@phoenix2021 said in PREP problem with STD:

@paulflying said in PREP problem with STD:

PREP problem with STD

If you are on PREP and do bareback, then STD has chance.

How do you think of that?

In the UK, you get PREP prescription every 3 months, which means every 3 months you go the GUM clinic and get tested for STDs. So I find some comfort in that, as when speaking to people about PREP and they are not on it, they sometimes mention they know they are clean, but have never been tested for any STDs or visited a GUM clinic.

That's an excellent point: people on PrEP have to visit the Dr (aka clinic) on a regular basis and undergo regular, routine testing - which includes a blanket of STD screenings in addition to HIV - which, if nothing else tells you that someone on PrEP is legitimately aware of their "sexual health"...

IMHO, people who say "they're clean" and haven't had an STD screening or an HIV test in over 6-months are self-delusional.... they don't know, and they couldn't know! HIV doesn't present SYMPTOMS for sometimes several years! All the while, you have it and you spread it!

In my own personal dating, I'd strongly prefer someone who is either on PrEP or who is poz-undetectible and on HIV meds to someone who is "just winging it"...

That's me - and I don't posit it as being for everyone - but, that's my thought process!

@geobear40 said in US science teacher arrested for vaccinating 17-year-old student:

@bi4smooth

Do you always assume people who don't agree with your reality are less then you? You seem to talk down to people who don't share your interpretation of the "Raw" data.

Do you assume people who don't agree with you are less educated then you claim to be?

I have not needed to share my education background nor my profession to justify my opinion. You are like the person who wears a mask only to signal to others that they are above those who don't.

If you want to argue about things for which there really are two sides (like when you brought up the Patriot act in another thread), sure - there are actually opposing sides!

But when you're arguing that the moon is made of cheese, or that Martians are little green men with 4 arms and 8 eyes and are armed with laser rifles (or that vaccines that are saving lives every day are "worthless" because they're not 100% effective), then there really aren't opposing sides!

When I say that 2 + 2 = 4 and that 2 * 2 = 4, but that 3 + 3 = 6, but that 3 * 3 <> 6, but rather 3 * 3 = 9 - and you continually argue that my math isn't real.... well, yes, I can get a little sarcastic - and it can come off as condescending...

I don't apologize for pointing out folly. Maybe I should - an argument could be made either way... and that would be a legitimate argument!

@geobear40 said in “Pfizer CEO: New Pill Will Have a Microchip That Transmits Info Once You Swallow It!”:

@bi4smooth

It's not being paranoid I am a realist. Their has been to many benign discoveries that the federal government have twisted into something horrible.

Examples:

The Patriot Act used to spy on American citizens, you do remember Carter Paige or maybe the over reach of the NSA as exposed by Wikileaks.

You can go back even further and turning the discovery of nuclear fission into the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

We can agree that the Patriot Act (enacted as a result of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on NYC and WDC) was an overreach and one of the most egregious assaults on privacy in the history of our country. I was awful legislation, wide open to abuse - by Republican and Democratic led governments alike! - by its very design.

I said at the time it was passed that we should heed Ben Franklin's warning: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, shall surely receive neither." (Mind you: Franklin wrote this same idea multiple times - writing from England before the start of the Revolution, writing to the the Governor of Pennsylvania, writing his own memoirs, etc. Not every instance is as ominous, nor as consequential - the one to the PA Governor was in support of NOT raising taxes to fight the French & Indian War!)

But back top the main topic:

If the fact that they put the equivalent of an RFID chip in a pill so that they could ensure that schizophrenic patients actually took their medication puts the "scare of God" into you, well I honestly pity you. Science will move on, in spite of your fears.

But just so you're aware: This chip is already in use, and was approved by the Trump FDA, not the Biden FDA - it was approved in 2017!!!

But let's look more closely at the underlying conspiracy theory here: that there are microchips in COVID-19 tests or vaccines....

Do you know where this comes from?

This comes from an IDIOT who conflated an idea floated by Bill Gates (the Lord Evil Rich One) who posited that we might use "digital certificates" to track who has, and who has not, received the vaccines.

