Inevitable ... ?

[LeeVanCleef]

LOL! Yeah, you may be right... I may be crazy. But, honestly, Trump isn't some aberration of politics gone bad like Bush was. And the people like you and me who have had so much patience for the complete and utter fuckery people like Keith and the other Trumptards have spewed forth over the years. Not only ol' dipshit Dubya who lied us into a war that left too many United States citizens dead or wounded, but the eight years of lies, filthy lies and damnable lies during the Obama Administration... and now this complete and utter mockery of everything this country has stood for since its founding. Who in their right mind thinks Donald Trump is interested in the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of anyone not named "Trump"? I think what is becoming blatantly evident is that people who can still think have finally and utterly lost their patience with the morons who can't even write a sentence to grunt out their limited and idiotic view of the world. Don't mistake my ranting here as an isolated event. I actually feel sorry for the Trumptards. This isn't going to be a fair fight, because we're just as angry as they have been for eight years... but, at the end of the day, they're really stupid.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

WARNING: little bit of a philosophical rant here.

i think man's bias towards conservation of mental resources and the ultra-heavy bias towards self interest inclines us all to be stoopid in any number of ways. to go against that stuff is in fact a battle.

so you have people living in a crowded, tumultuous world who understand (correctly) that decent jobs are getting scarcer, standard of living is slipping and so forth, and *boom* you have a more desperate electorate more willing to gamble, more willing to become addicted to hopium, more willing than ever to vote for an autocrat that represents an anti-political iconoclast to them. then, the concept of "fake news" and "spin" is all too easy to use as a tool for disregarding unpalatable facts about their hopium candidate and even just disregarding the unpalatable nature of reality.

i mean, these are some mighty tasty carrots to appeal towards peoples' willful stupidity. the alternative is a much more stressful and laborious approach to understanding reality. sort of like most peoples' attitude towards global climate change-- if it's not personally affecting them, then it's someone else's problem or even just a big hoax. just some classic bias of the human-animal mind... resisting inconvenient facts.

and then add these types of voters to the classic rural distrust towards regulations / city people... as well as the righteous religious who want to dictate others choices because they can't control their own distaste for gays, abortion, minorities, etc.

i guess my point is is that we're all manipulable creatures, full of cognitive biases, who all struggle with this stuff on the regular. we all have that idiot potential, so it comes down to which of our buttons are being pressed to help us behave that way. so yeah, i think this election was more about the buttons involved than people behaving unusually.

history is a never-ending tapestry of civilisations that spun out of control and sped their own collapse. we're only the latest and greatest IMO. eating humble pie and sacrificing wealth, comfort and convenience so that we can all survive is just too much for people to handle. we're all guilty of it, even us anti-trumpers.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Yeah, that seems like a fine assessment of the pickle we find ourselves in. And while there is no precedent for a president who thinks "precedent" is spelled "president" (I wish I was joking. Boy do I wish I was joking), there is a long history of America's stupid voters. I was listening to a Great Courses lecture on Donnie's hero Andrew Jackson, a mean-spirited hateful, thin-skinned egomaniac who , to be fair, could probably spell "precedent" and wasn't a filthy coward when it was time for his country to go to war. Professor Mark Levin described what made American voters idiotic enough to elect that carnival sideshow in the 1820s:

In an era of drastic change, people will look to a past idea for reassurance. The old concept of Janus-faced, of facing in two opposite directions of walking backwards into the future.

And he said that about seven years before Donnie decided to make America Great Again. The big difference between Andrew Jackson and Donnie Trump is that the people in the 1820s didn't have to wake up every morning wondering if their precedent was going to something globally stupid that would end in a mushroom cloud. They only had to worry about whether Andrew was going to show up at their door and shoot them in person.

All I knows is that, over the weekend I read that there's moss growing at the South Pole. Moss. Growing at the South Pole. We are so fucked. We are so good and fucked. I sure hope I don't have to live through what's going to happen. I sure hope all the Trumptards do. Gonna be tough bitching and whining about Hillary's emails when your computer is sitting under six feet of water at the place where you used to have a house.

I should add that, while I agree that we do all have our failings, the two simple things we should be smart enough to handle are common sense and common decency. Those are two ingredients missing from Donald Trump's Stupid Heads Club Band.

 

[Coil_Smoke]

W T F

If there's a reason why this site is no longer a pleasant place to visit, it's because Keith will always be lurking around to ruin it with his idiotic political bullshit fed to him by the drug addicts and child molestors that infest the AM radio talk shows that he listens to. Keith, you're either a fucking idiot, a fucking lunatic or a fucking traitor. Possibly all three.

