PozBearWI

1 hour ago, Norcalfukkr said:

I’m optimistic that more macho closeted, authoritarian GOP’ers or MAGA men are going to wanna get their frustrations out on subservient holes like mine. You know they’re out there, just waiting for the right opportunity when their buddies aren’t watching to sneak off and find a hot bottom to breed. That’s my optimistic take on the times we’re living.  I can only hope those sorts of radicalized men any to get off on fucking my liberal leaning ass

Yes, know of those guys right around me. 

Fuck @hntnhole you're going to pull out three words out of a paragraph?  Normally you are prone to misreading so significantly.

The idea of puberty blockers seems like a good idea.  But we won't know the long term consequences until we have long term consequences.  Electroshock and lobotomies we thought to be effective treatments until we learned they weren't.  

How you got that I was advocating electroshock for young gay people is pretty fukken astounding...  Have you not been paying attention to who write what here???

We sold arms to Israel as part of our strategic partnership by treaty.  Thankfully Biden was not too quick to abandon those.  I think Netty pushed them too far though and fear that may lead to worsening global instability.  

38 minutes ago, hntnhole said:

To your thoughts above, beginning ..........

 

I agree that religion has a role to play in many - maybe the majority - of people's lives.  OR (Organized Religion) no longer pushes the notion that only their specific answers are acceptable, and all other viewpoints are worthy of extinction.  It still harbors an unspoken, yet clear, assumptions.  When it chooses, OR can be a force for good, unifying humanity.  It can also do the reverse, and has countless times in the past.  

I wouldn't refuse to help anyone on the street either - most of us wouldn't allow an inhumanity like that to even cross our minds - let alone source it to some foreign government's leader.  That would be akin to renouncing our humanity in favor of joining the animals of 1984.  We're already Orwellian enough.  

I'm really glad that you found what you did in the Methodist Church.  I had a job (musician) in a Methodist Church years ago, and it was really refreshing after decades in the LCA churches (and the MO Synod was even worse).  More, I agree that your second paragraph would be sourced in that denomination, as opposed to - say - and LCA church.  I had a Sunday school teacher (I was maybe in 2nd, 3rd grade) that taught us that all Catholics were going to Hell because they worshipped statues.  Now that's just depraved.  

Your penultimate paragraph is perfectly stated;  OR has often used fragments of sayings, re-interpretations of older interpretations, to promote their own purposes.  Denigration of other belief-systems to support their own, self-serving variations on the theme.  Yes, the Institutions of OR failed in Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, countless other principalities throughout history.  But that was because the people turned away from the inherent weaknesses of those Institutions and followed a real hound of hell.  

I admire folks who use their intellectual abilities, rather than follow the crowd.  

A bit of an amendment if you please....  Most religions here in the US no longer push the notion that only their views are acceptable.  But some in the US do, Westfield Baptist for example.  Globally, which will only influence us more in the coming years, we still have plenty of zealot sects.

2 hours ago, Erik62 said:

HA😱, We are SO RIPE, for a disaster. The Loony Left, Radical Right & now zionist pressure has our State & Federal governments passing legislation specifically FOR THEM. 

NOT looking good 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬. 

Your best options to alter the course is BEFORE the election.  Beyond that aside from sharing language; there are a host of unique "if/then/else" conditions that influence Australian life and USA life.  

It is great to know we want something, even better to understand why.  Even better if we then understand how each of us are being impacted and find a place of mutual benefit?  Here Donny and Elon?  They are definitely not looking out for how their actions affect anyone else.  They believe the better things go for themselves, that defines the place to be regardless of how that impacts those around them.  Somehow we need to pull that curtain back.  

2 hours ago, Erik62 said:

Agreed, so we need to watch👀 out for ALL those moronic & radical Christian (Trumpists), Hindus, Muslims😱.

I'll call anyone friend, if the sentiment is mutual 🥰, otherwise I'm happy with guns 🔫 at ten paces in order to defend those I love & those who can't stand for themselves. 

Yeah, I have other friends thinking along gun lines.  If that is where we're going as a society I rather hope I am one of the first ones shot.  But I am a senior citizen; retired; been retired for about a decade.  No matter the outcome I am not going to be living it for a lot of years anyway.  Therefore disposable?  I hope not.  I do actively work on community committees.  If we're not part of our immediate neighborhood, aren't we just sort of floating?  

Nope @Erik62 not at all.  

