The Biden administration announced today that 500,000 Covid 19 test kits have been ordered and will be available starting in January.

OK, so you're off by an order of magnitude there, and you appear to have misread quite a bit:

• The Biden Administration ordered 500-million (not 500-thousand) additional home test kits for COVID-19 (different from existing, LAB test kits).
• These are, apparently, not NEW TECH, just the Federal Gov't stepping in to cover the purchase costs. (As-if the Gov't had the money to spend - but that's a Democrat for you! Spend SPEND SPEND!)
  Other sites report that ~191-million of these same home-test-kits were sold in the last week of November (2021) already...

They are not talking about treatment drugs. I think they over purchased vaccines and will wait until there supply runs out before they move on to other things.

Sigh - you don't just see the glass half-empty... you consider the hole at the top of the glass to be a serious design flaw prone to spillage!

The FDA has approved many hospital-based treatments for COVID-19, and permitted a WIDE ARRAY of experimental options.

The FDA also recently approved (via EUA) Pfizer’s Paxlovid - an oral (vs IV) treatment for early COVID-19. Merck's Molnupiravir is expected to receive the same EUA soon, which is a similar ORAL treatment. These drugs are still only by prescription, and are both for use in early COVID-19 disease - within 5 days of the onset of symptoms.

Let's be clear here though: the Federal Gov't in the US is STILL PAYING for all COVID-19 hospitalizations! Insured and uninsured are getting the same level of care for COVID-19 here!

I have heard that there are better vaccines in the pipeline but they are not using WARP SPEED to get those done. Keep producing a vaccine that still has not been approved by the FDA that require boosters every six month.

"Project Warp Speed" was a Federal Gov't spending initiative, started in the Trump Administration, where the US Gov't paid - up-front - for massive amounts of research into COVID-19 vaccines, in exchange for pre-arranged purchasing agreements. They spent about $12-billion under the name Warp Speed, and while the program still exists, it's not under the name anymore. (Politics!)

Research continues for better vaccines, and if/when they become available, the FDA will look into their approvals... but remember: the "goalpost" for a "solid vaccine" was, in mid-2020, to be 50% effctive at preventing death.

18 months later, that seems like a rather low bar - hindsight being 20/20! The truth is, we've never HAD a vaccine that was 95%+ effective at preventing serious illness, much less death, before! The current vaccines are an order of magnitude better than we expected to get out of Warp Speed!

True, their effectiveness against Delta dropped to about 80-85%, and against Omicron it's down to a 70-75% effectiveness - but when measured against the original 50% "goal," they're still doing QUITE WELL!

That said, the research didn't just uncover a single "magic pill" - it created a new kind of vaccine: created using mRNA techniques, originally pioneered for use in a potential HIV vaccine, that is easily (and quickly) "re-tooled" to focus on other viruses with other markers.

Pfizer & BioNTech both say they can create new vaccines for other COVID-19 strains when it becomes necessary... not in years or months, but in weeks!

Oh, and by the way: the Pfizer vaccine is fully approved by the FDA - with the Moderna & J&J vaccines both still authorized, and with full approval in the works (the only difference is a paperwork one - you can get any of them still, and if there were any DANGERS at this point, they would pull the EUA and just lean on the others.

YES - the pharma companies are out to make a buck, but they're in the business of healing people, not killing them! Just how much did you pay (in the US) for your last COVID-19 vaccine? (Answer: nothing - your insurance is required to cover it 100%, regardless of coverages or co-pays, and if you're uninsured, the Federal Gov't is footing the bill.

To be clear: if you want to say that Big Pharma is money hungry, and over-charging for many life-saving drugs? (ESP Insulin for diabetics!) I'm with you! ALL-IN!

But when you want to make up lies & mislead people to support your argument, that's just not helpful...

@lololulu19 said in Biden now OWNS the Covid Virus!:

@geobear40 The main issues now are... the 2020 vaccines are useless against the new strains of Covid.. so all the vaccinations given so far.. are meaningless.

False - to the point of absurdity!

The vaccines are providing about 70% protection against hospitalization (severe illness) from Omicron, with "natural immunity" (from prior COVID-19 infection) providing about 50% protection....

It is insane to give people the false idea that masks protect them, when it has been established that masks do more harm than good.

False - beyond absurdity!

In a separate thread I posted a list of more than a dozen links - not to news outlets, or political sites - but medical journals from multiple countries showing quite the opposite: masks of all kinds offer substantial (but far from total) protection from aerated COVID-19 infection.

One thing that should be done is to take the temperatures of everybody crossing a border or going on a trip that will take several hours for several reasons:
If cooped up next to someone for several hours who is sick - no matter what the disease - there is a high risk of getting that disease.
The people who are sick with a high temperature are not only at high risk for giving their disease to others, but also at high risk of being infected by others. For instance.. an unspoken reason why cruise ships are not more popular than they are is because they are incubators for disease. You are cramped in with thousands of other people for several days or even weeks, and you are inundated with their germs in the shared pools, dining rooms, restrooms, etc. The sick people don't have the luxury of staying away from other people when they are on a cruise ship.

