Alexander II

20 hours ago, Bernard Sandcastle said:

That is so 2008 lmao

Nah, it's so 2000 and Late... ?

Are you for or against globalization. Explain your view.

20 minutes ago, Patriot Girl said:

Definitely not a retarded democrap.

I understand that you are not the biggest fan of the Democratic Party, but please moderate yourself as there are at least a few 'democraps' in this alliance and we should respect others points of view

If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

Which Comic Studio do you think is better? Put your reasoning below.

Approximately how many hours of community service have you done in the past year in your immediate community. I would count community service as any volunteer work that you did for the sole purpose of benefiting the community.

Do you think gentrification is a net positive or negative thing?

What device do you access P&W from most often. You can choose more than one if it's split between two different devices.

1 hour ago, Infinite Citadel said:

It is absolutely not TKR - this is the arrogant attitude I keep harping on about. tS is the center of our sphere, BK does more of the leg work than we do, and us/Guardian/Mensa are all right below those two. 

I would say that despite these points, Pantheon is an extremely vital player in syndiOOsphere. This is true, because they have a large presence in the whale tier which helps protect all of our mid-tiers and allows the mid and especially upper mid to operate more freely. Additionally, they seem like loyal allies who always have our back which is not something to be taken for granted, especially for an alliance with as many old, big nations as pantheon.

Who do you think is the most valuable alliance in syndiOOsphere? Write your reasoning below.

After the 0 food output seen for a day or so this war, do you guys think a treaty will be agreed to by the major alliances in regards to the use of nuclear weapons?

On June 3, 2016 at 6:23 AM, Alexander II said:

It would be a series of polls. Limit 3 entries per person. Finally, all memes that are from the same roots (ex all bad luck Brian memes) would have to play in so the BLB memes would compete against each other until one BLB meme is chosen as the best BLB meme. It would then be put into the bracket. So, there is a slight bonus for obscurity, but the judging is done by the masses.

 

Finally, everyone will have plenty of time to create and curate memes, as the tournament will be in July. This is because I leave to where I may not have internet access on the 15th of June and get back on the 9th of July. Send the memes you want entered in the tournament to me before July 13th and I will put them into the bracket. I will have polls that I create and leave with someone to post while I am gone, so don't you worry.

These are the official rules and I have already received quite a few entries, but please keep them coming! This will remain the poll of the day until next Monday. Once I post on Monday, there will be no new entries.

Send your memes my way, the original post and thread contain the rules (my posts only). 

Posted in the beginning of June I think.

Hey guys, 

Sorry for the lack of polls, I was on a vacation in Europe with my family so I more or less missed the war ☹️. 

Anyway, I have no trips in the foreseeable future and will try to give you guys a new poll every day I can!

Anyway, if you want to specify more, feel free

Alexander II

My heart goes out to all those effected by the massacre which took place in Orlando yesterday.

What are your plans for summer?

9 hours ago, Woot said:It's not a cosmic coincidence that Party A and Party B are always getting almost exactly 50% of the vote each.

Each party desperately tries to win over as much of the population as possible, and they change to reflect the things that people like.

Because of this they're extremely similar, they do the same wrong shit over and over, they don't follow any clear or intelligent ideology, they're just broadly tolerable to as many demographics as they can appeal to. That's democracy for you.

 

If you always vote third party or never vote at all, the 2 main parties will not give a shit about you, your vote has no influence, you're just one of those X number of guys who always vote Green and have no affect on the outcome of the actual race.
But occasionally voting third party or failing to turn out can send a message. The main parties have to change and win their lost voters back.

But in the meantime, a general election is lost. Is slightly changing Party A for future elections worth giving Party B power for 4 or 8 years?

 

In general I think it's most productive to vote for the lesser of the 2 main evils. If lesser evils keep winning politicians have to become less evil. The only problem with democracy, I think, is identifying the lesser evil. When people think the most evil candidate is whichever one won't let transgenders into bathrooms, RIP effective democracy.

12 hours ago, Patrick MacFarlane said:

Bernie Sanders once said something to this affect: 

"if everyone who said ' I'd vote for that guy if I thought he could win' would actually vote for that guy, He Would Win!"

