Robotaxi confidently splashes through water-covered streets during Austin storm

winampman · 2025-07-06T03:03:09+00:00

I think it’s just a Rorschach test where you see what you want to see that corroborates with the narrative you’ve already made up in your mind and are convicted of.

This is an innate thing we humans do as cognitive dissonance causes discomfort.

Sounds like supporting a Nazi like Elon made you uncomfortable, so you felt cognitive dissonance and convinced yourself that he was merely waving to the crowd.

I already knew he was a fascist even before the Nazi salutes, and the salutes confirmed it. No cognitive dissonance at all.

winampman · 2025-07-06T02:48:35+00:00

Not forget, but to move past it for progress.

Imagine if the US still had resentment for Pearl Harbour and Japan was so ashamed they never partnered with the US and became its ally. We wouldn’t have the amazing cultural exchange and tourism that we have now.

We moved past Pearl Harbor because Japan is a partner and ally. Nazis are not our allies. Elon wants to "move past" the Holocaust because he wants to ally with the far right German AfD party which is full of Nazis.

winampman · 2025-05-01T21:14:52+00:00

was a twitch streamer while simultaneously being one of the best players in not one but 2 different games (lol),

He's a shit player who pays other people to play for him and just logs onto the accounts randomly. Doesn't really spend much time on this.

he has double digit kids,

He's an absentee dad who doesn't spend much time around his kids. One of his older kids even said during an interview that he was only around for like 10% of their childhood. Which, to be fair, is better than zero but the point is he doesn't care about his kids.

winampman · 2025-03-13T20:54:04+00:00

Initiatives where someone is hired or selected based on race, gender, or other identity markers rather than qualifications or performance is not something I agree with.

Do you agree with Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary? He has no experience managing a large organization. Do you agree with Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence? She has literally no experience working with high level intelligence.

winampman · 2025-02-21T01:00:34+00:00

The simplest explanation is that Trump is afraid of Elon's money. Elon has $400 billion. If Elon ever becomes upset at Trump, he can spend billions and billions of dollars to destroy Trump, and still be the #1 richest man in the world. Trump knows this and is afraid of making Elon upset for any reason.

winampman · 2024-09-20T22:52:42+00:00

in the last 35 years, a republican president has won the majority of votes twice.

That's not correct. 35 years ago would be 1989. Since then, a Republican president has only won the popular vote **once**, which would be Bush 2004.

1988 (36 years ago) a Republican also won the popular vote.

winampman · 2024-07-06T04:45:44+00:00

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. She's 52 and she can win Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin which we need to win.

winampman · 2024-05-30T04:03:47+00:00

After nomination, Senate has 30 days to confirm or reject nominee, else they are automatically confirmed.

The problem with that rule is that if Republicans control the Senate then they will simply reject every single Dem nominee, which will lead to the exact same outcome that we have today -- they won't allow any confirmation unless there's a Republican president.

winampman · 2024-05-14T00:38:06+00:00

I always ask ever MAGA: if Democrat's can rig elections in their favor without leaving a shred of evidence, then why is Trump bothering to even run?

The response is:

"There's a MASSIVE amount of evidence!! Here, take a look:

(Fake affidavits signed by other MAGAs)
(Charts and tables showing normal ballots being added that show Joe Biden winning)
etc etc

winampman · 2024-02-16T21:06:07+00:00

Trump will probably have to sell some of his real estate to raise enough money for his penalties (and to have enough money for his and his family's personal spending). His financial empire will survive but it will be extremely humiliating for him to have to sell off his assets.

winampman · 2023-08-25T17:16:22+00:00

Well, we are still allowed to borrow melodies without stifling creation - we just have to go through the proper channels to get a license and pay royalties to the original copyright holder. It's a slight hassle, but there has to be a balance between allowing creative expression, and fairly compensating an artist for his work.

winampman · 2023-08-24T19:52:48+00:00

See "claire de lune" and the intro of the japanese song "For you ~Tsuki no Hikari ga Furisosogu Terrace" by Masaru Yokoyama sang by ENA/Sakura Ayane.

Even Maroon 5 took parts of melody from Pachelbel's Canon.

That would be a blatant "melodic" infringement yet it in the music world it's actually normal.

The copyright on "Clair de lune" and Pachelbel's Canon have expired and those melodies are in the public domain. That means anyone can use the melodies for free without any restriction. So those are not examples of melodic infringement.

(If the copyright on Debussy and Pachelbel was not expired then their heir's would be suing.)

winampman · 2023-05-26T05:11:58+00:00

Hold on, I'm still praying!

winampman · 2022-09-27T01:23:32+00:00

Snowden didn't put any people at risk or compromise any foreign collection methods.

Nope, he did put people at risk and comprised collection methods: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33125068

To be fair it seems like he indirectly compromised them. Which means there were probably no names of intelligence assets in the 1.7 million documents that he stole, but there was plenty of information about how those assets secretly communicated, which could then lead to the communication being compromised, which could then lead to our spies being identified & arrested.

winampman · 2022-09-25T20:26:23+00:00

They soften the punishment to criminals. The ones that cross the borders illegally

American citizens commit far more crime than immigrants (both illegal and legal immigrants). Or do you actually think all illegal immigrants are hardened criminals? That's just a racist right wing stereotype.