That's a lot to unpack, but I must agree with final conclusion: now is NOT a good time to go on a cruise!

I haven't been sick from a disease in over 20 years. I have not been vaccinated, and I've never had Covid. My immune system is strong because I'm not a smoker nor drug abuser nor prescription drug user either. All these people popping pills for their anxiety, depression and mental problems are compromising their immune systems.

Statistical samples of 1 are always definitive! I'm glad you've been healthy, but your good fortunes (on many levels) hardly apply to large populations...

@raphjd has a new "hammer"...

So be prepared, folks.... for the next few weeks, EVERYTHING is going to look like a nail!

My FIRST crush was on Tommy Wilde - that was in... 1981?

From there, I fell for Johan Paulik

Who, IMHO, is still HOT AS FUCK!

But my CURRENT porn-crush is Aiden Garcia - who has a BF/BFF (Seth Peterson) I'd equally love to play with! (HELLO, 3-WAY!!)

@hubrys said in NYC Dem councilwoman is racist against latinos:

I think you meant res ipsa loquitur, i.e., "the thing speaks for itself."

ROFL - reminds me of:

Rather than quote individuals, let me generalize some corrections here:

• Natural immunity is NOT superior to immunity from the vaccinations.
  BOTH the mRNA (Moderna & Pfizer) and traditional (J&J & AZ) variations of the common vaccines in the West produce BETTER immune response results than "natural" immunity coming from recovery from COVID-19 infection.
  But that's not the point! The statistics that matter are not infections, so much as hospitalizations and deaths!
  If both natural immunity AND vaccine-derived immunity BOTH prevent hospitalization and death upon (re-)infection, then both are reasonable protections, and the LEVEL of protection is moot!
• Omicron is spreading rapidly, already supplanting Delta as the primary cause of infection and hospitalization in many areas of the world. Neither natural immunity (from prior COVID-19 infection), nor the vaccines, are offering the same level of protection against Omicron as the original, or even Delta... this is to be expected! The DNA sequence your immune system is "looking for" is a little different!
• Omicron is NOT infecting more immunized people than un-immunized - that is just plain false! Indeed, the statistics show that the natural and vaccine-based immunity is equally "good" at preventing hospitalizations from Omicron. It's not as good as the "incredible success" the mRNA vaccines had against the original strains (over 95% effective is/was miraculous! The 50-70% effectiveness we're seeing against Omicron is what was expected originally!)
• We don't know yet whether Omicron is more deadly than the original strains, but it appears to be less deadly than Delta (which is primarily what it is replacing in most areas of the world). However, less deadly is misleading: it's still a killer, and the un-immunized (whether naturally or by vaccine) are highly likely to need hospitalization (often leading to death).
  Look at what the local hospitals (around the world, not just in Western countries) are saying: their ICUs are filling up again, and it's nearly ALL from un-vaccinated COVID-19 patients!

Take Aways:

• If you haven't been immunized, you should get the shot. Donald Trump did! (2-shots of Pfizer and recently, the booster!)
• Even if you have natural immunity, you are BETTER protected (against what matters: hospitalization and death!) by the vaccines - even on top of any natural immunity!
  After almost 9-billion doses have been administered, the fear-mongers as-to the potential catastrophic effects have been proven wrong. We're not magnetized, there are no embedded chips, we're not growing extra-limbs, pregnancies are not being affected... 9-billion doses means it's not really all-that "new and untested" anymore...
• Don't believe ANY predictions about this virus - they've ALL been wrong!
  Trump was wrong predicting it would be over by the election.
  Biden was wrong predicting it would be over in his first year (even admitting that all of the technology being used to FIGHT this virus came from initiatives STARTED (if not completed) by Trump!
  So far, politicians have been far worse at predicting COVID-19 than they have been at predicting World Series outcomes! (Which has been 50/50 at-best!)
  Even Scientists have been stymied - repeatedly - by this virus!
  It'll be over when it's over (maybe never!) - and not before then!
• Be careful when using "political" news sources for virus (or any other medical / science) information. They have an agenda - and it's not your good health!
  I don't care if it's FOX or MSNBC - their "health news" is skewed to "protect" their political narrative!
  So, what CAN you trust? Use sources from multiple countries - preferably NOT only those allied with each other: if the Israelis and the Iranians are reporting the same thing, it's probably "solid science". If the US and China and Russia all are saying the same things, it's probably "solid science"... but when I mention these sources, I don't mean the "news media" from those countries - I mean their official Gov't health agencies!
  If we learned one thing from the Trump response to COVID-19, its that politics CAN influence the Gov't health narrative (no, I don't think he was the FIRST - only, perhaps, the sloppiest!)

