Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Post a reply


This question is a means of preventing automated form submissions by spambots.
Smilies
:D :) ;) :( :o :shock: :? 8-) :lol: :x :P :oops: :cry: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow: :| :mrgreen: :geek: :ugeek:

BBCode is ON
[img] is ON
[flash] is OFF
[url] is ON
Smilies are ON

Topic review
   

Expand view Topic review: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

Re: Criminal Conservatives?

by Bob Butler » Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:24 am

Guest wrote:
Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:39 am
For a more detailed analysis of what Bob and the other leftist elites are really saying--->
I wouldn’t say Republicans in general are criminal. The Nixon and Trump administrations had their moments, sure, but not in general.

We do have Republican efforts to promote European religious doctrines and prejudices. They are fighting equality and the will of the people. It is not the big college elites that are responsible. In the recent college controversies mentioned in the Zerohedge article, the universities were backing affirmative action, the Republicans were advancing the cause of racism.

It is possible from a blue perspective to see the universities to be trying to remove flaws while the Republicans are trying to emphasize them. European religious beliefs and bigotry were not initiated by the universities. They are trying to fight the effects. The flaws are left over from the Agricultural Age.

Bridge Collapse

by Bob Butler » Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:33 am

I ran into an analysis of the bridge collapse the other day. Don't know if it will hold up but got me thinking. It turns out that the turning of propellers induce the ship to turn. A normal clockwise turn causes a ship to veer left, while going in reverse causes it to go right. When the power went out, they tried to slow the ship by ordering full reverse. This worked, but caused the course to shift right into the bridge pylon. One possibility in the investigation is that they will determine they should have just drifted at speed, cut power to the engines. The ship would have gone straight without hitting the pylon.

Another twist is that there were no obstructing huge cement barriers in front of the pylon. Some bridges protect supports from being hit by ships. The Francis Key bridge lacked this protection, allowing the collision unhindered. The news people showed images of the Betsy Ross bridge, similar to the Francis Key bridge, which does have the protective barriers. Not cheap by the look of it, but neither will replacing the bridge be.

Another twist is more political. There is a move about by some Republicans for the federal government not to provide funding. It turns out Baltimore is a blue city with a Democratic state governor. The US transportation secretary is minority, and thus the minority affirmative action policies are being held responsible for the loss of the bridge. This is being presented as a change, making disaster relief a partisan issue. A few years ago Milwaukee similarly lost a bridge and the federal government stepped in. Katrina hit New Orleans. Other hurricanes hit elsewhere: Florida, New York, Texas. Maui in Hawaii got hit by a fire. It has been normal for the federal government to significantly help in a disaster regardless of politics. Apparently there is an effort for this to change now, that if a disaster happens in a blue state in an election year it becomes a partisan racist issue. We shall have to see if the old 'disasters are non partisan issues' habit holds.

Re: Criminal Conservatives?

by Guest » Fri Mar 29, 2024 4:39 am

Bob Butler wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 3:01 pm
Guest wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:48 am
Imagine a world without this excuse for bad behavior:

"He should be free to commit crimes because he (or his kind) suffered injustice."

Could we even have Leftism without this argument?
From my position, yes. Leftism removes flaws from cultures. Things like colonial imperialism, slavery and containment were from progressive pushes to remove flaws. This time around it is bigots, criminals in high office and religious fanatics forcing doctrine on others. In each, the conservative faction wanted to continue to exploit the flaws.

Leftists advocate rule of law rather the crimes. Hey, Trump is accuse of 91 felonies? If you aren't for criminality you may loose your position as a conservative.
For a more detailed analysis of what Bob and the other leftist elites are really saying--->
What's Wrong With America's 'Elites'?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wha ... cas-elites
Not only does this group think it’s acceptable to cheat to win an election, but 70 percent believe there is too much individual freedom in the United States, and an equal number trusts the government—which, of course, they control. “They really believe,” Rasmussen says, “that if they could just make the decisions and get us out of the way, we would be a lot better off.”

What’s going on at our most prestigious and exclusive universities? How have they produced generations of amoral, condescending authoritarians? And how do we put a stop to it?

Those are questions Americans need answers to.

Define Sentient

by Bob Butler » Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:49 pm

Guest wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:43 pm
Bob Butler wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:45 pm
Provide reproductive health care.
Killing innocent babies in the womb is not "reproductive health care." It has nothing at all to do with health care. We can argue about whether killing innocent babies should be allowed, but we should use accurate terminology. I.E, respect the science.
Define sentient. I can agree killing sentients is wrong, and repeatedly asked the religious fanatics for a definition of sentience that would allow us to avoid that wrong. The closest I have come to such a definition is that beings which can use language are sentient. As we are the only species that uses language and the only species considered sentient, this seems to make sense. We seem otherwise to consider killing OK.