For me "optimism" has left the station.  But, I can see a variety of pathways which might unfold going forward.  Some utterly brutal.  We are in the process of grappling with the BIG DIVIDE we're living in.  We have a whole lot of people seeking a savior; taking the position of "here go fix this" as if government were our local mechanic.  Worse, rather than a shared pool of interaction, we've spun off into factions and pretty much ignore.  

We are in a world where conflicting and often warped if not overtly wrong information being spun to the masses pretty close to moment to moment.  

I am not a guy on his "smart" phone constantly.  It is wherever I last set it down.  I am not a fan of sudden loud noises; appreciating whatever environmental sounds actually around me is what I favor.  There was a time we didn't always have a running stream of music, or talk radio constantly streaming into our ears?  If we live that, when do we ever get into that quiet space of focused consideration of whatever catches our interest.  So clearly I am in a minority of my fellow Wisconsin citizens; and that has become largely true throughout the USA.  

And indeed listening to music, especially focused listening is a pleasurable activity.  Without earbuds, there are sounds all around us.  Environmental sounds present information about what is going on around us.  Data for our brains to use in getting familiar with, and understanding what is occurring around us.  

It seems to me we block each out out mostly...  I try to visit with neighbors standing in line with me.  Even trite interaction confirms that we, the sound we make, the heat our bodies put out, how the space we're in smells.  Restated focused time where we actively plug in all the senses we can take in about the space we're in now, with whomever is with us now.  

I also became an adult while the 1960's unfolded.  And it pretty much feels now like we were then. 

It might be that we need to consider the history of the 1960's (and early 70's) and see if we can see better what NOT to do now.  

Somehow, we need to rediscover our common ground.  I don't think that happens for any of us until we, ourselves, decide to.

A pretty good summation of the present state of USA leadership @negchaserlooking.  

In some ways I am glad I don't possess the ability to see into the future.  Suffice to say we have a problem and many are leaning towards H2 ignorant of history 100 years ago.  

I am very hopeful my Australian brothers will prevail and not copy the US in your next election.  

10 hours ago, Erik62 said:

Would the MAGA lunatic civil & military fringe, in the RED STATES, actually go so far as to press that RED🔴button, on a BLUE State such as California🤔???? 

I WONDER 🤔!!!

Is madness that "infectious" 😱???

Would MAGA do that?  Some for sure would as they seem to be unaware of consequences.  Is madness infectious?  Yup.  

8 hours ago, Erik62 said:

I still think that religion has a part to play in today's society. It provides a base-line for developing a moral compass. These religious "mantras" may or may not change as we get older (some priests, teachers, people in authority). It is undeniable that a child brought up in a family unit of physical/emotional /verbal abuse risks an adult life in a similar vein. 

I came out of a family charged with physical/ emotional/verbal abuse: father, mother & older sibling. Had it not been for my weekly Sunday school & ministers guidance, I do not believe I would be the person: caring, loving, socially aware that I am today. 

Yes, I have prejudices, racial, social, motor car drivers, airlines etc but, just because I disagree with Netanyahu’s actions does not mean I would refuse help to a Jew on the street. 

I am not perfect but, I have molded my religious instruction into a model that best fits me, dropping tenets, against homosexuality, alcohol (I'm a Methodist 😱), contraception, sex before marriage & de-facto relationships but I also don't necessarily believe in at will abortions (being male & gay, my view doesn't / shouldn't be relevant anyway). 

Without religion we ended up with Lenin, Stalin, Idi Amin, Xin Ping & ALL THE OTHERS who use it as a cover, Hitler, Trump, Putin, Nasrullah, bin Laden, Netanyahu & his radical zionists.

I'll stick with the values instilled in me by my religious education 🙏😇🕊️🕊️🕊️. 

Thanks.  FWIW (for what its worth) I strongly support religious freedom.  However if your religion instructs you to kill me for my beliefs, we have a problem right?  

Oh lord NOT the way HIV/AIDS were dealt with.  For the first few years to our President AIDS was the solution, not a problem.  

Ooooh baby if I was a fortune teller.  Probably we're all safe though to recognize that things will differ a month from now, a couple months after that, this coming Fall...  It could turn into an utter shit show.  But maybe it won't.  

JD might be too busy fucking the couch in the oval office...  LOL

You've lived; hit challenges and got through.  Yeah we're all susceptible to picking up prior behaviors which hurt us.  Helps to know when we're in danger.  I'm glad you're here @Poz50something.

6 minutes ago, DallasPozzible said:

Just spitballing, but what if both Trump and Musk lose control? I suspect that the four guys Musk has rummaging through the government systems have numerous back doors by now that any one of them could exploit. They may have even more power than Musk. What do they do with this information? How long will it take for Putin to put them to work?