@geobear40 said in UK liberal media reporting on health issues:

@bi4smooth said

The point here isn't that freedom is bad - only that it can be overwhelming... and stressful!

Only to people who have never had Freedom before. Not to the 99.99% of the population of the UK who were born in a free-ish country.

Your percentage is a bit hyperbolic - but it is TRUE that people born with choices are more comfortable with them, just as people born without them are more comfortable without them. (I know many people who prefer "smaller stores" because they get overwhelmed by the larger ones - but, mind you, I know some of these people because of the volunteer work I do - so I am aware that my "experience" out-sizes the typical population sample).

I have seen this in some of my own children when they first move away from home. They thought they were prepared, but then they have to remember to pay the rent, the power, the water, the insurance, the garbage, the cable, the Internet, the credit cards... ALL THOSE BILLS! Then you also have to make your own Dr & dentist appointments, AND schedule the time off from work, AND convince your boss you're not "playing hookie" AND deal with / plan for the reduction of income because you're not working all of your regular shifts... and and and!
It's overwhelming at first... but you adjust (I refer to it as "Adulting 101")

That could be alleviated in Childern who are taught life lesson by their parents (I refer to it as "Parenting 101")

Your implication that my example of my own children shows poor parenting is pedantic and offensive. I have raised 9 children to adult-hood, and helped raise over 100 more. I actually have a certificate from NACAC (North American Council on Adoptable Children) for being a "Professional Parent." My 20 y/o daughter just bought a new car - her 815 credit score got her the loan at 2.5% APR... I think my kids are (have been) prepared for adulthood just fine - but the shock of doing it ALL on your OWN is still one they all experience!

But adding stress DOES often result in cardiac issues... but that doesn't mean all stress is bad!

True but it doesn't cause it in young people nor does climate changes cause heart attacks.

Wow, you sure like to generalize - 4 of my kids have cardiac issues where high levels of stress DO INDEED cause their hearts to react abnormally. The same 20 y/o with the 815 credit score above wears a heart monitor due to a type of A-Fib - a condition more COMMON to older people, but she has it - go figure! (The damage some of these bio-parents did to their children either prenatally, or in infancy, is enough to tear your heartstrings clean out!)

Suicide rates SKYROCKET around the holidays... but that doesn't mean we cancel Christmas!

True but it has nothing to do with the post.

Sigh - a simple allegory... what's more, it supports (kind of) your position! My point is that, while it may be true that some people are having cardiac issues as a result of worrying about, or even as a more direct result of, climate change, that is not sufficient - in and of itself - to warrant $billions of spending to ameliorate their issues.

The articles our examples of the controlling nanny state using FEAR to keep their subjects in line and scared so they don't stand up for their Freedom and no longer need the parental government.

I disagree - this isn't a "nanny state" attempting to control us, but rather, to me, this is a "climate change" interest group attempting (with a bit of a reach, IMHO) to tie their cause to additional "catastrophic" results. It's exaggerated at best, if not hyperbolic.

My point HERE is: we seem to agree that the reporting is bunk. We appear to disagree on WHY!

Happy Holidays!

@raphjd said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth

Hey dumbass, you can watch the news on YouTube.

You can also watch videos of people discussing news articles/videos.

You can also watch Congress on YouTube.

You can watch police press conferences on YouTube.

But, be a cuntish Ms Feng Feng, as always.

yes, but you can also find videos of dogs and cats sleeping together (sleeping - get your mind out of the gutter) and how-to videos on how to masturbate a horse (for breeding, you filthy-minded whore!)

The point isn't that you can't find videos on YouTube, but that YouTube isn't -by itself- a source for verified news... um, in other words, it's not a news source (just a video source).

@salbakutamas said in Can I download simultaneously torrents on my phone and pc?:

It gets extremely irritating to only download on my pc. I always miss out on freeleech torrents whenever I'm away from home. ( Yes , I browse torrents even if I'm outside lmao ).

So the question is .... Am I allowed to download torrents on my phone and pc using the same account with different downloader ( Qbit is not available on Android ) without getting banned or anything?

You can download (login and register) from multiple locations - however, the issue becomes whether others are downloading on that same IP (which is what can trigger multiple-account warnings)

Personally, I use a set of VMs in the cloud ($5/mo!) as well as a VPN connection from there to do my downloading!

@boltvolts said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@raphjd Beautiful. Masks diminish oxygen intake by 20%. This is significant.

This would be significant, if it were true - but it is not.

