I want to go on record about Trump's Gaza "Riviera of the Middle East" policy. I strongly believe the creation of Israel was the biggest act of global terrorism ever perpetrated on the world. It was a massive miscalculation. A huge mistake that has led to a century of war and created a global war industry that is now essential to the economy of the USA. It created a permanent meat grinder into which bodies must be thrown so that millions of people can have jobs. It destroyed the Middle East and set back what was once a collection of modern thriving societies, into primitive fundamentalism. Israel's fear of Arabs has led to almost a century of destabilisation with no end in sight. Trump's rhetoric on the subject is callous, heartlessly capitalist, completely lacking any requisite delicacy and nuance, but it's not wrong. I used to believe in a one-state solution that forced full integration of Palestinians and Jewish Israelis to cohabitate fairly under the strict watchful eye of an independent oversight group. That was stupid. Not as stupid as a two-state solution, but it was still stupid. It would have worked in a limited capacity, with the occasional terrorist act prolonging angst and discord for at least another three hundred years. If I could have my way, I would undo Israel, but I am not naive enough to think that's ever going to happen and therefore maintaining that as a point of view, is moronic. Trump's desire is to end the bloodshed. While he callously discusses property as is his lifelong bent, the reason he's doing so, is because he's identified the only way to end the killing within our lifetimes. To that end, I have also changed my stance. It's not that I want to give Israel everything it wants. I think Trump wants that, and that disappoints me.… but I accept that throughout history wars are lost. People are displaced. Generational resentment continues as it does with my own people and the Turks at some level, because of Ottoman… but the desire to strike back fades when the killing ends. When your grandchildren grow up able to live full lives without being directly oppressed, their desire to sacrifice themselves and their own children… fades… they begin to find their identity as a people with a damaged history, but with a peaceful future. Ending the occupation is the ONLY way forward. Palestinians lost. I feel for them, but nothing is gained through continual slaughter. Trump won't demand anything of Israel in return for giving them everything they want. I wish he would. If it was me, I would demand that they immediately cease incursions into surrounding nations, and assume a 100% reactive (not proactive) defensive posture. I would give them their Israel, but then NO MORE. I would completely ignore their agitation for war with Iran. I would purge organisations like AIPAC and their loyalists. I would pass legislation to disallow dual citizens from holding public office, or indeed being made department heads within the US government. That would be the price I would charge for giving Israel everything it wants in Israel. Trump won't do this, and I consider it a catastrophic shame. I think Kushner's influence makes him very inclined to give to Israel, and I think he traded Israel subservience for a fair election, which is why the deep state backed off. But regardless of any of that, I do not think he's wrong about cleaning out Gaza. I just wish he would have an asking price for it that didn't land squarely on the pockets of Americans as it undoubtedly will. If you read all this, what the hell is wrong with you? 😀

@PeterJFilipovic @sabhlok Thanks. What a shame. This is the kind of legislation we need.

I post that jokingly, but it's an interesting dynamic that most men will never experience, and very few women will acknowledge as a basic reality. Odd to think about.

@PeterJFilipovic @sabhlok Great bill. It is perfectly in line with other discrimination laws for private property that's open to the general public. Do you know if this passed? I'm sure I can find it, but if you happen to know…

@Lukewearechange I remember when music had music in it.

10/10, no notes, LOL. It's bizarre to me how blindly libertarians have embraced treating corporations as people. Maximising liberty for people necessarily means limiting the ability of corporations to stifle and/or exploit people. The two will always crash into each other at some point, and when that happens, if your ideology chooses corporations over people your ideology is shit.

