He sounds like hes trying to demo what he wants to happen in other places. Normalise the conversation, break the standards. If its part of the dialogue now, it isnt that far fetched if it happens in the future. “We can do it too” “they did it first”

Its not subtle. Its a game plan. Its disgusting, but that is exactly whats happening. Same as when he said that the king of england should dissolve parliament. That wont happen, but saying it out loud unfortunately gives it merit. If its part of the conversation, its going to have opinions. Opinions that used to be only said in shadows, can now be said in public. And then they can be pointed to as justification.

He’s looking for precident.

If they can say, look, they did it, we can too. Well now youve got an invitation to snag all the power you can.

Its projection.

While i dont doubt it, i had an observation about this fact a long time ago.

I was on a blind date years ago, and was a pack a day smoker. We eat dinner, have dessert and coffee, and stepping outside, i light up a smoke.

“You know those things are bad for you, right?”

“I know, its a terrible habit”

" do you ever wish you had never picked up the first one? It will kill you eventually…"

I took a drag. Held it, and exhaled.

“No. No i dont think i regret it at all”

She tilted her head like a puppy does when you whistle a high pitch with no prompt. It was confusion. She didnt understand. I stomped out my cigarette. We started walking.

“If i think about it, the chance encounters ive had on a balcony, or outside a random doorway with a stranger. conversation with no precontext or preconceptions. Just two people enjoying a thing that will eventually kill them. Theres something beautiful about that”

She still didnt get it.

"Those moments, and the friendships that resulted. They have already saved my life. Times over probably. So a few hours, or days at the end, in comparison to the things that i built off of those little moments, in the moment, where its just people and their habit…

I dont think i would change it"

The date went nowhere. There wasnt really a spark to begin with. It wasnt a big deal. Never saw her again.

But the friend that set her up with me, the one who i met by chance smoking in a backyard at a party. Shes still my friend. We talk once a week, if not more.

Her and her wife are expecting their first child this spring. I was at her dads funeral this fall. Lung cancer. He will never meet his grandson.

Neither of us smoke now. But, despite it all. I do not regret starting with that first smoke. Without that friendship, i would never have made it this far.

But in acknowledging that fact, there is a cost.

Theres always a a cost. But i value the time i traded, and i personally, have no regrets.

Its all a problem. But you missed the important part.

We didnt vaccinate our domestic flocks because it would hurt our export market. We allowed high population sites to become reservoirs for the bird flu, instead. when the virus was detected, we torched the whole flock. But it always spread because we were not willing to remove a vital link in its spread through vaccine protocols. Now it is too big of a problem, and we get multiple spillover events.

There is a vaccine for birds, and we didnt use it. There is no vaccine for cattle.

We should have vaccinated our poultry flocks instead of letting it proliferate for decades. But we had to protect our export market.

Its in the wild populations so heavily now there is not stopping it with culls of any animal species.

Yeah thats how it was here after the reddit fiasco.

I dont dissagree. But for the rest of yall here, the point stands.

Foreign policy is nuanced, multi layered, and gives no shits about your morality. Any of you that boil down the issue to palistine vs israel or race or religion, have no idea whats going on. Two state solutions are just to placate you while wholesale slaughter happens.

This is about power and maintaining it. Always has been. And american, or western dominance in the region as a way to maintain what little peace exists, and not let our adversaries seize that control, is the end sum game.

Im not saying its right. But superpowers and governments do not care about your moral hangups. A hundred thousand dead “someone else” vs a major strategic location means nothing. Appalling, sure, but there is a brutal logic to it.

Ok. Let me try again.

What would you do if you were bernie? Whats your course of action?

Do you know what an independant is? Who would you prefer he caucus with? The gop?

Bernie sanders is the longest serving independant senator in united states history. Hes been criticizing the democratic party since the 1970s, you absolute muppet.

So nuanced. So brave.

In texas, if you get busted with pot brownies, the entire weight of the pan is the “weight” of the drugs. Normally its makes it an instant felony. I imagine this is one of those situations, just to an extreem level.

Ave Maria is “classical music” for people that cant pronounce Tchaikovsky. Pavarotti has a great rendition, but hell, Celine Dion did one too. Its not that special.

Franz Schubert just set an excerpt of a Sir Walter Scott poem to music for christs sake! Why does it exist on such a pedestal?

All im saying is that ave maria is like trump. It holds a position of esteem for people that know nothing about art or success or value. It is the golden toilet set inside a cookie cutter McMansion in the middle of Frisco Texas.

Sure, you can impress your neighbors with it, but the bank is reposessing that house and toilet along with your new wake boat next week too. Who are you really impressing?

Lol at all the people deleting their comments or getting downvoted heavily. You are the target audience. This is either a warning to get your shit straight or nuke your hard drive. Dealers choice… Take a hint boys.

What are you talking about? What is “that”?

Putin, being a clever person, used his own swab for the test.

The qtip was not the revolutionary part of the covid test.

the cotton on the end of a stick is not the most important part of a covid test.

You could… use a different swab.

Ive got an old penske moving truck. Its a mac with a renault engine and transmission and we’ve had since the mid 90’s. It is bulletproof. My only complaint is you have to double clutch to shift. I equally hate and love that old piece of shit. It will never die.

So the fun thing about genetics is… if you said no, but they conned enough of your family, they got a good part of your genome anyhow.

In my case, Mom was somewhat interested about it when it came out. Dad too. And i told them no to, because, well one, sharing data bad. But also, this buisiness is a one off. There are no repeat customers and it was destined to be sold to the highest bidder.

For once, my parents listened. But good god. This company has already been mined by police to use genetic info from relatives to convict their family members. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/dna-test-crime-identification-genome.html

Murder convictions and serial rapists going to jail, i got no problem with, but that slippery slope exists. And from years of experience, im not inclined to give the authorities my data, even by proxy. The abuse potential is immense and history is not on the average citizens side.