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Mask-Mythbusters.aspx

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/verify/verify-masks-do-not-reduce-oxygen-intake-for-kids-local/77-edfed0c7-7514-4890-910a-ea148b23e6b4

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201103/dont-believe-the-myth-face-masks-dont-lower-oxygen-levels#1

https://www.uhhospitals.org/Healthy-at-UH/articles/2021/03/does-wearing-a-face-mask-limit-your-oxygen-intake

(for @raphjd, who thinks that YouTube is a news source)
Youtube Video

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/another-air-quality-monitor-demonstration-fails-to-show-masks-reduce-oxygen-to-children/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776928

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8014099/

https://abc7news.com/jama-masks-children-and-co2-pediatrics-face-mask-study/10866564/

I'm going to stop there... after all, I am quite certain that I WILL NOT CONVINCE YOU (@raphjd or @boltvolts), as this anti-mask thing has become a religion for you - and no amount of facts will convince you that you (or your cherry-picked) sources are wrong...

But for any reader who IS NOT a "true believer" in the anti-mask camp, or who may be interested in facts - there ya go!

Oxygen is critical not only for brain activity, but furnishes the fuel for the lymphatic system to produce leucocytes (white blood cells) that fight all infection, including virus, retrovirus, and yes, Covid.

This statement is true (well, I can't attest to the validity of the claim that reduced oxygen levels reduces leurocytres, or the effects on the immune system in general...), but its importance tracks back to the false assumption at the beginning, so its validity is actually immaterial.

It is criminal to require masks that according to the vast majority of medical professionals serve nothing to limit, prevent or curtail acquisition of a retrovirus or other virus.

This is laughable - I could list another 40 links to medical journals, medical societies, and medical school who all identify exactly HOW the masks stop the spread of COVID-19.

And where did the idea of a "retrovirus" come from? Are you conflating HIV (a retrovirus) and COVID-19 (a non-retrovirus)?

For the reader (since I'm certain @Boltvolts will assert my information is wrong on some level): a retrovirus is one that spreads within the body by inserting a DNA copy of itself into other cells (host cells) in order to replicate. While not unique to HIV, that is the most common retrovirus we've found (so far), and it is a rare form of viral replication.

Science Magazine has published studies where scientists have traced how and where COVID-19 spreads in the body and found traces of RNA and DNA in human chromosomes, BUT found that they were insufficient to cause illness - in their own words: "a biological dead-end."

Surgical masks are worn by surgeons to prevent not viral but bacterial infection in patients with opened tissues which are highly susceptible to bacterial sepsis.

ROFL - nothing like MIXING fact and fiction to make your fiction sound better. Surgical masks are worn by surgeons - along with other forms of PPE (like gloves and gowns) to protect both themselves AND their patients from any number of "elements" - the most common of which is blood splatter.

In the early days of HIV discovery, doctors "gowned up" (which included masks and face shields) because they believed those things would protect them from the HIV virus (yes, Virginia, they knew it was a virus by that time).

Doctors routinely wear (and wore) surgical masks when seeing patients during cold and flu season... not because those are bacterial infections!

Doctors and nurses routinely wear face masks today - look in the hospitals, and you'll find cloth ones, surgical ones, N95 ones, KN95 ones... these are medical professionals! You think they're wearing them because "they're in on the joke?"

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers add insult to injury, as they absorb directly into the bloodstream, and this is not your grandfather's moonshine stash alcohol, but a form toxic to the human organism.

Sigh - alcohol-based hand sanitizers (which is most of them) use the disinfectant nature of alcohol to kill virus and bacteria on the skin (and on surfaces)... BUT, because the alcohol content is well known, they generally use either denatured ethyl alcohol (which is the same kind of alcohol you find in drinks, but in a much higher concentration - BUT it also means there are additives that make it unpleasant to drink, sometimes lethally so) or isopropyl alcohol - which is also (purposefully) poisonous to drink.

https://sciencenotes.org/can-you-drink-hand-sanitizer/

WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS? The answers are 2-fold:

• Some additives assist in the effectiveness of the antiseptic action
• Some additives assist in offsetting the strong smell of the antiseptic chemicals
• Some additives assist in offsetting the drying effects of the alcohol (the alcohol binds with the water and other oils on the skin of your hands, and then quickly evaporates - so it's NOT your imagination - your hands ARE "dryer" after using hand sanitizer)
• Some additives are designed to make you very sick very quickly if digested - this is to prevent alcoholics from ingesting it for a "fix" (with the quick-action additives there to make them sick before they ingest ENOUGH to make the other additives LETHAL).

In the short run, alcohol based sanitizers dehydrate the blood, increasing blood pressure to force blood and circulate the already diminished white blood cells.

Again, a nice mix of truth and utter hogwash! Yes, as discussed above, hand sanitizers dehydrate your hands - and not just of water, but also other natural oils necessary to keep your skin healthy. (For the record: so does regular hand soap!)

