PozBearWI

Hmmm, maybe it is time for us to get back to in-person meeting places and for the most part drop the aps????

HSV, HPV and HIV.  I guess I've got the H's covered?  mgen (never been certain exactly what that one is); chlamydia, ghono.  

Thanks @tallslenderguy.  I appreciate your thoughtful post.

How was your vacation in Mexico?  Were you able to at least temporarily avoid the noise from donnie for awhile?  

The rhetoric from him is divisive.  Donnie acts as the classic schoolyard bully.  As always with bullies, there are classmates who are "on their side" (at least for awhile) and those who perhaps have been bullied by him before, and actually learned what they needed to do going forward from that experience.  At his core though, his method has been to obfuscate facts.  If I can get others to believe in my "facts" which might be observably incorrect; he gets a member of his club (as it were).  Donnie opened his first full day in office in 2016 with a bald faced lie, in calling it the largest inauguration ever.  And perhaps, honestly I don't have the numbers to back it up and honestly, I don't care to compare success of an inauguration by what it cost; but rather by things like "what he said" and "crowd participation".  And in our modern world, how do we know how many people actually viewed it.  Does it matter if it was playing on an unwatched TV? (assuming network can track which channel has most endpoints tuned in moment to moment)?  There are thousands of public places with TVs playing things like the presidential inauguration in public places everywhere.  That doesn't mean people are actually watching it.  So I find it difficult to believe that viewership is a legitimate metric.  There are people who are attracted to donnies personality.  I find his personality repulsive.  He isn't the only human I've known like that.  

It is of course our society at large who votes.  So voting results are a blend of emotion and reason.  Political advertising has leaned hard into emotion.  One is to be pissed off at someone at the end of them; and they measure success by the number of calls made to the "call senator XYZ and tell him what a mutherfucker he is"...  With a number to call.  A whole lot of people conflate what the person says to what the party says; failing to observe any dichotomy.  They go after their winning team.  Some voters actually listen to the people they might vote for to hear directly from them what their platform is.  And votes might better be a metric of media success now than reasoned decisions.  This suggests some systemic changes we might make as a society on how we collectively come to beneficial decisions.  

Unfortunately, all of us can better understand today the difference between what donnie said when campaigning and what donnie is saying, and doing now.  Some will still blindly align with anything he says and never connect that to why shit costs more everywhere, and wonder where cousin ABC has gone to.  

2 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

This is a conflation of a variety of different events and political rhetoric. In your context, it serves the purpose of illustrating the perspective of the right wing American proletariat, but please remember that "false statements and conspiracy theories" are against the rules on BZ.  There are plenty of real examples of the powers in the left wing overstepping reasonable bounds without resorting to distortion of facts.

Although at the moment we are in a constitutional crisis.  

@hntnhole although it would appear that education has left off critical thinking as an objective.  

I'm thinking T has enjoyed Putin's cock a time or twenty.

@PissPigBrooklyn Nah you're not too old my friend.

The benefits of VPN isn't just to sidestep censorship.  They protect you in ways unrelated to censorship.  I was using VPN long before any of the site censorship became an issue.

And while there are some around who don't have facts on their side, more often than not others do.  It is healthy to discuss, learn from each other.  Consider alternative points of view.  

Formed by six guys from across the country of diverse backgrounds but discussing aspects of our politics, society...  Called the Find Out Podcast.  Episode 1 linked below:

Even Fox news sometimes gets it right...  🙂

We'll know for sure when we know for sure; but I think we'll weather this storm...

@backpackguy You won't know until you ask...

I just stumbled across an interesting WAPO article I wanted to share here...  As always be careful clicking on hyperlinks...  

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/03/trump-wilson-world-war-hochschild/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F41ebbe7%2F67eeb3401c02d2281d849193%2F66845dc845de25149424c9ec%2F19%2F65%2F67eeb3401c02d2281d849193

Jim

I am in relatively frequent contact with the author.  He isn't ignoring the story.  It could take a number of paths and he hasn't chosen one yet.  

2 hours ago, backpackguy said:

Like my gay doc at Stanford told me: the CDC focuses on "15-year-old farm girls from Kansas." Many straight docs (yes, even from Kaiser) don't understand the prevalence of HPV amongst gay men and therefore deny it is an issue or downplay it. When I went with my husband to see his Kaiser doc and pushed them to begin the HPV inoculation series, his doc agreed but it was apparent that it was an afterthought and mostly at my insistence. When he went to the inoculation clinic to actually get the shot, the nurse questioned it (once again the female only issue) and only administered the shot after contacting his doc directly and confirming the order. My overall recommendation: find a gay doc if at all possible!! 

Fortunately, my HIV doc (and PCP) does understand, and referred me to an HPV specialist out of Medical College of Wisconsin.  My HPV is type 16 and I am set up now for annual monitoring.  

But @backpackguy you raise an excellent point, it is up to US to train our doctors in gay health needs.  

I wasn't surprised with Wisconsin vote (being an poll worker here).  Even tesla-boy's show in Green Bay where the two one-million dollar payouts occurred, the crowd reaction with very much NOT friendly to him.  

Lot's of "trump" signs in our town came down Monday...  

Yes, they are wrong, and yet...  Here in Wisconsin my provider made it clear that while testing is borrowed from traditional pap smears and used on men; the testing is locally approved, not FDA recognized.  

@jd13 were my state included in rawTOP's code; I would get a VPN a couple months before you need it.  Waiting until the last minute, or after has never served me well.  Being on the bleeding edge of technology has its pitfalls as well.  But VPN is mature technology and you've options.  Better to be on it and never notice the change in July.  

And JD, I'm glad you're here too.  

@chunkychains what a well crafted story.  To me it is complete here.  I'm looking forward to enjoying more of your writing.  

Although do understand that the democrats in the Federal government have no power to do anything.  Fortunately in the US we also have State, County and municipal governments.  

1 hour ago, hntnhole said:

I can't recall which one just now - but one of the venereal diseases often causes skin problems, scarring, etc.  

Considering all the call girls, whores, prostitutes, loose tarts he's "been with" through the years, it's no surprise there's plenty to cover up on that corpulent bag of filth.  I'm surprised he has any money left, after paying for all the "working girls".  

Are we assuming it is a thin coating?  🙂 

WRT Ezra, yeah I am right there with you @hntnhole   And make him breakfast in the morning...  🙂

The reason to keep marriage equality is that it bestows on the partnership several rights that have nothing to do with children to the married partners.  Domestic Partnerships don't work because they don't come with the same rights.

Not every culture on earth allows same gender marriage...