I want to chime in on this discussion - from the perspective of a middle-aged white man who grew up in the US South: my kindergarten class was the FIRST in the State of Florida to be fully integrated (in the 1960s). I attended a good Southern college (where there were very few black students, in spite of being in a city that was majority black). I worked for tech companies with few, if any black tech employees. I considered myself well educated, open-minded, and definitely NOT a racist... but I also didn't think MY upbringing had been particularly benefited by any racial bias... the other kids in my kindergarten class had all the same opportunities I did, right? I was in my late 40's before my eyes were opened. I fell in love with a black man: David. David was attending a party I was invited to... we were introduced briefly, but didn't otherwise talk. I had my eye on another guy - white, successful, around my age.... unlike David: he was "in my league"... I got a call a couple of days after the party - the guy said he was David, we met at the party, and he wanted to have dinner. I thought it was "my guy"... not the tall, lanky, BEAUTIFUL black guy who I thought was COMPLETELY out of my league... Thinking I was meeting the other guy, we made plans, I dressed well, and hoped for the best. David walked in and I thought it was a joke or a mistake. He was gorgeous, and sexy as hell... not the kind of guy interested in a 49 y/o dad. I couldn't have been more wrong! David LOVED the fact that I had adopted so many kids and was raising them myself. David LOVED the fact that I worked from home so I could be there for my kids. David LOVED the story I had related about my standing up for one of my kids at his middle school and essentially costing the Vice Principal her job because of how she treated my autistic son.... and I loved David's dry sense of humor, his ability to find the good in almost everything, and his boundless energy and playfulness. He challenged my intellectually - but more importantly for me - he challenged me emotionally. He could read me like a book - a CHILDREN'S book! LOL Skip ahead a year and a half - David was living with me and my kids, but we hadn't really described our relationship to the kids yet... he slept in my room, but the kids only ever saw him asleep on the chaise lounge sofa at the foot of my bed... we were being discrete But it was also Valentines Day... one of my 12 y/o daughters came home from school and was giddy with joy: it was her first valentines day with a real boyfriend! David nonchalantly told her HE was happy to have a boyfriend this year, too! My daughter asked him "really? who?" and he calmly said "Your Dad, silly!"... My daughter was dumbstruck (I have it on video - we have security cameras throughout all of the public areas of the house!)... then she hugged him and said "that means you are kinda like my dad, too!" (that really touched David... those two had a special bond up until David's untimely death in 2017). So it all sounds idyllic... except that, with David by my side we routinely were presented with odd obstacles... Case in point: it was December, 2016 and both David and my birthdays (two Sagittarians! it was HOT!)... we planned to have dinner at a nice restaurant downtown. We both dressed well. I drove, and dropped David off in front of the restaurant while I parked. We had a reservation, but this was a popular place. I walked to the front door, and David was out front - clearly unhappy. It seems they didn't have the reservation after all! I went inside and gave the maitre'd my name and he immediately said my table was ready! David had given him my name too, but when that name belonged to a black man, it didn't exist. When it belonged to a white man, there was nothing wrong with it. The maitre'd went pale when I went out and came back in with David - and after a frank discussion with he and the manager, we chose NOT to eat there after all... but that was just ONE example of many where things were VERY DIFFERENT when comparing how I was treated alone, and when I was in the company of a black man. Most horribly, in September, 2017 David had chest pains and had difficulty breathing... so we went to the ER. He was seen, they took x-rays, they gave him some pain relievers and sent him home. 24-hours later, he was REALLY having trouble breathing, and the chest pains were becoming debilitating... so we went back to the ER. They took another set of x-rays and they said he had "mild pneumonia" - they gave him MORE pain relievers and antibiotics, and sent him home yet again... this time with instructions not to come back for at least 48-hours. 24 hours later, David was unable to walk and still couldn't breathe... we went back to the ER a 3rd time (in just 3 days!) and THIS time, they finally admitted him. The MOMENT we showed up in the ward upstairs, the floor nurse ordered a MRSA test. Sure enough, David had had a MRSA infection all this time (Google it - you don't want one!), and now it had become septic (in his blood) and his lungs were quickly filling with fluid. 24 hours later, David was intubated and sedated. He never regained full consciousness, although it DID take him a little more than 30 days to die. As painful as all of that was (I spent every night at his side), the real crushing blow came when that same hospital was investigated for the pattern of turning away black patients when white ones were admitted with the same symptoms. (Lots more detail there, but you won't be interested in that... I'm already too wordy when I write! LOL) I have no proof, just a pattern. And since we weren't yet married and David was over 25, according to attorneys that his family and I spoke to, we had no standing to sue anyways. But in my heart, I believe firmly that, even though the ER physicians may not have KNOWINGLY done so, their racial bias cost David his life, me the love of my life, and my kids an adoring father-like figure who meant the world to them.