The Internet is RIFE with new products designed to help offset this dryness... but dermatologists say that, in general, using a good moisturizer helps, and specialized formulations are not necessary. Further, most are "snake oil" - they don't do anything special, except drain your bank balance. However, moisturizer lotions do not "bring along" sufficient water to truly help re-moisturize your hands alone - so you should wet your hands (dampen them, anyway) for the moisturizer to have its best effect.

BUT - why are we talking about hand sanitizers in an article about masks?

• While we thought - in early 2020 - that COVID-19 was spread largely (even effectively) by surface contact, we now know that is untrue - it is a largely-respiratory, and mostly transmitted by aspiration, not shared contacts.
• There hasn't been a lot of "walk back" of "use hand sanitizer often" because .... why? Have Doctors recommend you keep your hands dirty? Improving the general hygiene of the general populace reduced the severity of cold & flu season last year, and if we keep it up, maybe this year too! (Dentists only DREAM of a similar motivation to "brushing and flossing regularly!" LOL)

Our immune systems are stimulated by physical proximity to other human beings, and diminish in isolation, making us more susceptible to disease and Covid also.

I'm skeptical of this statement. I searched Google for anything substantiating that claim, and found nothing - but in fairness, the results were overwhelmed by Google interpreting my query as "how does the immune system work"... I'd love to see some corroborating (scientific) article supporting this statement....

Don't believe the propaganda in circulation. There is an enormous economic motive in closure of small businesses, and that is massive giant finanacial interest control with the goal of a global economic system. Forget currency, it's over with. A system of work-based credits measured by body movements is patented by Bill Gates and signed off by 96 major economic force countries. We are on the brink of a global technocracy with utter control of every move we make. Don't believe it? Fine... put your head back in the sand and go to sleep again. You'll soon awaken to a nightmare you were not prepared for. Do what you want in life today. Tomorrow is already too late.

Conspiracy theory to me, religious-like belief to you...
"End of the world" and "Jesus and the Anti-Christ have already arrived" believers will also tell you the same: you'll be surprised when it turns out to be true!

So far, I'm batting a 1.000 for believing the apocalypse is not upon us... but you only have to miss ONE!

One final comment: What's with the long-single-line posting style? Did the Enter key on your keyboard fail?

@geobear40 said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

Parler was taken down by AWS a subsiduary of Amazon because they didn't like what Parler contributors where allowed to say.

You're a moron. Parler.com is alive and well. Click the link and see for yourself. They were kicked off AWS (who was their hosting company) for being in violation of the Terms of Agreement - contracts they signed with Amazon.

Once they stopped whining about it, they were back up (even restored from backups) less than 6 hours after choosing a new hosting company! (AWS isn't magic - it's one of DOZENS of cloud hosting companies... the biggest, true, but just one)

They are editing content. That makes them publishers and should be able to be sued for the content they allow. You can censor speech and then claim to be not liable for what you allow.

Again, you're showing your complete lack of understanding of the legal concepts.

A "publisher" edits content PRIOR to making it available to others. (I invite YOU to consider the manpower necessary for ANY social media company to do that, much less the largest - Meta/Facebook!)

Removing content AFTER it has been published - without "prior restraint" allows them to be immune from prosecution for the posts' contents. THAT is the "Section 230" you Trumpites love to complain about - but it has nothing to do with what the DO NOT allow on their site! It has everything to do with not holding them liable for WHAT IS on their website.

Talk radio is governed but the FCC and have rules of conduct that the government imposes on them to protect speech. The reason it is dominated by conservatives is that is what people want to hear. Liberal talk news has failed to have and audience.

Agreed... and Conservative Cable TV has ratings that are HUGELY higher than Liberal Cable TV! I have no qualms about that!

The issue is that a medium is used considerably more effectively by one viewpoint than another... Conservatives have RULED talk radio (and Cable TV) for decades.... we can't really complain THAT loudly when Liberals finally find a voice somewhere!

@raphjd said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth

Your beliefs are clear and your constantly spew them here.

People don't have rights, but businesses and governments do.

Your Russian propaganda news-feed must be offline... you're off topic...

@geobear40 said in UK Supreme Court rules on passport sex:

@bi4smooth
There are only two genders male or female. This covers transsexuals' because once they transition they legally change their gender.

All of these other terms that people refer themselves as are not to be confused with gender. These are how they see themselves and how they want the world to categorize them. It is more about who they want to have sex with and have nothing to do with their gender.

Follow the science

Actually, there is Male, and Female - true - and, as I said, for over 98% of us, that question - AT BIRTH - is an easy one!

BUT there are also biological "mistakes" - about 1.7% of live births - where the male/female issue isn't so easy to discern.

I'm NOT talking about trans adults (and I thought I had made that clear) - I AM talking about inter-sex babies and children.

Google it - it's real. SCIENCE!