 

I am a huge advocate for the demolition of the Electoral College, the Federal Elections Commission, and the two-party system that those two institutions establish by default. However, none of these changes would matter if citizens will not vote their conscience! If everyone would do that and actually research who embodies their beliefs and values, we would see a multi-party system that gave a much more accurate view of American society as a whole and the one who would win the election would embody the largest portion of the American population. This crap of voting for the Reps or the Dems (even though you hate them both!) just because no one else can win, THATS A CRIME AGAINST THE VERY SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY! 

 

Vote your conscience! Vote third party! Vote Gary Johnson for President in 2016!

9 hours ago, Rin said:

Democracy is just really shitty. Good, productive people don't want to be politicians. Politics is for people who want more power and are willing to waste a lot of time and money to get there.

 

Eventually people realized - hey, why don't we limit the power our leaders have? This idea picked up so much momentum that dictatorship was actually viewed as a negative thing.

 

Now we actually have to pick the lesser evil?

6 hours ago, Kaiser_Krystof said:

"Democracy was a mistake" - Harmodios and Aristogeiton

I disagree that democracy is completely broken and leads to only corrupt leaders who are only in it for the power. However, I do agree that, given the current setup, democracy isn't as efficient as it could be, nor does it directly reflect voter preference. For example, if you live in a deep red congressional district and democrats make up 20% of the population in that district, you have little say in who your reprentative is, because you are shut out of the republican nomination process. Obviously, the same goes for the independents in the US who live in states with closed primaries. That is why I am a huge proponent of moving to single-transferable vote (STV). It allows a voter to choose the candidate he/she is most comfortable with while allowing him/her to ensure that their vote still counts of their first choice doesn't win. CGP Grey has an amazing series on this topic. Below the playlist he made on the topic of you are interested. There are some side notes not included in this, but I couldn't find a playlist for them. Enjoy!

Given two main choices in a national election, neither of which you would want to see as president, each for their own reasons, how would you vote?

Sorry for the late poll,

After suffering a 10 point defeat in California, should Bernie Sanders suspend his campaign?

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

thank you all for bearing with me as I get the hang of this whole pollmaster thing. 

I know the last poll was a little depressing, but I thought it was a good topic for discussion which is all too often pushed to the periphery in our society. 

Since taking on the role of pollmaster, I have been trying out a whole bunch of different poll types and I wanted to get your feedback.

Choose as many types as you would like to see and let me know if you are interested in a poll type not listed.

thanks for your feedback

alexander II

Warning: the links and discussion below may contain graphic imagery not suitable for children under 18 without parental approval. They may also contain discussion of Rape and other forms of violence.

These articles give the backstory. The victims letter to her assaulter is lengthy, but I have read the entire thing and I can tell you that it is worth taking the time to read and reflect on it.

Stanford Case summary: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Turner

Victims letter to her assaulter : https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.mqGPx60bK#.ig5ka5gLE

Rapists letter to the judge(article): http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/brock-turner-statement-stanford-rape-case-campus-culture

Father of rapist's letter to the judge: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2852614-Letter-from-Brock-Turner-s-Father.html#document/p3/a300156

What do you think of rape culture worldwide? 

I want to warn everyone that any comments that are in bad taste about the victim, the rapist or anyone in this community will be removed. I want to encourage a introspective discussion about society. If I remove a comment of yours you believe is not justified, please pm me and we can discuss it. Tomorrow, when the new poll of the day is posted, I will move the discussion to the paelaenium. Thank you for your thoughtful, mature discussion.

if you would like to view the jumping off point for this discussion, view the poll of the day with the same title

First of all, I want to thank those who have contributed for their thoughtful comments.

I hope that a lot of you took the time to read her letter as I think it offers a lens through which too many people are forced to see the world and I hope that we can all learn a lot from what she had to say.

5 hours ago, Milord said:

Rape=bad

no discussion here.

I agree with you Milord that rape is bad, but the question is how strictly should a rapist be punished. In this case, it is widely agreed upon that the sentence given was far too light and there is a recall effort as the judge who presided over this case is an elected official. In this specific case, the maximum sentence that he faced was 14 years in a federal penitentiary. How long do we as a society think that it takes someone to learn from their mistakes?