I'm not really differentiating. I want year 2000 internet back. The worst thing to happen to the internet was inviting people who otherwise couldn't find their own way here. I could make some excuses about how nobody really gets shown penetrative sex by accident around here. It's usually just some T&A from the OF girls that you are forced to see.… unless you deliberately follow a nutcase like Kanye… As distinct from the Gaza gore or subway immolation or whatever, which you just can't stop even if you want to. We could argue newsworthiness or public interest, and I agree, but then the racism arguably has more impact on young minds than some sexy time… you maybe want your kids to grow up and eventually feel that sex is normal and nothing to be ashamed of… but you've raised them in an environment that trains them to hide having sexual desires… you've trained them to learn how to avoid parental locks and government bans and whatever, like … wanting to see sex is just the absolute worst thing in the world. You might actually NOT want them to go around vilifying racial groups openly, but we defend that on grounds of free speech, as if that's actually less influential than some WAP. It's all a bit backwards and overblown, I think. But that isn't really the point. None of those justifications really change anything about my point of view. Anything is addictive if you abuse it. Teaching young people to moderate their intake of EVERYTHING is essential. The impact of pornography on society is vastly overblown in my opinion. Americans have massive issues with it, but there's an aspect of this that is often overlooked. Circumcision leads to loss of sensitivity which people often tout as a good thing, thinking it makes them better lovers, but the foreskin has all the tingly nerve endings in it which keep your boner stiff… So the end result is circumcised people have a tendency to supplement their arousal with kinks, extra degradation, choking, and all kinds of "porn brain" stuff, that's attributed to pornography, but it's because they can't keep it up without the extras. Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent, but to study the effects of one, you MUST account for the effects of the other. You don't see a lot of talk about porn addiction in Europe, despite Prague rivalling Los Angeles in terms of production. Sorry for the tangent… basically… no I don't care if people see some fucking. The argument for "block it if you don't like it" is much more effective on that, than it is on ANY other category of content.

Little bro learned to speak human in body language. Also he is specifically speaking the "husband" dialect here.

@imGriffM @JSmitty_12 @sun_of_sin__ @EndWokeness If you aren't arguing that someone should like this shit, what ARE you doing here?

@JSmitty_12 @imGriffM @sun_of_sin__ @EndWokeness Yeah, that's when the appeals to authority begin. "You're wrong because people paid to promote this shit are promoting it!! Trust the experts." Just like what you like and don't like what you don't like. You can't argue someone into enjoying sounds. LOL

@goodfoodgal They either comply or get blacklisted making them unable to sell anything to anyone, unless they jump through all kinds of re-certification hoops which costs thousands of dollars and takes months.

Barney singing "I love you, you love me… we're a happy family…"

@imGriffM @JSmitty_12 @sun_of_sin__ @EndWokeness People who defend music are basically insisting that someone who doesn't like needs to show some damn respect for your tastes. LOL. Someone disliking the noise you listen to doesn't stop you listening to it. Knock yourself out.

@imGriffM @JSmitty_12 @sun_of_sin__ @EndWokeness Your argument is "I like it" which has the same value as anyone else saying "I don't like it" … what is your malfunction?

"Critically acclaimed" "industry awarded" … do any of you have an opinion of your own? You're deferring to authority as if that isn't how industry plants work. You know what gets artists inserted into public playlists? MONEY. Spotify is just like radio. They get paid to promote CRAP.

Apparently this is a poorly understood mechanism of inflation. When the dollar is worth less, rich people end up with more of them. Their net worth can stay more or less the same, but because the value of each dollar is lower, the number of dollars attributed to them increases. Not saying he hasn't made real gains. He has, but this mechanism also needs to be factored. People whose net worth is measured in terms of the business they do, are doing higher numbers, even if they're doing the same amount of business as before. The real criminals of the pandemic are pharma and large retailers like Walmart and Amazon, because they weren't required to shut down. The shutdowns targeted the general public. Mom and pop landlords, bodega owners, etc, because that's who they needed to hurt, to hurt Trump's reelection chances. That's all there is to it. I know nobody likes it when I point out how numbers work, like this… but some of you need it.

X has been boycotted by advertisers so in order to win them back, they have made real efforts to purge bots so they can reassure potential advertisers that their analytics are honest. This was a problem for a long time on social media. Inflated ad costs due to deliberately not purging bots. Believe it or not, X is taking it seriously, but this really seems to bother some people more than others. Maybe it would bother me more if I had a larger account, but to be honest, the REAL comments I get from fucktards bother me more.

I can't believe I agree… but I do.