@geobear40 said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth
I agree with your points but when the corporation is a way for the government to control your speech there is a problem.

Corporate MSM being the propaganda arm of the Democratic party
Social media who is the enforcement arm of said propaganda.

The political parties are not the Government. Fox News, as an admitted partner of the Republican Party, is well within its rights to broadcast stories - even false ones, like Tucker's latest rantings on the 2020 Election (well, latest may not be accurate - I don't watch Fox News on cable, as I don't have cable-tv! But, when it aired isn't the point!)

Parler is perfectly within its rights to take down posts about Trump's taxes (leaked information), just as Facebook is perfectly within its rights to take down posts about Covid-19! In another thread, we're discussing FB being on trial - not for taking down a post, but for supposedly libeling the author! (NOTE: If the plaintiff wins here, the only thing FB will do is stop explaining WHY they removed a post - they won't stop removing them!)

To be clear: they have no obligation to explain why they take down these posts: its their platform, they can "edit" it in any way they like! If YOU don't like it, use another platform!

This really isn't that much different (except that the shoe is on the other foot) than looking at talk-radio in the 80's and 90's - which was (and remains so) completely dominated by conservatives.

Look, if you want to compare "in league with" cable news, do you REALLY think MSNBC holds a candle to FOX? Ratings? Production quality? No way... but how about a different statistic: percent of the time MSM references a story LED by either cable network... you ALMOST NEVER hear CBS reference an MSNBC story, but they often reference a FOX one! (Not daily, mind you, but not that rare, either!)

This is "democracy in action" and this is also our society trying to figure out what's acceptable and what is not about a new communications technology (namely, the Internet).

It's messy... but we'll figure it out!

But the Government taking it over is NOT the best answer (it seldom, if EVER, is), and limiting people's freedoms isn't either!

Look: there has NEVER BEEN - in the history of human-kind - a lower "barrier to entry" in the ability to reach masses of people. Facebook - as a website - isn't even 20 years old yet! Same for Twitter (which turned 15 this year)! Do you not remember "GeoCities"? or "MySpace"? SnapChat just celebrated 10 years in business, and it looks as-if its "time in the Internet sunshine" has passed... who can predict the future?

I will reiterate here: I don't agree with how FB is handling itself - but that's a different thing from believing that they should be treated (limited) as-if they were a Governmental Body.

@raphjd said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth

You believe that businesses have rights and people don't unless businesses (sometimes the government too) allow them to.

Thank you, once again @raphjd for that lucid and coherent explanation of what other people think... your clairvoyant abilities continue to astound us (or is that, confound us?)

What ever would I do in life, were it not for your clarifying my own thoughts for me!

Here's an idea: the next time you want to start a sentence with the words "you think" or "you believe" - think again! Erase that part and start over...

@raphjd said in UK Supreme Court rules on passport sex:

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that UK passports MUST include sex.

According to the ruling, there is no human right, under common law or statute, to NOT have your sex listed. This also includes there being no right to have one of the countless made up genders on your passport.

I don't know if the ruling also includes "other official documents" (see next paragraph), but from the articles and videos I have seen, seems to say that it will be due to the previous ruling on the topic.

This has nothing to do with transgenderism since they already ruled on that saying that trans people have the right to change their sex on their passports and other official documents. This was settled decades ago. I believe it was in the 1970s.

Just trying to clarify here, but according to this ruling:

• You can be listed as Male, Female, or maybe even something different (maybe T for trans? I don't know - that's not my point)
• BUT, you cannot leave the "sex" (which should be gender, but that's another topic entirely) BLANK

There is a very small section of society - specifically, the intersex community - that will object to this...

But essentially, they're saying you MUST CHOOSE when creating your passport - "none" is not an option!

Honestly, this is such an easy question for over 98% of us, but such a HARD one for that remaining nearly 2%... my question is: why do we (the 98%) fear and loath the 2%? Why can't we be more tolerant?

I mean we, as homosexuals, claim "it's not a choice! It's the way God made me, and I'm beautiful just the way He made me! Accept me for who I am and how I was created!" But, along comes an intersex person - who has an even MORE compelling argument for "God made me this way", and we (the Gay Community) are like: no, you have to be like one of us... choose: Gay or Straight!

Please, however, do not conflate intersex (who are born gender-ambiguous) with trans (who may or may not also be inter-sex at birth)...

Interestingly, Google states that the percentage of intersex people in the population is about the same as the percentage with red hair! Statistics!

@raphjd said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

The Government shouldn't be able to force everyone to get a vaccine, but your employer should have that right - even if your employer is the Government!

And you want us to believe that you don't believe that businesses have more "human rights" than people.

Dude, you've continuously suggested that businesses should be treated like governments - and when I say otherwise, you (as is your most common tactic) jump to this absurd statement that businesses have more rights than people... and this all ties back to your being butt-hurt because Facebook edited (or even censored - did your facebook get banned?) you, which you claim is a violation of your 1st Amendment Rights!