Holy Shit Guys. This is supposed to be funny right? I have never seen such butt hurt sycophantic bleeding heart nonsense in all my life! And "Lee Van Queef" You give me way more credit than I earn for some old posts last year...The Power To Devastate You and wreck an entire web site! Taking it personally grossly over inflates your perceived self importance to this world. I have never addressed you in any personal way at all, ever. And NO guys, I don't engage in this type of discourse at any other site other than YouTube. No Face Page, none of it. I came here for the PINBALL and better understanding of how they work. Starting to post in this forum was therapy for me. It helped and forced me to slowly improve from devastating illness in 2011. I love helping others with pinball repairs. I appreciate interacting with every single *soul* @ Pinball Nirvana. I wish I had had more time to converse and learn from those now departed.
* Even you "L.V. Pussy Fart !" *

As for politics...I ask you to look at what allegiance to the Clinton/Bush/Obama crime family and controlled media has done to you and US. They continue to fracture and fuck all of US. It's not you and me, bud! Preserving terrorism and drugs is their main scheme. Hillary Clinton is the destroyer... OFF ALL SIDES. This woman has managed to ruin anyone and every one who interacts with her. For her or against her, IT DOES NOT MATTER! This is an amazing accomplishment. So, bill...Look at the joy she has brought you!

P.S. I started this page as an APRIL FOOLS JOKE. I made it politically inert and still think that joke is. Until today, I believe I have not said anything truly political since 2 DAYS BEFORE the election. Talk about living in the past! That was OVER half a year ago. Your reaction to political humor/imagery is some thin skinned bullshit. Taking it personally grossly over inflates your perceived importance in this world and makes you look a tad unstable. And NO, I don't listen to AM radio. I have not gloated over our president's victory though thrilled by this resurgence of true patriotism. The man is donating 100% of his overseas profits to the US treasury for Christ's sake. The Main Scheme Media is acting so childish, I am amazed you take one word of it seriously. Why you take this thread so seriously makes you look like Psycho-Bill, After re-reading the above, I think you are conflicted...At Best

 

[Coil_Smoke]

Well, there was this>>>
2/18/2017
We have witnessed the end of Media controlled government. This is the first time in U.S. history our corporate controlled Media lost an election. The collusion between organized crime + centralized government + corporate controlled Media is being systematically disassembled. This peaceful revolution is happening in many countries. Brazil has impeached a corrupted president. George Soros & crew are creating the turmoil in that country, same as in the US, trying to save his sick empire.The British patriots defeated their corrupted Media and got their nation out of the E.U. while they still had a nation to protect and the E.U. collapses. This is how the old system dies and the end of that evil world order.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

When I read the filthy fucking lies you wrote in the shoutbox the day after the election, I asked you one question: have you no sense of decency? You don't. Go fuck yourself. Oh, and stuff your AM radio conspiracy bullshit up your ass.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I came here for the PINBALL and better understanding of how they work. Starting to post in this forum was therapy for me. It helped and forced me to slowly improve from devastating illness in 2011. I love helping others with pinball repairs. I appreciate interacting with every single *soul* @ Pinball Nirvana. I wish I had had more time to converse and learn from those now departed.

i appreciate you and pinballDaveH being able to do that, and for the people who visit and post their Q's. i'm so far behind you guys in PB repair knowledge that i try to just stay out of the way and learn something.

as i've personally experienced many a time, trying to make a tasteful joke about a contentious topic is something that can easily backfire. trump is already one of the most despised presidents in history, so... you know.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Well, Keith, maybe you should have stuck with helping pinball people instead of posting your nut-job conspiracy theories. I actually enjoyed your company on this site until you started to act like a raving lunatic. If spewing your insane, hateful bullshit is part of your "therapy", then do it in your psychiatrist's office. Pinball Nirvana is not your fucking therapist and none of us care about your ignorant, hateful twaddle.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

When you slithered in here in 2011, how many posts about politics did you see? I'm pretty sure the answer is pretty damn close to zero. We talk about movies, we talk about music, we talk about books... hell, sometimes we even talk about pinball. The only person here who wanted to blather on about "the new world order" was you. Why is that, Keith? Why would you think anyone here would have any interest in your bizarre and idiotic right-wing fever dreams? None of us were talking about that horseshit. Why did you have to butt in? Back then it was just irritating. Now that you've transformed yourself into a country-ruining fucktard who was stupid enough to vote for a game-show host... really, a third-rate game-show host! who's a bought-and-paid-for Russian stooge!... well, now I wish JPH would kick you the fuck off this site so we don't have to listen to your thoughtless shit anymore. I wouldn't want to speak for him but, judging by other things he's written here, he probably thinks you're a country-ruining fucktard, too. Why don't you go spoil the fun at some other pinball site with that crap? See how long VP Forums lets you stick around when you run off at the mouth about the "new world order."

