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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by bolverk

  1. The insult questioning the Americanness or the Texas bonafides of a liberal, progressive, or non-Republican is one of the oldest, most unoriginal, and idiotic plays in their book. Personally, I like how that script has flipped with Cruz and Trump for a change.

    • Like 1
  2. 6 hours ago, RayDog said:

    Tarrant went 51.7% for Trump by 57,000 votes after going 57.1% for Romney. With that trend and other trends away from Republicans, Beto is going to win Tarrant.

    That's what I've been saying since far up thread. Based on previous patterns, Beto should retain all of Hillary's counties and pick up Hays, Williamson, and Tarrant. That would make Texas a certifiably purple state. If he also picks up Collin, then he wins this thing.

  3. Do your best you racist assholes.

    Quote

     

    A bus plunged off a bridge and into the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, after a fight between the driver and a passenger who had missed her stop.

    Rescuers lifted the wreckage from the river on Wednesday night. Thirteen bodies were recovered; two remained missing, according to the official Xinhua news agency

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/nov/02/bus-careers-off-bridge-in-china-as-driver-and-passenger-fight-video-report

     

  4. 4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

     

     

    I really have trouble keeping track of all these alt-right douchebags, so I had to google and HOLY SHIT!!!

    Quote

     

    Back in 2017, New Times obtained screenshots of gross chats among Florida International University's Campus Republicans. They joked about the Charlottesville neo-Nazi attack last year and threatened to "call ICE" on fellow, undocumented students who were begging Congress to pass the DREAM Act.

    Now, New Times has received disgusting chats from another FIU conservative group, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) — a far-right, college-focused group led by commentator Charlie Kirk. Members joke about watching underage cartoon pornography and deporting Latina women, and, in the most repugnant case, share racist "Pepe the Frog" memes showing Syrian men raping a white Swedish woman at gunpoint.

    tpusa-1.jpg


     

    https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/turning-point-usa-fiu-chapter-shares-racist-sexist-pepe-memes-10827433

  5. I'd bet that Carl Sagan would have billions and billions of things to say too.

    Oh wait, he did:

    Quote

    Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

    https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/a-prophetic-1995-quote-from-carl-sagan-perfectly-describes-america-of-today

    • Like 7
  6. The roll of the Russians in Brexit:

    Quote


    Russian Trolls Used Islamophobia To Whip Up Support For Brexit

    Russian trolls have been focusing on stoking up anti-Islam sentiment in the UK, a study of nine million tweets has revealed.

    Data released today by the Demos think tank showed that Russia's notorious Internet Research Agency (IRA) has generated far more tweets about Islam in the last couple of years than it has on more direct pro-Brexit propaganda.

    The most widely-followed and visible troll account, @TEN_GOP, shared 109 Tweets related to the UK in the run-up to the vote, of which 60% were related to Islam.

    Accounts managed to stay under the radar by starting off with tweets about health and fitness, many of which were garbled and appeared to be automatically generated.

    "Sustained low-level engagement suggest those behind the accounts were not looking to push this content into the public domain," the researchers write. "Rather, this was an attempt to camouflage fake accounts and begin to infiltrate the wider conversation."


    By the time of the Brexit referendum, though, the accounts were in full swing, sending 354 English-language tweets on the day itself. While most of these were general anti-EU messages, they included "Algerian illegally in Britain attacked 8 women in ten days! Send the Muslim back to EU!" and, purporting to be from a US account, "I hope UK after #BrexitVote will start to clean their land from muslim invasion!".

    The most-retweeted tweet in the six months running up to the vote was "London: Muslims running a campaign stall for  Sharia law! Must be sponsored by @MayorofLondon!" Others claimed, completely falsely, that there were 'no-go' Sharia-run areas in the UK.

     

    cont'd

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2018/11/01/russian-trolls-used-islamophobia-to-whip-up-support-for-brexit/#4487549e65f2

  7. Nice but long write-up on the (maybe?) lack of Russian activity:

    Quote

     

    Mystery of the Midterm Elections: Where Are the Russians?