I just don’t think we have a clue of where we’re headed. 

Indeed.  We have clues only in that we have alternatives we can envision.  But what will actually happen remains to be seen.  My very UNscientific poll among people I know suggests their early thinking involved guns.  And yeah that could I suppose happen.  Maybe even 5050 odds of a civil war.  But maybe odds are greater than I think....

I think speed of intervention will have a large influence on longer term outcomes.  

That would give those who wish to go after, let's say finally eliminate all those gay people so they won't reproduce, and then they will cease to exist...  Not unlike 100 years ago as Germany devolved into it's despicable outcome. 

44 minutes ago, BootmanLA said:

I mean, I know I'm old. But still:

When you ask someone today their impression of Beirut, the average person would say "bombed-out war zone full of rubble".

When I was a youngster, "Beirut" meant the place American and European expatriates went to live like princes for a fraction of the cost back home. Granted, it was exploitative and certainly not entirely justifiable from an ethical standpoint. But the point is, it existed, and it wasn't sustainable in that region. And neither will Gaza be.

Costa Rica 25 years ago, vs now, and potentially where it may be 25 years from now...

10 hours ago, insatiableholeinTO said:

So if the vaccine let's say saves 10 million lives, but kills 2 million, is that acceptable?

KILLS

If the proposed drug kills someone; we would know early in the game; the drug trial would end and things go back to be studied.   So when you write the drug kills xyz, that just won't happen.  Now we might see some percentage of the group exposed to new(ish) treatment XYZ manifest other health conditions later on.  But inferring that was "caused" by the vaccine would be unanticipated.  We've had unhappy things happen while trying new treatments.  If the option is "do nothing" vs "learn and do the best we can"; why would we not side for the latter?

The trials we do are a pretty good predictor of how a new vaccine will work among the full population.  It is nonetheless true we are working with diverse humans.  At initial roll out the first users are the final guinea pig.  Perhaps you've forgotten that during the Covid19 initial vaccinations they were rolled out by risk.  Those who might die sooner anyway but for whom avoidance of the pathogen lessens a hasty death.  My group;  HIV poz, otherwise immune compromised, seniors with some underlying conditions were that first Covid vaccination group.  It would be interesting to grab those stats specifically; how many of us were adversely affected by the vaccine and how infections rates evolved between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.  

SAVES

Context is relevant here.  The words you used were "(it) saves 10 million lives".  Knowing how many lives were "saved" requires us to know what would have happened vs what actually happened.  And while we can measure things to gain a trajectory of likely outcomes; we don't know specific numbers.  By tracking information and grouping them into those we did X to and those we didn't do X to; gives us one way of considering outcomes.  From that we can calculate what what likely would have happened.  But it is a calculation.   

If you meant,  2 million died rather than 12 million from the disease we are attempting to control; I am pretty damned happy with that number.  

A more accurate metric would be when we compare the frequency and severity of infections between vaccinated and unvaccinated.  And if you listen to any statement about Covid vaccine, it's goal was to reduce frequency and severity of infection.  They absolutely do not guarantee you won't get infection by the targeted pathogen. 

If we're watchful, some of that USAID sorta work, we can detect and contain a new pathogen to as small as possible geographic region as we can.  Initial containment limits progression and sometimes that is self correcting (looking back on human history).  My HIV resistance directly connected to the Black Plague survivors.  

We implemented AZT largely as an experiment rather than do nothing until we achieved perfection.  

So the number you pose is unlikely, but honest if I am one of the 10 million, that is 10 million ostensibly happy people vs zero.  I imagine there are stats one can pull that would give us the details of 85 yo 95 treatment success ratio.  

7 minutes ago, BootmanLA said:

For those who forget their history: the middle East used to have just such a place, just north of Israel, in fact - Lebanon. Formerly a French mandate (the way Palestine - that is, Israel/Gaza - was a British mandate), Lebanon was independent not long after France fell in WWII, in a more-or-less bloodless transfer under the Free French (ie DeGaulle). From the early 1940's until 1975, Lebanon was above all else a resort country, with Beirut at its center. While it supported the Arab attacks on Israel in the 1948 war, they did not play a major role, and by and large there wasn't much fighting (especially in middle East terms) between them. Lebanon had Shia and Sunni Muslim, Maronite Christian, and Greek Orthodox leadership working together in about as multicultural a government as one could have imagined in the 1940's.