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

i still say that all this is not any one person's fault:
/r/collapse

cliffs notes: our whole fragile house of cards is beyond finished. (although moss growing on the antarctic continent seems like an especially finishing touch, yeesh)

REGARDLESS, isn't every day that we're still alive an opportunity to be grateful and enjoy life, such as we can...?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I DO have to ask this, though-- why would some people POSSIBLY think that a lifelong scam-artist / bullshit artist would entail a pragmatic leader in charge of peoples' interests at large?

WHAT exactly was the drug of choice there, if i may ask...?

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I do realize that it's not one person's fault. But you know what? Pinball Nirvana has been my internet home for a long time... over a freaking decade. And I finally got sick of some stupid asshole leaving his trash all over my home. Really... go back and read some of Mr. New World Order's posts. He's a couple steps away from posting cartoon Nazi frogs on here. And frankly, I think I'd have the same reaction if some ultra-liberal drum-circle hippie wanted to tell us all about how George Bush blew up the World Trade Center. I'm just as sick of that shit. That dolt couldn't blow his own nose, let alone lie us into a war and not get caught lying. Oh, yeah... I almost forgot that he actually did lie us into a war and got caught lying.

As to your second query, I think it can best be answered with a line from the television show The Wire, when one detective says "Americans are a stupid people, by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we're told." You gotta see this, nic. It really is one of the best TV cop interrogations I've had the pleasure to watch. Although I think I posted this before sometime over the last decade. Well... watch it again, dammit!

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[LeeVanCleef]

I guess we're in a race to see who gets banned first: the asshole who posted ignorant, hateful lies or the asshole that yelled at him about it.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

the copy machine is never wrong! LOL...

but bill, i do have to point out that PN is not a 'banning' kind of place. IIRC the last person to earn even a *temporary* ban was that spam-meister guy "neptuneholographics" from a few years back.

i suspect that if polly-ticks isn't brought up in future, this kind of thing won't really be an issue. maybe that's realistic or maybe it's not, but you guys will have to figure it out if you want to, i guess. actually it seems like coily has very little interest in debating this stuff, which is maybe what aggravates you most of all.

bargain china, some goggles, and a baseball bat, duderino!

 

[pinballdaveh]

I apologise if I got this whole politics argument started with my Hillary jokes in the chatbox. If I knew it would start such an argument I wouldn't have done it. I'm sorry it was a poor attempt at humor.

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

I just wanted to mention that Ike is correct, Pinball Nirvana isn't a banning type of place for folks that simply express different points of view about stuff.

It is however a banning type of place for hate filled posts about other people, everyone needs to stop posting personal insults to others, it's in our rules somewhere. Politics in the US are out of control especially due to Trump's campaign, he would be banned from here just based on some of his speeches so I understand how politics get people riled up, me included.

Just some information about me and the internet, I don't care about twitter (been there once by accident), Facebook or any other social media site except for Youtube. Family and friends often have to tell me what's going on in real life gatherings, (found out during Easter that my youngest niece is pregnant, most everyone else knew for months due to social media) saw a stupid video on the network news of people standing still and taking selfies and asked a friend wtf are they doing, he explained it was some kind of fad and I then asked why they are doing it because standing still doesn't look fun to me....

Perhaps some of the above mentioned behavior is now considered normal but if it is, I don't want to be involved.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

hey, i got it: new stipulation for joining PN-- acceptance of the fact that everyone else here is plumb loco. (here's the pen and here's the form, weirdos!)

the real problem is that -some- assholes like bill like CERTAIN pinball machines, but -other- assholes like keith like OTHER MACHINES.

end of the day...? you BOTH should be totally ashamed of yourselves for not considering Jurassic Park by Data East the single greatest pinball machine ever.

[meh, here i am hip-deep in mental patients, as usual]

 

[Coil_Smoke]

It saddens me that some people are totally dominated and manipulated by the Main Scheme Media. Never watch commercial network "News". Unless you want a good laugh or have your head screwed on backwards. Please watch C-SPAN for raw unfiltered information. Then form your opinions from seeing things first hand. Without twist, spin or commercial/political interest effecting what you absorb. I started relying on non-commercial C-SPAN over 35 years ago and soon realized how sick and twisted the Media is. I learned Commercial Television is our worst enemy. I would watch a hearing, speech, The Congress and Senate or other event. Then I would watch commercial TV and see the biggest pack of lies and manipulations on the planet. It is fucking terrifying. Today and for a year now it is the worst it has ever been since I started reading news papers in 1965. When I speak of C-Span I am not referring to the controllers of Washington Journal or other productions. I go there online, on the TV channels for C-SPAN1, C-SPAN2, C-SPAN3 or listen to C-SPAN radio for the real live events. Live or archived. So I can experiance them as they really are. FOR MY SELF . I did this all last year. Then witnessed the most ridiculous commercial coverage of an election...EVER

P.S. Preserving The Reputations Of Assholes Everywhere... Attacking those you encounter may make one an asshole. Defending oneself against an asshole does not

 

[Coil_Smoke]

DAMN

I apologise if I got this whole politics argument started with my Hillary jokes in the chatbox. If I knew it would start such an argument I wouldn't have done it. I'm sorry it was a poor attempt at humor.

