BeginnersMind

We disagree. Go smile at a lot of people today. I will too.

A few points. First, your question "Should we literally create a Ministry of Truth to sort out the "real" from the "fake"" and implying that Americans are acting "unamerican" to the "core" is a scare tactic designed to imbue hyperbolic intent into either my post, or Warren's words, or both. The leap to there is at best the slippery slope argument, where the slope is under a foot of KY Jelly. I implied no such intent, and Warren for all her kookiness, did not either. It reminds me of the stuff my brother used to email me (pages and pages) when he was convinced dubya was about to launch a military takeover of the government if you just watched the code being given out in official announcements. He would piece together a sentence in one CIA press release with a typo in a NYT article and show how factions were communicating. He could bury me in pages of this bunk but his more credible soundbytes sounded like what you note there, down the slippery slope to conspiratorial oblivion, instead of just noting that people have different (and bad) ideas. The Russians absolutely used our freedom against us. As did the 9-11 hijackers. As will others. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that many here on this board (reflecting a mood of many) have a collective shrug over it. Or say what about Obama? Or what about us? Those are interesting questions but miss the immediate point of dealing with the issue. Our president says he believes a dictator over his own intel apparatus (until after his own party lambasts him, when he says he misspoke, which the entire context of his remarks shows is untrue). It concerns me that our president personally struck a line from his prepared remarks yesterday that he would bring people who colluded with Russians to justice. Why strike that--of all lines. And then in the same paragraph, he adds remarks that belittle Russia's acts. Don't misread this as Trumpophobia. I don't care for him but I don't believe he colluded with Russia. I don't think he's Putin's puppet. But I do believe he thinks there's a conspiracy afoot, fed by a looney fringe, and acts accordingly. That's a gross oversimplication of the board politic. Tiberius is what he is. But others while perhaps possessing the capacity to be different than Tiberius, choose not to be. And the guy who told me to look at Catwoman's ass. And the people who race not to examine the issue du juor but instead cry hypocrite any time someone offers a fair critique of "their guy." Look at the meme-ing of this board in the last few months. That's not an interesting contribution. It's just meme-dumping of the Russian bot variety. The list goes on and on. And I share it too as I've got a lifetime of posting douchebaggery. But it's a problem. And it's not a liberal one--that's patently unfair--It's a group one. Not just here, but on here, we all own it.

What the Russian government thinks is not the information Russia played, and you know it. Russian INTELLIGENCE ran a concerted effort to play to our worst biases and to influence an American election--and democracy--and were caught at it. Ads are hardly benign and they have created two of the largest companies in the world. I find it hard to believe most on this board don't care but it goes to a troubling symptom: People would rather snipe and snark than engage the issues here (to be clear, that is not what you did, but it's 90% of the discussion in this thread). It's hard to stand for something--and very easy to tear others down. It's a terrible problem on this board and reflected more broadly in a cynical America. I don't really care how we got here--but I do care that it stops. This board is what we make it. Right now, it's Maxine Waters, a Russian Bot, Fox Moulder, and the guys in the muppet balcony. We can do better but it will take a real effort.

Not relevant to my concern about Russia—a totalitarian state—employing its intelligence agencies to influence our democracy and being caught doing so. “We all do it” is what my little brother used to say when he got caught breaking curfew. That’s a childish release of responsibility.

Russian intelligence launched a concerted attack to influence a US presidential election--and were caught doing so. The gullibility of the American public to fall for Russian memes aside, that's something worth reacting to negatively--as an American. Your snark is an easy escape hatch from actually caring about your country and the people in it. It's a magnitude more intellectually challenging--and rewarding--to care about the world and work to fix it.

Bills fans honor OJ every week. This is nothing.

No not true. The best soccer is at the club level for sure but the World Cup is a giant stage and these guys play their butts off.

We could all make the board better by being a better person here. Me as much as anyone. Tom may choose that path someday but for now his addiction to the board comes out in this way. He will help this place someday. He’s too active of a poster not to see what a positive influence he could become.

Many people these days race to point out hypocrisy as a form of intellectual engagement instead of joining a discussion about an issue or what could be better in America. The remaining content here specifically is like watching a Russian bot debate Maxine Waters as Agent Moulder does the play by play.

Actually what he has said is that, as a lower court judge, he had to follow Supreme Court precedent. Once he's on the Supreme Court itself, he's under no obligation to follow those decisions.

We know as much about her right to be there as his right to remove her. Not much. Letting some time time pass before I jump to any conclusion.

I’d say they have a good shot at overturning Roe v Wade. Very very good shot. This is a big swing appointment. He’s more centrist than Gorsuch but not as much as Kennedy. Will be interesting to see how far to the liberal side he moves once appointed. Except Thomas, they all move that way a bit.

She voted the R line 90% of the time last year. In doing so, she's the most liberal R there is, but wouldn't you rather have some independently minded Congress people instead of the lemming Rs and Ds? I'm encouraged by anyone who can break with the party line and perhaps (?) work across the aisle. At 90%, it's not that encouraging but since she's leading the pack, I have to congratulate someone for coming in first on Independent or Moderate thought.

Versions of involvement He did it He had someone do it He had someone break into his house and that person did it ________________ He had someone go to the house, use his keys to pick up his stuff, and they committed assault against his wishes Someone known to McCoy broke in and tried to rob stuff Stranger broke in and tried to rob stuff Probably above the line is a problem. It's certainly going need some 'splaining by Shady to show people he's below that line. I hope he is.

Could happen. But not based on what you know now.

Don't need guilt in a court of law to cut him. If he was involved, he's 100% cut. But...way too early for that. Right now there's a deleted tweet and an assault he couldn't have committed himself.

Why is that "obvious?"

That's my point. There are no credible sources yet except for conjecture and rumor. A detail like this would take some actual reporting to dig up.

How is it that we "know" about the cameras being down and who took them down? The Twitter Telephone Game is really really bad.

Seems like a good jurist. President gets to choose. Barring any serious problem, he should go through. And if the left is smart, they should approve him quickly because they could have gotten a less attractive (to them) justice. This guy is as close to Kennedy as they are going to get. He is not a pure textualist.

Not really sure who you're talking to with consistency in attack. I just noted that you keep making the same point (and did it again in this post)--we got it. No one really disagrees that Barca would mop up any country team. That doesn't mean the WC is not fun to watch. Country-based soccer is fun. It's good fun to mix and match the players.

The horse is dead from the beating brother. The fun of the World Cup is seeing people play for country. Of course they have no chemistry and aren’t the best teams!

Some people are like this. We make him happy so let him be. Agreed that Belgium England would be such a great match if there was something on the line. Oh well.

England and Belgium could both be playing to lose. Winner gets nothing.

Belgium is the real deal. Only England has looked better. Croatia needs to prove they can play with the big boys.