Again: NO - as has been discussed recently: the 1st Amendment has nothing to do with individuals, groups, businesses, or corporations limiting your speech... it SOLELY protects you from the Government limiting your speech... and Facebook IS NOT the Government!

Every time you say something about businesses, I just envision every dystopian movie/book/video game.

Yes, I agree - you are myopic when it comes to a business (like Facebook or Twitter) limiting your speech... but, as I've noted on here before:

• YOU are the Administrator here! Have you not EVER taken action against someone here because of something that they have posted?
• You represent the business of GT.ru, and when you take "editorial" action - whether in the Forum, or with regard to a torrent - you are doing so with the exact same rights as Facebook is when they alter or remove your posts (or Twitter, for that matter)!
• That you and Facebook and Twitter have different "trigger points" as to what you find objectionable on your platform is immaterial!

Just be honest, you believe that businesses should own us like chattel slavery. You're the modern-day Anthony Johnson.

Get hyperbolic much? I'm guessing this absurd jump is tied to my assertion that businesses DO have the right to require things like vaccinations or masks for their employees.

You CONTINUALLY suggest that YOUR FREEDOMS supersede the freedoms of others! But dude, it's a balance - and that's been a HUGE MAJORITY of what our COURTS have been asked to decide since the beginning!

• it is unreasonable for you to brandish a weapon (gun or otherwise) when my dog wanders into your yard to relieve itself?
• What if I led the don onto your property - knowing we (me and the dog) were unwanted?
• What if there were signs warning of dire consequences?
• What if...???
  And that's JUST the animal control courts!

But what makes US (Western Democracies) different is that we believe the Governments rule by consent of the governed... and we have put CONSTRAINTS on what the Government can and cannot do!

There are, of course, constraints on what PEOPLE (individuals, groups, businesses, etc) can do as well - but those are DIFFERENT! People have MORE RIGHTS than the Government!

If you don't like that, you can try living somewhere like N Korea - where the Government has no limits, and the leader is revered and considered infallible!

NOTE 1: Anthony Johnson was the black former indentured servant who refused to let one of his indentured servants go and the resulting court case gave the US (pre US actually) chattel slavery. At the time of the court case, Johnson had 4 white indentured servants and 1 black indentured servant. Casor became the first chattel slave in what was to become the US.

NOTE 2: John Punch was the 1st lifetime slave, as ordered by the court because he fled his IS master. His case is different because he illegally tried to break his IS contract. Also, in the court case, only he was a lifetime slave. Any spouse or offspring he may have had or later gotten would not be slaves, as well, as opposed to the Casor case. Punch's legal status was that of a lifetime IS, as opposed to Casor who was legal property. Punch retained some of his rights, Casor did not.

Thanks for the history lesson, but slavery pre-dates the discovery of America - by thousands of years (even the discovery by "native" tribes, much less by Whites) - and is mentioned (even "accepted") by the Jewish Torah, Christian Bible, and Islam's Koran... the idea that "slavery" is a "moral abomination" is relatively NEW in human history, and runs counter to religious dogma that was in place for millennia before...

NO! That is not a pro-slavery argument! That is a recognition that we HUMANS are constantly trying to improve ourselves... sometimes we make "progress", and sometimes not so much... but from that societal perspective, would we believe the same if the South had won the US Civil War and there was still a Confederacy?

@raphjd said in NYC Dem councilwoman is racist against latinos:

@bi4smooth

But, you voted for Biden and support every CCP/DNC policy.

You are NOT a Reagan Repub. You are the complete opposite.

The only Repubs you like are Pelosi's whores.

@raphjd the mind reader strikes again... oops, forgot a word in there...

@raphjd the mind reader strikes out again...

I actually campaigned for Reagan in 1980 and 1984! Someplace in my garage, I still have much of that campaign stiuff: buttons, stickers, a scarf, maybe a hat...

I supported Bush in 88, but didn't campaign for him - I was too busy working!

But of course, @raphjd knows that better than me! he's had me under surveillance since 1980!

Yeah! That's the ticket!

@raphjd said in UK liberal media reporting on health issues:

I don't know - "too much freedom" can be daunting. In the 1970's and 1980's there were a number of Soviet dissidents that made it to the US as political refugees.... they were unable to function in a simple grocery store. How do you choose between 50 different kinds of toilet paper, when you've only known ONE? Or breakfast cereals?

The point here isn't that freedom is bad - only that it can be overwhelming... and stressful!

I have seen this in some of my own children when they first move away from home. They thought they were prepared, but then they have to remember to pay the rent, the power, the water, the insurance, the garbage, the cable, the Internet, the credit cards... ALL THOSE BILLS! Then you also have to make your own Dr & dentist appointments, AND schedule the time off from work, AND convince your boss you're not "playing hookie" AND deal with / plan for the reduction of income because you're not working all of your regular shifts... and and and!

