BN, I would hazard to say that there is no way to offend anyone by insulting Trump. Most Americans agree that he is an ignorant buffoon; for his supporters, the fact that everyone else disdains him is part of the appeal.
Certainly from a European perspective, clown seems to be an appropriate analogy! I am not sure what he would do if the newly elected Mayor of London ( a Muslim) wanted to visit the USA.
@Doofy You can knock Trump all you want (he is an easy target). Regardless of how poor a candidate he may be, Hillary unquestionably should be in prison. What does it mean for the rule of law in the US if she is actually elected? Given the very high probability that anti-American interests have hacked her email server, what are the odds she will be blackmailed by opposing forces if elected?
Sorry to bring in politics to the site - #NeverHillary!
Oy. @dataGuy, I hope you'll consider my post more music-related than political. The point (if there is one), is that they are two "brash" personalities who, I think it is fair to say, are pretty widely regarded as conceited jerks. Peas in a pod.
I said nothing about Hillary (and will say nothing further), but the above is Right Wing propaganda nonsense, in my view.
No need for a flame war or anything but I keep hearing it said that HRC should be in prison, as if it is self evident based on the widely circulated videos of her torturing puppies and kittens or something. But I have searched my memory banks and can't come up with anything.
Can someone please tell us why she should be in prison?
Everyone should be in prison. No one is innocent! Suspect everyone! Beware the enemy within!
Also, she used e-mail. Who uses e-mail anymore? I mean, if she can't at least use Instagram or text messaging, she should just turn herself in at the nearest police station and have done with it.
In the current environment, Hillary could club a baby seal live on TV and it wouldn't hurt her campaign; so that's not it.
In conversations with my daughters I've been surprised to find out how little their friends know about specific details of any of the candidates (not that my daughters are all that much more informed). So given that, I'm assuming you aren't actually trolling.
Over her public career there are still a number of serious issues that she is yet to face charges on. One of the more egregious is selling her offices' influence via the Clinton foundation and her and Bill's speaking fees. Selling influence is difficult to prove. If you google the issue you'll find a number of examples that appear very serious but right now it seems unlikely she will face a trial for these activities.
However, her violations of security laws are very clear cut. The laws related to the proper handling of sensitive information are black and white with very severe penalties. Even the lowest government worker knows that if you mishandle even minimally classified information you are going away for a long time.
In the case of Hillary's criminal handling of sensitive information there is in fact a public record; as the State Department has, over time, released a number of her emails. So, you don't have to speculate if she violated secrecy laws; it is very evident if you know anything about the related regulations. One ironic twist, is that some of the regulations she violated specifically have a penalty that prohibits a violator from holding elected office.
Hillary has tried to claim that she never handled classified information through her email server (despite the fact that, due to her office, much of the emails she generates herself would automatically be classified). There is a very incriminating (if not a smoking gun) thread in which Hillary herself instructs her staff to remove the security heading and send classified information to her via an unsecured method.
The fact the Hillary Clinton is not currently in jail, let alone running for office, is very bad news for the rule of law in our country. If you don't find the above information disturbing I'm not sure what it would take.
The problem here is that even if Hillary Clinton actually had committed some sort of "crime" with her e-mail server, most people are so sick of hearing made-up BS scandal after made-up BS scandal about her for the past 20 years, they just don't believe any of it anymore. Nor should they, because that would only reward an endless campaign of biased-media character assassination. If they can do it to someone like her, they can do it to anyone. So yeah, she messed up, but nobody who's rational cares, the right-wingers brought this on themselves, and frankly they deserve to be ignored for it.
And you're wrong about the way government employees who mishandle classified information are treated; leniency is the guiding principle in about 98 percent of cases, very few of which are ever reported publicly. People almost never go to jail for it, or even get charged, unless they're actually spying or mass-leaking deliberately. (If you really think Hillary Clinton was spying, then I'm afraid your case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome is probably terminal.) And this is all putting aside the fact that most people who have given any thought to the issue believe, quite correctly, that far too much information is classified to begin with - probably to the same extent that they hate dealing with e-mail in general. And, of course, government IT is a joke, and has been for decades.
Anyway, I'm sorry to be so disagreeable; we almost never talk about politics here, and we shouldn't start now. It's bad for business. Ideally, the mods should just delete all this stuff!
These responses highlight an equally bad omen for our future. The whole "Red vs Blue" thinking. Should someone not be in complete agreement with my candidate then they must be insane. That is an environment designed to prevent any discourse.
In my case not only am I not a "Trumper", I don't have any love for the Republicans at all. My Father used to say that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the parties and I think he was spot on.
@Doofy you hit the nail on the head (sort of) - why hasn't she been charged? The email thread I pointed to clearly shows her telling a staff member to violate the law, that in and of itself is a violation; a serious one. The law has to apply to everyone and so far, in this case, it hasn't. Wantever your political leanings that is not healthy for our society.