I wanted credit for that! Two days before the election I posted about the Clinton's moving $1.8 Billion to Qatar in the chat-box...
What did you do wrong?

 

[pinballdaveh]

The correctional institute for women in Clinton NJ and the HFC bucket of fried chicken jokes.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

It saddens me that some people are totally dominated and manipulated by the Main Scheme Media. Never watch commercial network "News". Unless you want a good laugh or have your head screwed on backwards. Please watch C-SPAN for raw unfiltered information. Then form your opinions from seeing things first hand. Without twist, spin or commercial/political interest effecting what you absorb. I started relying on non-commercial C-SPAN over 35 years ago and soon realized how sick and twisted the Media is. I learned Commercial Television is our worst enemy. I would watch a hearing, speech, The Congress and Senate or other event. Then I would watch commercial TV and see the biggest pack of lies and manipulations on the planet. It is fucking terrifying. Today and for a year now it is the worst it has ever been since I started reading news papers in 1965. When I speak of C-Span I am not referring to the controllers of Washington Journal or other productions. I go there online, on the TV channels for C-SPAN1, C-SPAN2, C-SPAN3 or listen to C-SPAN radio for the real live events. Live or archived. So I can experiance them as they really are. FOR MY SELF . I did this all last year. Then witnessed the most ridiculous commercial coverage of an election...EVER

P.S. Preserving The Reputations Of Assholes Everywhere... Attacking those you encounter may make one an asshole. Defending oneself against an asshole does not

that makes sense, but i doubt many people have the time to devote to watching raw coverage of congressional proceedings to get the gist of things, especially since it's still only a small fraction of world events that are unfolding.

also, just because you're watching something live still doesn't mean you're not immediately introducing your own biases and interpretations in to the experience. we're all hard-wired to confirm what we already believe, after all.

my approach is more or less-- try to take in the widest reasonable gamut of news sources so as to compare and contrast stories and events. always look for falsifiability, which means seeking out logic and data which could punch holes in your own theories. understanding news should consistently be hard work if you're doing it right.

also, every news source naturally carries bias, first and foremost being how to make a profit from the presentation of said news. after that, probably the next-most important factor is the ideology of the outlet. i think a healthy sign is when the writer / outlet openly shares their particular bias so the consumer can decode the story most accurately.

nothing wrong with fringe news or pop news, but most of that stuff is in that position for a reason, i.e. it's heavily-biased rubbish catering to extremists and/or the feeble-minded. like it or not, mainstream news does include the best general analysis and challenges to the consumer. just because interpreting it is time-consuming and difficult doesn't mean it's crap. that's the way it should be given the complicated world we live in today.

then when you add feedback from experts and people in general making well-reasoned arguments, it really helps get a more nuanced perspective on things. beyond reading books like "game change" and so forth, reddit in particular has been a great source of well-articulated, dissenting opinions for me. there's nothing quite like it online that i know of. this is sort of like the famous "hive mind" idea that has a record of consistently accurate predictions. makes sense, right? multiple heads are better than one...

 

[StevOz]

Is this like pole dancing?

Karo Swen - Pole Dance - ARTWORK 1 Tha Trickaz - YouTube

Meh..Merry Can politics, the greatest artificial belief system....the health of the what?

A. Economy...the what?

 

[GSGregg]

A Brush With Greatness?

I just discovered this topic, and haven't read it all yet, but hopefully I won't be perceived as a marooned ignopotamus or whatever...

In 1980 I got a call from my producer / bandleader employer, who had been called by Pat Paulsen's people; seems Paulsen had arrived for an appearance at the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel without one of his props - an acoustic guitar.

"Hey, how would you like to make (amount forgotten, but I'm sure it covered my gas and time)?" to which I answered, 'Why not?' And so, I made the 15-20 minute drive, provided my Hohner Contessa* for about a half-hour, and returned home.

One can never predict how or when that brush with greatness will manifest...

*For connoisseurs of obscure brands

 

[GSGregg]

Is this like pole dancing?

Karo Swen - Pole Dance - ARTWORK 1 Tha Trickaz - YouTube

Hey! If that's a Pole, I'm getting out my Czech-book!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

yo gregg, were you around when we were talking about the smothers bros book a couple years ago?