BEWARE the Digital Certificates! (BTW: You download one every time you click on something in this site! If the URL says https then you're using a digital certificate!)

Somehow, digital certificates became tracking chips - why? because of idiots who jump to conclusions about tech they don't understand.

For the record: there is no hardware - needed, or even really possible - for a digital certificate!

If you're afraid of digital certificates, just turn off your computer and crawl into a dark corner and cry... they're literally EVERYWHERE on the Internet!

@raphjd said in Russia rejects European Court of Human Rights order to recognise same-sex unions:

@geobear40

As I always say, he only likes Pelosi Repubs.

ROFL - when I joined the Republican Party, we were the party of the educated! We were the party that boasted support from nearly every CEO in the Fortune 500!

That remained true until the results of the 2016 election.

I won't contend that the Party hasn't changed - I only contend that it hasn't changed for the BETTER!
What's more, I won't abandon my party to people who want to peddle stupidity, fear, and baseless conspiracy theories!

Interesting that former VP Richard "Dick" Cheney (a man with whom I had many disagreements while he was VP, but whom I nonetheless greatly respected) agrees with me... [source]

I don't pretend to be in the mainstream of the Republican Party anymore - but I won't concede my party to a cadre of fools and idiots! I fight for the values that made the Republican Party great once - the Party of both Lincoln & Reagan, the party of BOTH Bushes!

My prediction: this dark time will pass, or it will be the end of our current 2-party system - if not the end of our democratic-republic entirely!

@geobear40 said in Russia rejects European Court of Human Rights order to recognise same-sex unions:

The American Experiment has worked for almost 250 years it is not perfect and it will never be perfect but their is no system in the world that compares to it.

There are other systems that compare to it (even favorably!), many of whom are indeed BASED on the success of the "American Experiment" - but the fact remains that in a "free World" (which is still a goal, not an achievement) people are free to determine their own form of Government - whether built on our example, or not.

It is hubris to dismiss all other governments "out of hand" based solely on your own patriotism - nay, your own experience, which likely includes NO OTHER examples, but certainly does not include ALL other governments!

Correct me if I am wrong but are you assuming all Patriot Americans are poorly educated citizens? Why should matter what other people think about the unique American experience. Why if we are so horrible do so many peoples around the world struggle to come here? It sounds like Liberal elitist's talking points.

You clearly cannot discriminate between being patriotic - and being proud of the achievements of our country - from being arrogant and impudent about the rest of the world.

I would say that qualifies you as an "Ugly American" - (Reference)

I am a proud American... but I am not an arrogant one!

Also, if by "elitist" you mean "educated" and with a reasonable vocabulary, then I'm guilty - 2 Masters, 4 specializations, on faculty (adjunct, but still faculty) at 3 different Universities... yes, I'm educated.

That does not make me smarter than anyone else, but it does mean I've spent more time than the average person LEARNING about things...

So, smarter? no, I would never claim that... no matter how poorly educated you may demonstrate yourself to be...
But, more knowledgeable? it would seem so, in your case anyway...

World politics effect the US since we fund NATO the defense of all those democratic socialists' countries and there would not be a United Nation if the US didn't form it and pay the lion share of it's expenses.

World politics affect the US in many ways, but the effect is usually localized to specific ways. [Gee... if only you had the elitist education to know the correct word to use.]

But, to your intended point (which is as incorrect as your word choice): NATO (as well as the UN) is funded by all member nations. That said, it is certainly true that the US has traditionally paid an outsized share to both organizations. But "outsized" does not mean we pay "most" (much less "all") of the expenses of those organizations - which serve different purposes, I might add...