But as the PLO was driven out of neighboring states (particularly Jordan) and into Lebanon, inevitably conflict arose with the established residents, and civil war erupted in 1975 (with active interference from Syria and Israel), beginning decades of hot and cold war, shellings, bombings, assassinations, and more. The Syrian army finally withdrew in 2005 - 30 years later - but that hardly brought peace, as by this point Hezbollah was becoming entrenched in significant parts of Lebanon (thus bringing Iran into the fighting, albeit by proxy). Israel is still actively fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon (ie on its own border).

And today Lebanon is such a failed state that something north of 80% of its population is impoverished. As for tourism, that portion of its economy is a fraction of what it was pre-1975. Most of that tourism is from neighboring Jordan, from Saudi Arabia, or (for some reason) Japan, though in many years most tourists seem to be Lebanese visiting places they used to live, not foreigners bringing in new spending. 

How exactly Donold thinks he's going to do better in Gaza is beyond me. It's true that Gaza is surrounded by Israel and Egypt, so it would be harder for terrorists to sneak in and incite war. But certainly not impossible. 

Thank you!

It would not be the first stupid venture Donny posed, started and failed in.  

What is unclear is he speaking as Donny the guy who buys (rather than develops) real estate?  Or as POTUS?  It is quite unclear if he sees a difference.  He seems to have deluded himself into believing he owns the USA.  

Adding to @BootmanLA 2-1-1 use of PrEP has been approved for some time now.  Meaning even that doesn't necessarily have to be taken daily unless you have raw anonymous sex daily.  IF that is the case it would be worthwhile do discuss with your doctor how to manage your comparatively unique case with your doc.  

But to our Donny appointed SCOTUS guys R v W was "settled law".  

1 hour ago, BootmanLA said:

Vought is also a leading proponent of the absurd notion that if the executive branch decides it doesn't want to spend money that was appropriated by Congress, it can just.... not.

And a thousand other bad ideas, many of which were in the Project 2025 book. You know, the one Trump swore he'd never heard of, and wasn't a blueprint for his administration, and no one associated with it would have any sort of power in his administration. 

Yup, that's the one... 

On 2/8/2025 at 2:45 PM, NWUSHorny said:

or an '86 model with the 3.8 swapped out for an Iron duke 4 banger with 150K miles. I can't resist filling Trump's junk yard with the worst examples of the Buick Riviera ever built.

I thought the trend was to replace the IC engine with a Tesla Drive train in classic cars???  Maybe that's what Donny meant by Riviera.  

54 minutes ago, BootmanLA said:

That's certainly the approach of some members of our community, to their undying shame.

But there are quite a few of us in the "LGB" part of the "LGBT" spectrum who want ALL of us protected. Because we know that these assholes target the least-supported members of the group, knowing that the rest won't be unified in protecting them. Then they move on to shear off the next group - say, HIV+ people, or whatever. Divide and conquer is an age-old strategy, and sadly, it works too often.

And while accepting and supporting of each other, we don't have to pick "the" solution.  For example, I am concerned about the use of some medical intervention early in life.  I'm uncertain puberty blockers will in the long run not be viewed as we view electroshock therapy or lobotomies 50 years from now.  

Religion made all sorts of sense centuries ago.  Whether the "sometimes" intellect we humans display in the larger sea of what Hilary referred to as deplorables comes from a deity or is simply how we have evolved as a species doesn't change who and we are today.  Religion hasn't been a bad way to look at things when we haven't developed skills to explain our world;  

Mediums these days do a big business when they get followers.  Fortune tellers are nothing new.  Right there with snake oil salesmen, and IMO a few steps below prostitutes in the career scale which have been around throughout our ability to record a history.  We've a history, even in the USA's short 250ish years, of exploiting our neighbors and fucking them behind their mates back.  

We assume since we have a birth and death, everything else must as well.  And we refer to that "on-going-ness" I think as 'god'.  Religions developed social controls.  I'm not sure "the board" sat down one day and did that; but they've evolved to be the arbiters of moral behaviors.  All have a "god" figurehead with whom no one alive can actually shake hands with.  Which is quite convenient. But the common thread around a good part of the differing religions are around survivability of the religion.  So it became quite popular among humans to kill humans who didn't believe the same stories they did.  Sort of like killing people for not believing Harry Potter's books aren't diaries of a real life.  As we've grown as a species we.  Rather rapidly; doubling twice now in my lifetime.  

We are for multiple reasons facing some big human decisions again as we approach the 100th anniversary of WW2.  It has been a pretty good run.  There are a lot of viable options if we can shift from catering to the few to catering to the most.  We may see this rather soon, this year or next; or we'll weather through, achieve stasis for awhile; and then experience whatever methods get chosen for resolution.