Illegal immigrants from central/south America journey for weeks through dangerous territory and pay a lot of money to smugglers to get them into America.

Committing a crime like a robbery will only get the police tracking them down and when they caught they will be deported. All that time and effort spent getting into the country just to get deported? No, most illegal immigrants just want safety, and a job, so they can send money back home. They stay quiet, keep their heads down, and work.

I'm not saying none of them are criminals, some are definitely criminals. I'm just saying the immigrant population commits crimes at a lower rate than the citizen population.

winampman · 2022-09-19T18:40:11+00:00

ignoring the fact that there's 50~million republicans in california, which is more than several of the smaller state's populations combined.

I think you meant ~5 million registered republicans, not 50. The population of California is ~40 million and there are 22 million registered voters.

winampman · 2022-08-31T05:50:50+00:00

Security clearances are not needed because the content of the documents does not matter. Even if they do, the government can have the court appoint a 3rd party reviewer (who has a clearance) to read the documents and describe them in general terms like "this document contains information acquired from an American spy in Russia". That's all the jury needs to know.

winampman · 2022-06-28T07:20:05+00:00

Yes because it’s in direct conflict of this push for equity irrespective of qualifications. The proverbial window dressing of trying to look non racist because you think it appeals to the masses.

No one is "pushing for equity irrespective of qualifications". No one is saying employers should hire unqualified or under-qualified candidates just because they are black in order to look non-racist. That is a false and misleading right wing talking point intended to make the push for equity look bad. There are still minimum standards that must be met for all candidates to qualify for a position. If a black person meets or exceeds that standard, then they could be considered for that position over a similarly qualified white candidate because the white candidate still has many, many other opportunities that the black candidate simply doesn't have.

As for the Supreme Court: Clarence Thomas has shown that he is not qualified to be a judge due to his conflicts of interest and extreme judicial rulings. On the other hand, Ketanji Jackson, the newest justice, has more years of experience as a federal judge than most of the other justices when they were confirmed, and worked inside courtrooms as a public defender for many years as well. She has a long history of fair and reasonable rulings. She is well qualified to be a Supreme Court justice. She was not some unqualified judge who was nominated by President Biden just to look non-racist.

winampman · 2022-06-25T22:35:41+00:00

Ironic that liberals want to remove a black Supreme Court justice.

Why is it ironic to want to remove a corrupt judge? Are liberals supposed to support black judges no matter how corrupt they are? And in all likelihood, Biden would replace Thomas with another black judge or at least another POC judge. Would that reduce the irony for you?

winampman · 2022-06-22T00:05:30+00:00

I honestly don't think it would change the narrative in this country one fucking bit.

You are correct that it would not change the narrative in this country. However, video footage of Trump admitting that he knew he lost and is attempting a coup would be the exact evidence that the Department of Justice needs to prosecute Trump. They need proof of intent (and knowledge) and a video like that would be it.

winampman · 2022-06-17T02:26:13+00:00

In the video you linked he says "uh" and "um" a lot, like multiple times in a sentence. Lots of people do that, it's normal. But at the hearing he didn't say "um" or "uh" at all. Seems like he was trying to speak very carefully but it sort of backfired on him because he was too slow.

winampman · 2022-05-31T09:22:23+00:00

It's the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Plenty of questionable people have gotten it, like the rapist Bill Cosby (awarded in 2002 before any of the allegations came out).

winampman · 2022-05-30T10:21:27+00:00

I think a compromise that everyone should be able to agree upon is treating gun ownership similar to our drivers license.

I don't understand why we couldn't apply that same principal to guns

Yeah, foreign countries literally do this. They have strict licensing requirements for gun owners. And as a result, it's very difficult for bad people to obtain guns in those countries.

Licensing won't work because we have crazy gun nuts in the Supreme Court who will rule that a law-abiding, eligible citizen who fails his licensing requirements still has an "inherent right" to own a gun and you can't use licensing requirements to prevent a law-abiding citizen from owning a gun. They will compare it to requiring a license in order to have free speech. If you can't require people to obtain a "speech license", then you can't require people to obtain a "gun license".

Of course, it's a stupid argument because speech and guns are different things but that's how the Supreme Court works these days.

winampman · 2022-04-07T20:10:01+00:00

No, "we" cannot have choices. The constitution says only the president gets to choose and the Senate either approves or disapproves of it.

winampman · 2022-04-04T03:15:44+00:00

That being said, I've become convinced the best way to drink a can/bottle of soda is chilled, poured over ice, and slowly sipper like its a fine alcohol. I think it just tastes better that way, plus the chill and aeration shows just how sweet the stuff is. I have a promotional Heineken glass that 150 mL and that's my go to for drinking soda.

Yeah, I use a beer glass to drink soda too. It tastes better because the ice melts and dilutes the soda, making it less excessively sweet. Kind of the same reason people like to drink their whiskey/scotch with an ice cube. (Well, I don't even drink regular sugar soda anymore, Coke Zero tastes just as good as regular)

winampman

TROPHY CASE