A fetus cannot use language. Provide an alternate definition of sentient which applies in the first two trimesters. Quoting a cultural religious prejudice is not science. Forcing others to abide by ones own religious practices is the establishment of an official government religion, and not allowed.

Generational Dynamics and Gaza

by Bob Butler » Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:37 pm

John wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:55 pm
So are you pro-Hamas?
No. Neither am I for the Israeli attempt to expel the Palestinians from Gaza. Neither side is covering itself in glory. Both are using racial / religious prejudices to justify genocide, murdering the innocent and bombing hospitals.

The basic idea from Generational Dynamics is hating, oppressing and killing the different. Both Hamas and Israel are indulging in the instinct. As I have often said, one should expect other cultures to wallow in the instinct, but discourage it in your own. The old world is more blatant in their racism than we are. We may have had slaves, stolen native lands, denied the Irish jobs, etc, but we did not have Hitler's gas chambers, the Armenian genocide or the current Gaza fiasco. We have racially motivated spree killers and racist murdering cops, but not government organized genocide. I recognize that the instinct to hate, kill and oppress the different, but I would reject it where it is found and practiced, Including both Isriel's right wing government and Hamas.

I have been avoiding taking a position on the Gaza conflict for some time. It has taken some time for it to become clear. We'll see if it holds up.

Re: Cycles

by Guest » Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:43 pm

Bob Butler wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:45 pm
Provide reproductive health care.
Killing innocent babies in the womb is not "reproductive health care." It has nothing at all to do with health care.
We can argue about whether killing innocent babies should be allowed, but we should use accurate terminology.
I.E, respect the science.

Re: Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

by John » Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:55 pm

So are you pro-Hamas?

Cycles

by Bob Butler » Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:45 pm

n a way, Marx was right. The only way to force a king, czar or dictator out of power is through force, through revolution. Alas, what he got wrong was that the revolutionaries would advocate power for the revolutionaries, not for the people. If you don’t insert the Enlightenment principles in the revolutionary replacement government as the US founding fathers did, you have to do your revolution all over again.

There is a difference between conquest and containment. If you are attempting to acquire power through force, you are one of the bad guys. If you are trying to prevent people from acquiring power by force, you are not.

The Agricultural Age was a time when the kings ruled though superior force. It was not ideal. Eventually the Enlightenment ideals such as rule of law, equality, freedom, democracy and the like overcame it. Still, we are overcoming the cultural faults. There are still bigots. There are still people who try to enforce their religious beliefs on others. There are still criminals like Trump who will attempt to acquire power by evading the law. Our current culture is not perfect. Thus, there are still crises every four score and seven years, and still recurring new births of freedom.

What are the goals? Cure disease. Provide reproductive health care. Let each individual choose. Focus the economy. Prevent bigot cops from murder. Get rid of gerrymandering. Guarantee voting rights. In general, work for the benefit of the people rather than to acquire power. Let the party which best helps the people win enough votes to be trusted with power.

In a way the 2024 US election is an attempt to maintain the old agricultural age might make right autocracy. The domestic issues such as health care and gun control give the Democrats the advantage. If Ukraine can hang on that long, containment continues and Putin stalls. Xi cannot start anything. He struts a lot, but needs the oil which he knows will be blocked in a serious conflict. Trump is running into the rule of law.

This is turning into your typical crisis. The worst of the old culture tries to hang on to traditional flaws, but there are too many attempting to remove them. The solutions become a new set of values. Predict violence if you like. Bet against containment. Putin can’t beat the Ukraine, let alone NATO. China is collapsing without war. Trump is diverting election funds to defend against his habitual criminal acts.

Each crisis, the conservative concepts collapse and a new and better nation thrives. I see no reason not to expect it to happen again.

Re: Cycles

by FullMoon » Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:23 am

Bob Butler wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:47 pm
Guest wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:21 pm
The Left always eats its own.
The conservatives always collapse. The problem is solved. America improves. Colonial imperialism no more, slavery no more, authoritarian expansion resisted, bigotry resisted. It is the conservatives who end up getting eaten.
Because of depressingly regressive reprobates like this person BB, America will not survive this turning. And possibly humanity itself will not. But nation states will be redefined at the least. If we can maintain that level of complexity, after this very deep regression. Which is brought about by person's like BB, who think that they can force social changes like Stalin and Mao have already tried.
Luckily for these people, the disaster is a foreign war. But there won't be enough cohesion after the disaster in order to patch it together again. As Navigator has said about the war and aftermath, and it rapidly becomes VERY clear we're almost at that point . That's why all of the "progressive" wealthy are getting prepared as fast as possible. They don't want to be eaten.

Re: Cycles

by Bob Butler » Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:47 pm

Guest wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:21 pm
The Left always eats its own.
The conservatives always collapse. The problem is solved. America improves. Colonial imperialism no more, slavery no more, authoritarian expansion resisted, bigotry resisted. It is the conservatives who end up getting eaten.

Top