@ScissorMan you are correct there was a time that over classification was a problem. It is likely still a problem but I don't have any more information about that than the rest of the general public. Having actually had a Top Secret clearence (not as high up as it sounds) I can emphatically tell you that "leniency is the guiding principle" is not the case. If you want to keep your government job you follow the rules to the letter, period.
Over classification is not a significant issue with Hillary's handling of email. She was the Secretary of State. Something as everyday as her response to a given situation would be some of most sensative information there is. Hopefully the FBI is investigating the reasons why she would continusly risk national securty by keeping her communications off of government systems.
I know that nothing we say on this thread is going to change anything. I still have hope that the internet and our ability to directly communicate with each other will, over time, help to break down the hypersensitivity to differing political views. I know my belief, in the internets' ability to improve things, is idealistic but I don't see anything else to put my hope in.
I had a Top Secret clearance too (though it's now expired). Military vs. civilian makes a big difference, and within the civilian ranks, diplomatic vs. nuclear-regulatory also makes a big difference. Either way though, who you are and who got hurt matters more than what you actually did; that's just the way it's always been. But if your clearance is/was military (mine was civilian/diplomatic), that might not be your experience, I suppose.
I suppose I am technically a moderator since I have the powers to act like one, though we have never had to have a moderator except for spammers before. So I'll just risk adding my own polite suggestion that there are signs in the thread that it might be time to move back to music...
As someone who certainly does not have a vote in this election, I totally agree with GP's last post. This is a cross continent music board, and not all of us are involved in US elections
Again, I think a flame war is wasted energy so I agree that politics discussions should be avoided as a general rule. I was genuinely curious with my HRC question. But it looks like pretty much the same old left right, red blue divide that will never be resolved so I think we should venture back into safer topics.
Therefore, I want to ask each of you do you know where your soul will spend eternity? I have some literature I would like to give you.
jackedupjazz - Surely thou doth jest. People put in time and thought addressing your alleged genuine curiosity and all you got from it was yada yada yada? That seems a shame, especially since simply discussing the topic seems to have made some members uncomfortable.
I felt the discussion remained fairly civil, given the high politial stakes surrounding the issue. I was a bit disapointed when people suggested to drop the subject; that seemed unnecessary. Granted it ended with the less than helpful but now standard "shut up, he explained" response. So, perhaps stopping there was the thing to do. I for one now find scissorman more intriguing than I likely would have if we had stuck to only dissussing music; so there is that. [btw the 'Drums and Wires' avatar is tres bien]
I'm not sure how other people feel but how this thread ended leaves me somewhat - unsettled. We all know that the raison d'etre of the forum is sharing music that we have discovered/enjoy. However, like most forums, there are many, many "off topic" posts. Take the video of the little girl doing tricks on her skateboard. That wasn't music related, or even humorous but it was very cool and I'm glad someone shared it. But where do posts like that fit in now?
Other forums have a posting policy pinned at the top of the forum to help outline the communities' topic comfort zone. Maybe we could borrow one and tweak to fit this forum. That seems less vague than occasional suggestions to "keep it to music". It's something to consider....
I don't think anyone has banned discussion of divisive political topics, I just think we have come to a consensus that this particular topic does not contribute to building the community that we need to maintain this discussion board. I mean really, how can you possibly be off topic in a discussion thread titled "WTF". But this is not new, and we all know where this discussion is headed.
I have pretty much formed my opinions regarding the state of affairs in American politics and I suspect that you and everyone else on this board has done the same. So a regurgitation of Fox News talking points and the methodical rebuttal of those talking points is pretty much a waste of precious bandwidth as no hearts and minds will be changed.
I don't know about where you live, but where I live all media is pretty much focused on all politics all the time. So much so, that I am starting to look forward to the ever so brief respite provided by the occasional updates on what Kim and Kanye are up to these days. So let's give the politics a rest.
@dataGuy My take is JuJ's right, the issue is not avoiding any topic but music. I think it's that folk here have been enjoying friendly conversation mostly about music and popular culture for quite a few years years now, occasionally stopping to marvel at how enjoyable this little niche is in its bucolic civility compared to much of the rest of the internet. As far as I can recall we have had maybe two or three conversations *ever* in which folk got mad at each other. That's better than the first ten comments on a lot of websites. I think most of us would rather keep it that way than discuss the kind of party-political topics that are being done to death elsewhere and are guaranteed to polarize. Those topics do matter in the larger scheme of things, but in this one little space I at least (and I think others) value the community more than pursuing them. I'll see about a forum policy post - we do have some sticky threads to welcome folk.
Got it - any topic is acceptable as long as most everyone (or at least the vocal members) are sympatico. Makes me think of the line from Graham Parker's song 'Stupefaction': "I can't see the point / But I see the attraction".
[@Germanprof - a while back you recommended that I check out more Bruce Cockburn. So, last month I bought 'The Charity Of Night'. After listening to it a while I've come to really enjoy it. I think it helps that the songs are similar to the album of his I'm most familiar with, 'Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu'. Bruce Cockburn is a very interesting guitarist and songwriter; thanks for the recommendation.]
