thinks for himself instead of voting for whatever the GOP tell him.

@Yuuki you're right, the correct rebuttal there is "for whom"

but also the comparison of the in-place economic system in most of the world to a religion is also extremely funny to me

Anyway, I leave you with, uh

Alright I got nothing

Okay, this conversation is officially over for now and we're moving on.

Because it's officially no longer constructive

There's a giant miniature museum being built in the Toronto suburbs