The UN (United Nations) was formed after WW-II... we (the allies who beat the German Kaiser) tried to make one after WW-I. It was called the League of Nations... in spite of strong support from the US, the League of Nations failed because not enough other nations agreed with us and joined... still, the fact that the League of Nations failed serves as a perfect example of how the US could not unilaterally "form it", as you have proposed.
It took a collaboration of ALL of the winning Allied Powers after WW-II to make it happen, and currently 193 member states belong (with only a half-dozen or so either choosing to not belong - e.g. the Vatican - or, being denied membership by some other country - e.g. Taiwan & Palestine). Without a near-complete world buy-in to the UN, it just wouldn't work! The League of Nations proves that!

I don't yet see were the actual content police have commented on my posts.

While there are other staffers in the Forum, by far the biggest "policeman" is @raphjd - he's "the boss" 'round here!
But, this is the politics section... there are VERY FEW rules here!
Thus, my statement was rhetorical...

I am not upset in the least with what Russia is doing. But it goes to trust of the Russian government. If they won't honor the Treaty then they should withdrawal from it.

The Treaty agreed to certain principles. It did not give "legal jurisdiction" to the EU Courts. Honestly, no non-EU country would agree to such a thing... not the US, not the Chinese, not the Russians!

If you ask the Russians, they are abiding by the treaty - their interpretation of it.

This is often a major problem with International Treaties: enforcement!

No I don't support your agreement. The US adheres to the treaties they ratified.

Sadly, the rest of the World disagrees with you... but certainly, from our own viewpoint (just as the Russians do as I noted above), we claim as much!

So there you go... the US does whatever it wants, ignoring international treaties along the way, and then claims later that "in some way" we're compliant.... and Russia does the same thing!

No enforcement mechanism = worthless treaties!

@geobear40 said in Over half of COVID-19 hospitalizations in NYC were not due to COVID-19:

https://www.foxnews.com/health/almost-half-reported-ny-covid-19-hospitalizations-not-due-covid-19

Lovely little rabbit hole here - let's dig in a little, no? Critical thinking anyone?

So, Alice - since Hospitals are reporting having 5x-10x more patients than "normal", and there is, indeed, a pandemic, but these extra people (patients) are NOT due to the current pandemic (COVID-19)...

What, pray tell thee, is the "real" cause for all the extra influx of patients?

Is there some NEW pandemic we haven't heard of?
Are they there, perhaps, due to "mask fatigue"?
Are the illnesses, perhaps, imagined - and not "real"?

I know, they've been watching too much Biden lately on TV! (Have you noticed he's started to take Trump's view of this - get on TV almost every day!)

In any case, inquiring minds want to know? WHY are our hospitals so full? Why are our healthcare workers starting to QUIT over the stress caused by 2+ years of this shit?

I want to know? What's your explanation?

@najo124 said in Can't upload a torrent:

@bi4smooth Solved it. Moderators messaged me that I should put my source folder on the destination folder of my torrent software. That did the trick for me. Thank you anyways for the response!

This site's helpdesk is an awesome resource!

Glad you got it managed

@geobear40 said in “Pfizer CEO: New Pill Will Have a Microchip That Transmits Info Once You Swallow It!”:

@bi4smooth said in “Pfizer CEO: New Pill Will Have a Microchip That Transmits Info Once You Swallow It!”:

(Those will be in the COVID-25 booster liquid-gels that the Nazi secret-police will force down your throats!)

If you don't think it is a possibility then I feel for you.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they AREN'T out to get you!

@geobear40 said in US science teacher arrested for vaccinating 17-year-old student:

The effectiveness of the Vaccine which was based on the original variant has become less and less effective against each new variant. Most of the population will catch Omicron or the next weaker variants to come.

Ok, two things here:

• Being less effective than the previously, never-before-seen-so-high, effectiveness the mRNA vaccines had against the original COVID-19 is a far cry from "being ineffective". In fact, they're still more then 75% effective at what a vaccine is supposed to do: prevent serious illness and/or death.
• Your assumption that the "next variant" will be weaker is based on what? Your wet dreams?
  Delta was both more virulent AND more deadly than the original! We just lucked out (literally!) that Omicron is way more virulent, but also way less deadly! (Maybe that was the Chinese virus lab's intention all along, eh Pinky?)
  Seriously, we have no idea what the next variants (there will likely be many) will be like: and that also means we have no idea whether the current vaccines will continue to protect us against them!
  That said: the current vaccines DO protect us against the current variants - all of them - well above the 50% rate that is the "floor" for FDA approvals.