It's overwhelming at first... but you adjust (I refer to it as "Adulting 101")

But adding stress DOES often result in cardiac issues... but that doesn't mean all stress is bad!

Suicide rates SKYROCKET around the holidays... but that doesn't mean we cancel Christmas!

@geobear40 said in Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Mask Mandate For School Children Is Illegal:

@bi4smooth
Being straight or gay is not a "lifestyle" and if you think that you are still pretending to be something and not being yourself.

Your vocabulary is insufficient here... perhaps you're confusing "lifestyle" with "orientation" or "desire"??? I don't know - but:

A "lifestyle" is how you choose to live... and that means it's a way of BEHAVING. I am trying to live a more active lifestyle as part of my "healthy living" initiative... that means I choose to do more active things: like walking and riding my new bicycle!

When I have been in relationships (including a 15-year marriage to one) with women, I have chosen to only have sex with them! That's a monogamous, straight, lifestyle! Straight in that I only had sex with women, or more grammatically correct: a woman! THAT woman! It does NOT mean I lost my attraction to men - or other women, for that matter - only that I choose to not act on those desires while I'm in a relationship!

Likewise, when I have been (as I am currently) in a relationship with a man, I chose (and currently choose) to only have sex with him! That's a monogamous, gay, lifestyle! Gay in that I only had (have) sex with men (him)! It doesn't mean I have lost my attraction to women - or to other men, for that matter - only that I choose to not act on those desires while I'm in this relationship!

There have been other times in my life that I've chosen to be monogamous... as well as times I have chosen NOT to be... But never - since the age of 12, and I first came to terms with the fact that I was neither gay nor straight - have I deluded myself into thinking my attraction to other people could be controlled or changed. This is the way "my wiring" works, and I'm fine with it.

My sexual desires (fantasies) do not change when I'm in a relationship - only my chosen behavior does! If you behave the same in a relationship as you did before the relationship, then that's you - and you should be you. But I'm glad I AM NOT dating you!

Or, perhaps you are of the misguided belief that my ex-wife didn't know I was pan-sexual? Before we even dated, much less had sex, got married, had kids, adopted more kids, and later got divorced!

Or, perhaps you thought I somehow hid my NINE CHILDREN and their mother from my former fiance? Or even my current boyfriend?

Or, maybe you, as so many others - ESPECIALLY GAY MEN, in my personal experience - want to force my sexual orientation into one of your neat & tidy little labels.

Mind you - I'm not saying I can (or do) choose to be straight or gay... it's not a "binary" equation!

I AM pansexual: my physical attraction goes either way, and my emotional attraction to someone does not depend on their sexual equipment! I have no difficulty being satisfied - sexually and emotionally - by a woman (as evidenced by a 15-year faithful marriage to one!); nor do I have any difficulty doing the same with a man (as evidenced by the 5-year relationship with a man - one that ended in tragedy, not divorce).

But more importantly, I am describing ME, and ONLY ME!

I do not have the HUBRIS (or gall!) to tell others what THEY should do! While I may be perfectly fine spending 15 years with a woman, and forsaking all others - including (especially?) men - while I was in that marriage; that doesn't mean YOU would (or should) be!
I might be equally fine trading in a wife for a husband... but that doesn't mean YOU should (or could) be!
I might be fine living monogamously when I'm in a relationship! But, that doesn't mean YOU should (or have to) be!

Maybe that is why you think of the government as your parent telling you how you should live your life.

You've got the wrong straw-man, my friend... I am no friend of big-government! As I've stated in another thread, I'm just as much against the NY Governor mandating masks in her State as I am against the FL Governor prohibiting mask requirements in his State! The pandemic's effects are not evenly distributed - and the best place to make decisions like that is in the LOCAL governments!

If NYC (or Jackonville, FL) is having a COVID-19 outbreak, they should be allowed to enact a local mask mandate, and to lift it when the danger passes. But the folks in Lake Placid (or Lake Panasoffkee) shouldn't have to mask up because there is an outbreak hundreds of miles away!

Now, if your stance is that we shouldn't have any kind of public-health response to COVID-19 - just let people do what they want to do - well, that's just anarchy... and I'm not an anarchist. We DO need SOME rules, otherwise society breaks down.

Again, my personally: I'd rather local mask mandates on an as-needed basis than a national (or state) wide vaccine mandate! But the vaccine question takes us back to the "your private employer is not the same as the government" argument.

The Government shouldn't be able to force everyone to get a vaccine, but your employer should have that right - even if your employer is the Government!

Want simpler answers? Go back to 2nd Grade! This is real-world stuff... this shit gets complicated FAST!