@dataGuy, some think Charity of Night is his finest hour, and it is certainly up there among his best overall releases. Another one to check out from that loose period is You've Never Seen Everything.
See this copy of "Off the Wall" at Dusty Groove. What does that even mean, "half-speed mastered pressing"? I Googled it, forsooth, and still can't quite figure it out. So they are LPs recorded at 45 rpm? (And how is that half-speed?)
DG is asking 50 bucks for this thing. I incidentally endorse their review, which begins: "Michael, if only you'd stayed at this level!"
Well it seems like the master is cut at half speed as obv is the master tape is also played back at the slower speed. This allows for greater accuracy in the cut The opposite of how high speed cassette duplication and fast rips of cds give an inferior product. You prolly Googled that yourself. Seems to be the new trend to get us to buy classic vinyl again.
Comments
/sigh
Craig
Sorry to bring in politics to the site - #NeverHillary!
I said nothing about Hillary (and will say nothing further), but the above is Right Wing propaganda nonsense, in my view.
Can someone please tell us why she should be in prison?
Also, she used e-mail. Who uses e-mail anymore? I mean, if she can't at least use Instagram or text messaging, she should just turn herself in at the nearest police station and have done with it.
In conversations with my daughters I've been surprised to find out how little their friends know about specific details of any of the candidates (not that my daughters are all that much more informed). So given that, I'm assuming you aren't actually trolling.
Over her public career there are still a number of serious issues that she is yet to face charges on. One of the more egregious is selling her offices' influence via the Clinton foundation and her and Bill's speaking fees. Selling influence is difficult to prove. If you google the issue you'll find a number of examples that appear very serious but right now it seems unlikely she will face a trial for these activities.
However, her violations of security laws are very clear cut. The laws related to the proper handling of sensitive information are black and white with very severe penalties. Even the lowest government worker knows that if you mishandle even minimally classified information you are going away for a long time.
In the case of Hillary's criminal handling of sensitive information there is in fact a public record; as the State Department has, over time, released a number of her emails. So, you don't have to speculate if she violated secrecy laws; it is very evident if you know anything about the related regulations. One ironic twist, is that some of the regulations she violated specifically have a penalty that prohibits a violator from holding elected office.
Hillary has tried to claim that she never handled classified information through her email server (despite the fact that, due to her office, much of the emails she generates herself would automatically be classified). There is a very incriminating (if not a smoking gun) thread in which Hillary herself instructs her staff to remove the security heading and send classified information to her via an unsecured method.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/08/whoa-hillary-e-mail-instructs-aide-to-transmit-classified-e-mail-without-markings/
The fact the Hillary Clinton is not currently in jail, let alone running for office, is very bad news for the rule of law in our country. If you don't find the above information disturbing I'm not sure what it would take.
And you're wrong about the way government employees who mishandle classified information are treated; leniency is the guiding principle in about 98 percent of cases, very few of which are ever reported publicly. People almost never go to jail for it, or even get charged, unless they're actually spying or mass-leaking deliberately. (If you really think Hillary Clinton was spying, then I'm afraid your case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome is probably terminal.) And this is all putting aside the fact that most people who have given any thought to the issue believe, quite correctly, that far too much information is classified to begin with - probably to the same extent that they hate dealing with e-mail in general. And, of course, government IT is a joke, and has been for decades.
Anyway, I'm sorry to be so disagreeable; we almost never talk about politics here, and we shouldn't start now. It's bad for business. Ideally, the mods should just delete all this stuff!
Agreed,
This was an important part of the reason why I decited to delete my Trump / clown image (besides it wasn't funny at all).
- But when it comes to moderating, I would leave it up to the posters.
I make no apologies for my post, which was not only music-related but re-posted from a musician well known on this board.
I'll shut up now...
Therefore, I want to ask each of you do you know where your soul will spend eternity? I have some literature I would like to give you.
I don't think anyone has banned discussion of divisive political topics, I just think we have come to a consensus that this particular topic does not contribute to building the community that we need to maintain this discussion board. I mean really, how can you possibly be off topic in a discussion thread titled "WTF". But this is not new, and we all know where this discussion is headed.
I have pretty much formed my opinions regarding the state of affairs in American politics and I suspect that you and everyone else on this board has done the same. So a regurgitation of Fox News talking points and the methodical rebuttal of those talking points is pretty much a waste of precious bandwidth as no hearts and minds will be changed.
I don't know about where you live, but where I live all media is pretty much focused on all politics all the time. So much so, that I am starting to look forward to the ever so brief respite provided by the occasional updates on what Kim and Kanye are up to these days. So let's give the politics a rest.
I guess that covers everything. It's categorized in Jazz, naturally, although since this is on eMusic I suppose it should really be Reggae
Quite good though, except for the sound quality.
ETA: Dynamite version of Careful With That Axe Eugene . . .
DG is asking 50 bucks for this thing. I incidentally endorse their review, which begins: "Michael, if only you'd stayed at this level!"