17 hours ago, Rin said:

3 counts was basically the same thing. So it was one rape that broke 3 laws.

 

It's not a "lesser rape". I don't believe in giving people lower sentences just because they're smart people who need to be in school or whatever. A lot of the people who destroy the world are smart people.

 

What's worse is that this guy doesn't seem remorseful at all. People should be in jail for long enough to rehabilitate them, not as some kind of punishment or deterrent. It's likely someone like this will get away with white collar crime in the future or find some other way to sexually harrass people within the law.

 

The problem with weak sentences like this is that people don't forgive and forget after they leave prison. They get ostracized and can't get jobs. They are forced into crime and become really good criminals.

18 hours ago, japan77 said:

Here is my general stance on this specific case. Best Korea, in the US, by definition of law, sexual assault basically equals rape, however they are different degree felonies. Basically, he was still convicted of rape, but a lower grade version. For committing 3 felonies, he definitely should have gotten much more jail time. However, beyond banning him from certain jobs, I feel the current US justice system is messed up. Once you have served your time and proven you are no longer a threat to society, I think people should be reinstated to society with near-full rights, with obvious exceptions to be allowed to conduct certain jobs and having to stay away a certain distance from certain buildings to avoid having repeat offenders. This is because I feel that many people deserve second chances, but no more than that, so I support much more extreme penalties for repeat offenders vs single-time offenders. In this case, as he is convicted on 3 counts, and as such is a repeat offender already, I would actually be in favor of giving him the Life sentence.

I agree reed with both of you that the US legal system focuses too much on punishment rather than rehabilitation and I think that the majority of time spent in prison should be spent either rehabilitating, reflecting, or repaying your debt to society rather than what it currently is which is rotting away until you are put outside of the gates with all of your dignity and chances at a good life stripped. I think that the sentence should have been the maximum with a chance for parole after 5 years as life in prison seems far too stick a penalty for the crime he committed. I am not a legal expert, but that is my feeling. I also think that it should show up when a company is hiring you that you were a felon, but they should also get access to your sentence and behavior while in prison as not all felons are equal. Additionally, I agree with Rin that the worst part of this story I the complete lack of remorse or consideration shown for the victim by the rapist and his father. I certainly think that Brock made a lot of bad choices which he should be punished for, but I think it is more important that he gains a glimpse into the way that he completely destroyed an innocent girls life and learns how to help others prevent it from happening. As I said, to me, the three rs a person should do in prison are reflect, rehabilitate, and repay. While there are some crimes that these three cannot begin to cover, if we focused on providing prisoners opportunities to do these three and made it easy for them to reintegrate back into society, I think we would be much better off.

Warning: the links and discussion below may contain graphic imagery not suitable for children under 18 without parental approval. They may also contain discussion of Rape and other forms of violence.

These articles give the backstory. The victims letter to her assaulter is lengthy, but I have read the entire thing and I can tell you that it is worth taking the time to read and reflect on it.

Stanford Case summary: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Turner

Victims letter to her assaulter : https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.mqGPx60bK#.ig5ka5gLE

Rapists letter to the judge(article): http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/brock-turner-statement-stanford-rape-case-campus-culture

Father of rapist's letter to the judge: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2852614-Letter-from-Brock-Turner-s-Father.html#document/p3/a300156

What do you think of rape culture worldwide? 

I want to warn everyone that any comments that are in bad taste about the victim, the rapist or anyone in this community will be removed. I want to encourage a introspective discussion about society. If I remove a comment of yours you believe is not justified, please pm me and we can discuss it. Tomorrow, when the new poll of the day is posted, I will move the discussion to the paelaenium. Thank you for your thoughtful, mature discussion.

What do you think of buisness regulations? Make your arguments below. Remember, citing credible evidence can always help your case!

4 hours ago, Kaiser_Krystof said:

He may have been loyal to his beliefs, but his beliefs were and are bad. Loyalty is something to be admired, but it is also dangerous to be loyal to a cruel entity.

Despite the fact that he subscribed to a radical group, he himself never engaged in any radical activity which harmed anyone. While all forms of radicalism should be battled, his view on the Vietnam war and resistance to the draft is commendable, especially considering he gave up 3 years of his prime to stand by his beliefs.