Check your facts first please and stop lying about the FDA approval of the US vaccine.

Myocarditis and the COVID-19 Vaccines

Since April 2021, some people have developed myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart) after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccines in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The problem occurs more often in adolescents (teens) and young adults, and in males.

Can you read past the headlines? These cases of myocarditis have been reported and studied... 100% of the noted cases have been mild and have self-resolved (meaning the inflammation resolved itself)

People have also reported headaches, dizziness, mild nausea, and many other symptoms seen with other vaccines... safe vaccines! (Some of these are psychosomatic - some people get really agitated over a shot!)

Deaths from Covid-19 is an interesting topic. Since whenever you go to the hospital for anything they test you for Covid and if you have it but not died because of Covid it is still listed as a Covid death. The reason for this is purely a financially one for the hospital. Medicare pays the hospital for expenses to treat Covid patients.

Your understanding of the inner workings of hospital billing and morbidity studies is astounding! I'll bet you'd get paid more than $10/hr (in Fla - $15/hr in CA!) for that kind of analysis!

That is a fair assumption.. It also has a lot to do with protecting the higher risk individuals. The obese and elderly who are still the greatest number of people dying vaccinated or not.

Not so much... the unvaccinated make up over 85% of current COVID-19 morbidity (at least in States that report those things)...

Again: the vaccines work! Just ask Trump!

Do they stop you from getting sick at all? NO! (not the role of a vaccine to begin with!).
Do they stop you from getting sick and dead? YES! And quite effectively, thank you very much!

Now that is way off base. More people have died in the year we had vaccines then in the year we didn't. The number don't lie according to the CDC in the last 30 days only 1.4% of the Covid positives have died. If you are unvaccinated and young and healthy and you test positive you have a 99.99% chance of just having mild flu-like symptoms. The Vaccine should only be used by high risk persons not the general public and especially not children.

What perilous times we live in!

• More people have died in the last 300 years than in all of history before then!
• More people have died in the 2000's than died in all the wars of the 20th Century combined! (including WW-1,WW-II, and all those "regional conflicts" with their "ethnic cleansing" and so on!)

Raw numbers are meaningless, as time marches on!

• Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record for home runs in a season - but HIS seasons had 162 games, where Ruth's had only 154! So, who is the rightful "king"?

It's like the flu shot you can get it if you want it but it doesn't mean if you don't you will die and or kill someone else.

It may become like the flu: future variants may continue to become less and less deadly (which has been the case with the flu! DOH!) - But if you can tell the future - can you tell me what BitCoin will be at in December? I want to know whether to cash-out!

As it is, cold & flu variants come and go - and so long as their mortality rates remain low, no one raises an alarm. COVID-19 (the original) was more than 10x more deadly than the typical flu - thus, the alarm!

IF it ever gets to a point where COVID-19 (or, more correctly, one of its future variants) is "like the others", then we will have "made it through" the pandemic - much like we did in 1918! But we're not there yet!

As it is, comparing COVID-19 & it's vaccine to the flu and it's vaccine is like comparing a BB-gun to a Howitzer!

@geobear40 said in In dismissing libel suit, judge accepts FOX argument: Tucker Carlson exaggerates & bloviates - devoid of any expectation of fact:

@bi4smooth said in In dismissing libel suit, judge accepts FOX argument: Tucker Carlson exaggerates & bloviates - devoid of any expectation of fact:

Tucker Carlson is a bloviating, exaggerating, hyperbolic caricature of a journalist... but he is, nevertheless, a primary source of "fact" for many of the Trumpites you see here and elsewhere...

That is your opinion not a "fact". Trumpites again is not a word and what does Trump have to do with Tucker Carlson?

Carlson is not even a supporter of Trump. Carlson sometimes go a bit far but most of what he says ends up being truth unlike the MSM that will lie about anything that supports their brief.