    WASHINGTON — Shane Huntley has seen every form of state-sponsored cyberattack, first as an Australian intelligence officer and now as director of Google’s most advanced team of threat detectors.

    So when he was asked what surprised him the most about the 2018 midterm elections, his response was a bit counterintuitive. “The answer is surprisingly little on the hacking front, at least compared to two years ago.” He paused, and added: “And that reassures some people, and it scares some people.”

    He is right. From the cyberwar room that the Department of Homeland Security runs round the clock in a bland office building in Arlington, Va., to Microsoft’s threat-assessment center at the other end of the country, in Redmond, Wash., every form of digital radar is being focused on Russia, especially its military-intelligence unit, formerly known as the G.R.U.

    The National Security Agency, which failed to respond when Russian hackers were first seen inside the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems in the summer of 2015, has now taken to sending messages directly to Russian hackers, reminding them that they are being watched.

     

    2

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/business/midterm-election-russia-cyber.html

    (friendly reminder to right-click and open in incognito)

  8. Given the level of hateful personal attacks leveled by NameWithHeld, I'm guessing either MajorHarsin or ClearLakeHorn, but if he's as old as he claims to be I'd mark MajorHarsin off the list. For whatever reason, he struck me as younger. A third possibility is that Rockport guy. He was always full of piss and vinegar.

  9. 2 hours ago, Pancho Negro said:

     

     

    2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

    ain't no crawdads in texas, steve.

     

    2 hours ago, Texas73 said:

    wut?

     

    2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

    i've only ever known em as crawfish

     

    2 hours ago, Texas73 said:

    We country folks up in Van Zandt County called them crawdads.

     

    2 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

    yeah, well, you live in a dry county. that explains a lot. 

    heh. my ma lives up that way. always have to remember to stop in athens.

     

    1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

    Ted is more of a craydad which is the Canadian spelling of crawdad

     

    1 hour ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

    I think the word you're looking for is crayfish. I have literally never heard anyone say craydad. 

     

    1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

    It was "crawdad" in the midwest.

    "Crawfish" is the appropriate verb for weasels like Ted Cruz.

    6a010534b1db25970b01901d1cfea9970b-pi

    • Like 2
  10. Nice op/ed about this election and what it means to be a Texan.

    Quote

     

    Cruz Might Win the Senate, but the Democrats Are Winning Texas
    Across the state, diverse liberal candidates are redefining its politics.

    By Richard Parker
    Mr. Parker is the author of “Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America.”

    EL PASO — “What does it mean,” a man asked Representative Beto O’Rourke at the end of a televised town hall, “to be a Texan?”

    That question summed up the most-watched Senate race in America. It isn’t merely a contest over political power, though a quarter-century-old Republican monopoly is on the line. It’s an existential struggle over which Texas emerges, with national consequence.

    One version is being sold by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, the incumbent. A shibboleth of tall tales and 10-gallon hats, it’s a story the Republicans have been telling for years to persuade new arrivals, refugees from the Rust Belt, that being Texan meant driving pickups and caring only about God, gays and guns.

    Most Texans know this isn’t true. But Republicans have made a bet that “their” Texas will turn out to vote in just enough numbers to win, as long as the party manages to whittle down the rest of the electorate through sleights of hand like voter ID laws and gerrymandering.

     

    1

    (As always, a friendly reminder to right-click and open in incognito mode to avoid paywall.)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/cruz-might-win-the-senate-but-the-democrats-are-winning-texas.html

    • Like 1
  11. 4 minutes ago, NameWithHeld said:

    There are plenty of CITIZENS in this country that could use those blankets etc.  Give to the Salvation Army etc

    This is a bit, right?

  12. On 10/22/2018 at 8:16 PM, BurntEyes said:

    I don't want to like Last Kingdom, but dammit I really do.

    /sappy dweeb alert

    I love Schitts Creek. I do. I feel old, and overly emotional about it. I am ashamed of how much I love it, but I keep wanting more.

    Schitts creek is the shit. That daughter has got both the up talk and vocal fry down. Byeeee!

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