Maybe if you watched his show instead of reading the MSM cliff notes you would expand your knowledge a bit.

I can therefore... legally... claim and infer that they are not "reasonable" people!

Are we back to the Hillary Clinton Deplorables comment? Attorneys try every angle to get their client's point across. I think the Judge dismissed the case based on the merits not by any single statement of the attorney.

Follow the link - the Judge's rationale for dismissing the suit was well laid out: to bring a libel case successfully, you have to show that a reasonable person would believe them! Thus, you cannot sue the town fool for libel! (That's a little "closer to home" than I intended, but if the shoe fits!) LOL

Hillary wasn't ever prosecuted for her "deplorables" comment (except in the court of public opinion) - at least not that I know of! So, "This ain't that"

@geobear40 said in Gen. US Grant's prediction ca. 1875...:

@bi4smooth
I believe that he was referring to any outside influence that would keep citizens from learning about the basics without a bias one way or the other.

Our school system has progressed to the point that it's what his warning was. I fear the only way it's going to be fixed is a revolution. Let the state money follow the student and bankrupt all these public, union controlled districts.

You certainly are a "throw the baby out with the bath water" kind of person, aren't you?

I have to wonder - within the constraints of Grant's admonition, are you a "patriot with intelligence" or "superstitious, ambitious, and/or ignorant"?

I'll leave the "gentle reader" to decide....

@geobear40 said in Fla Gov diverts State funds to promote SENIORS FIRST agenda:

@bi4smooth said in Fla Gov diverts State funds to promote SENIORS FIRST agenda:

He lets his Trumpist politics interfere too much for my tastes, but he's a damned site better than any Democrat alternative I've seen (EVER!) LOL

When Republicans have a policy you don't approve of you call it Trumpist (Which by the way is not a word). What does Donald Trump have to do with not allowing government of private enterprise to MANDATE anything.

No, there are plenty of things I disagree with that aren't "Trumpist" (and BTW: That term simply means a policy or opinion that comes directly from Sir Loses a Lot, aka: Trump the Loser King)

In this case, had you been here (in Florida), you would have known that early on in the pandemic, DeSantis was very much "follow the science" - until Trump started to defy the science.... DeSantis "saw the writing on the wall" (which was that the Republican base was going to follow Trump - to the ends of Hell, if that's where He wanted to take them!)

And I'll say again, there are a LOT of things DeSantis does that I wholeheartedly AGREE with! I'll have no qualms voting for him (yes, Virginia, I live in Florida - he's MY Governor!) in November.... maybe even again in Nov, 2024! I'd damned sure prefer him over Sir Loses a Lot.

@orhaqi123 said in Fla Gov diverts State funds to promote SENIORS FIRST agenda:

The page you linked said 1 million, not 100.

Putting seniors and those vulnerable to covid first is what DeSantis always did and he is continuing to do that here. I don't think he is doing it for votes -- this is the best thing any governor to do at this point because the vaccine is already out and widely used.

Interesting - another site (the one that directed me to that site reported 100 million.... I propagated that error in mistake.. oops!

Just goes to show how easily misinformation can spread! Thanks for the notice!

I'm of 2-minds on DeSantis as Governor... some things make a lot of good sense... then he goes and does things like forbidding mask mandates at any level! And forbidding - even private companies - from having vaccine mandates...

He lets his Trumpist politics interfere too much for my tastes, but he's a damned site better than any Democrat alternative I've seen (EVER!) LOL

@arago44 said in IF "we" get PURGED?:

I don't mean to intervene, but should I be accessing this website with a VPN all the time? or are you just talking about whenever someone is downloading a torrent?

Your torrent client should be using a VPN, at a minimum.

I've mentioned before: I do all of my access to these sites on throw-away $5/mo Linux systems at Linode.com.... what I download (at EXTREMELY fast rates, I might add), I then copy to my home system... every month or so, I destroy the old system and build a new one (at a new IP!)...

Not everyone is THAT security conscious, nor is everyone sufficiently skilled at Linux to make that work... but the point is, you should (IMHO) NOT be running your torrent client (uploading or downloading) on your home IP address!

Your access to this site is probably less problematic, but I don't segregate that traffic... I browse from the same cloud VM as I upload and download from.

[Source: here]

Florida Governor (and Trump wannabe) Ron DeSantis announced recently that the State would divert and spend general healthcare funds to purchase 100-million rapid tests for Florida Seniors - specifically, those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

This is on-top-of the 500-million the Federal Gov't is set to procure for the general population.

I get it - we need more tests! I just paid $100 ea for tests (that my insurance was SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR) right here in Fla!

But 500-million for the country, and another 100-million tests SOLELY for the oldest and frailest in just Florida?

IMHO, we're entering a phase where tests and vaccinations are being used to pander for votes - from BOTH SIDES!

The CARES act already says COVID testing is supposed to be free - although, as my case illustrates, that law has either loopholes, or people exploiting the idea for huge sums of cash! (I have filed a complaint, for my case, with both my Insurance co, AND the Fla Insurance Commissioner - hopefully, if this was a scam, they'll get caught and lose their asses!)

Still, a race to see who can "provide the most" as a way to pander for votes is sickening... and morally repugnant!

A pox upon both their houses!

To be clear: Grant wasn't so much warning about another Civil War as professing the need for public, non-sectarian, non-religious schools...

To further quote:

"Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that the State or Nation, or both combined, shall furnish to every child growing up in the land, the means of acquiring a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistic tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards, I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain."

Civil War hero & eventual President Ulysses S Grant said in an address in 1875 (at the Annual Reunion of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 29, 1875):

"If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence (e.g.: another Civil War), I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other." Citation Here

Ummm.... was the "Drunken President" also prescient?

Back in 2020, Fox was sued for slander by Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model whom Tucker Carlson had accused of extorting hush-money from Donald Trump.

The facts are that she had never contacted Trump, or his associates, about any payments - instead, receiving payment from David Pecker - owner of the National Enquirer - who paid for her "story" solely so he could quash it.

In defending Carlson, Fox's own lawyers stated:

• Carlson's comments were "loose, figurative or hyperbolic"
• Cited an earlier court finding where a nonjournalist's use of the word "extort," proved nondefamatory because it was mere "rhetorical hyperbole, a vigorous epithet." (Essentially: Tucker Carlson is not a journalist)
• Cited another earlier precedent where Don Imus won a case more than two decades ago because an appellate court ruled that "the complained of statements would not have been taken by reasonable listeners as factual pronouncements but simply as instances in which the defendant radio hosts had expressed their views over the air in the crude and hyperbolic manner that has, over the years, become their verbal stock in trade."

More damning: the PLAITIFF alleged in a brief that "a reasonable viewer of ordinary intelligence listening or watching the show ... would conclude that [she] is a criminal who extorted Trump for money" and that "the statements about [her] were fact." - But, the Fox lawyers responded to that claim - quoting here: "that the reasonable viewer would do no such thing."

For the record: the judge agreed & dismissed the lawsuit.

Tucker Carlson is a bloviating, exaggerating, hyperbolic caricature of a journalist... but he is, nevertheless, a primary source of "fact" for many of the Trumpites you see here and elsewhere...

I can therefore... legally... claim and infer that they are not "reasonable" people!

@najo124

I believe you are not creating a valid .torrent file in the first step in the process... you'll have to look at your client program to debug that step...

@perro2492 said in IF "we" get PURGED?:

Because all of us have our porn saved somewhere, if the page goes, everything can be found somehow someday right? Is there a backup plan?

What are you referring to?

If the site goes down, there is nothing preventing you from keeping all the porn you've downloaded.

If the site were to be "taken over" by the "porn-sharing-police", the only thing they'd get are IP addresses... which, for many of us, aren't our HOME addresses, but rather VPN or cloud-hosted IP addresses.

If I've missed the mark, what exactly are you concerned about?