@raphjd It's too much work to read, or use common sense. This is today's culture. It's like we're back in medieval times. All someone has to do is accuse you of being a witch, and you'll find yourself burning to a stake buy an "unholy church."

@raphjd said in "Healthy at any size" vs C-19: @bi4smooth Online dating showed that women choose 20% of men, while men choose 80% of women. Unsurprising for the US (almost all of Western?) Culture: man are taught by our society to be the "aggressor" in relationships - men look for mates... women are taught by our society to be "passive" - women look to be woo'ed by potential mates... This is also why gay MEN usually are so much more promiscuous than gay WOMEN! They are both the woo-er and the woo-ee on the dating sites, so even when they start a relationship, they are continually "found" by other men still looking... The wolf/sheep metaphor works... when wolves (men) are seeking their "prey" (women/sheep) and that prey looks to generally avoid being eaten, there is balance... there is a chasER and a chasEE but when wolves (men) are seeking other wolves (other men also "on the prowl") there is a much MUCH higher likelihood that they'll find what they're looking for! So, if you're a woman on a dating app, you generally don't HAVE to reach out to males... you just sit back and wait for them to reach out to YOU and have your pick from amongst them! (MUCH MUCH less rejection that way! - at least for the woman!) Is it fair? Hell no, but LIFE ISN'T FAIR, and it NEVER WILL BE! You cannot "fix" society to make it "fair for everyone" - that is a LIBERAL FANTASY! That doesn't mean you can't work to make things fairER... but "completely fair" is a fantasy! Unobtainable, and totally different depending upon the eye of the beholder!

@bi4smooth You really do have a serious case of TDS. Biden lies about absolutely everything, while Trump is a showboat liar like Muhammad Ali was.

@anythingold said in Illinois Dems want to ban all violent video games: @raphjd They've been after video games for a while. How about tryin' to ban gangs too? Let's see how that will turnout shall we? Believe in science: Studies show that the incidence of ACTUAL violence are statistically no different between players of "violent" video games and others.... This is the political party that loves to scream: "trust the science" when it suites their "Green New Deal" agenda, but then throw it away when it doesn't match their agenda... How can you tell a politician is deceiving you? Their lips are moving!

@tj16 Unfortunately, gays are not immune to the toxic paradigm sold by people like Rush Limbaugh. Basically, you take anything in the world that's happening, reduce it to a gross oversimplification couched in emotive terms, and let the audience's outrage convince them of the rightness of your argument. Once you've got them agreeing or buying in on some portion of what you're selling, their innate cognitive dissonance will keep them doing the bulk of the work glossing over or ignoring the patent holes in your worldview. It's how conservative radio, QAnon, and even some groups on the Left work and perpetuate themselves.

@bi4smooth I've been dealing with a similar situation regarding the guy I used to employ as a building manager. I own a residential building and if my tenants have any problems they should be able to report it to the building manager who will either take care of it himself or call a professional to fix the problem. The man I had to let go had been making many of my tenants nervous. He's a good guy, he never let us down, until he fell into the qanon rabbit hole. We thought setting up a Facebook group for people in the building to communicate with each other would be a good idea and help bridge the age-gap. When I was a kid, the place was full of old people. Now, most of the residents are millennials, a handful of seniors and only two boomers. It never really served its purpose, it was kind of a ghost town. Until our building manager started sharing memes, posting conspiracy theories and when the word spread around the apartments that the guy who they counted on to let someone into their place if they had locked themselves out, the guy responsible for making sure that our elevators are operating safely, the man with access to the fuse box had not only lost his credibility, but when people replied to his posts incredulously, his responses were spiteful, condescending and downright angry. After that we had people who were afraid of him, I called to dismiss him after I was given a heads up (some creeps found my contact info and had sent me some crap in the past, but I assumed it was parody and he was just being a joker until I saw his activity on the facebook group. It really blew my mind) he immediately explained that he thought "something was up" with the new couple who had moved in together. He claimed they were members of the dark state, said they had evil powers and he suspected they were performing satanic rituals, He wasn't trying to make up an excuse, he believed this wholeheartedly and his descent into misinformation cost him his grasp on reality and a living wage. I don't care what people believe. Delusion can be a wonderful thing, but he brought it to the workplace, he made the residents feel uncomfortable and quite frankly, if I ignored what had happened, I'm certain it would've had a negative effect on my bottom line. His replacement is just as good, he's not as expensive and lives in the city (the other guy was living in Staten Island).

@anythingold said in Historic LGBTQ rights bill passes — after exposing GOP divisions: But, we need to see the bigger picture here. We need to keep an eye on automation. These companies aren't hiring human beings anymore. With every emailed question, is followed by a random script. With every phone call, there's hours of button selection, to then listen to a 10 minute recording. This is why we have no fucking business letting massive immigrants in to this country. I'm really concerned about the level of devastation this is going to have in our country. The whole of United states could end up looking like Detroit. This is not new - the Information Age is changing us (our society) in many of the same ways the Industrial Revolution did... The industrial revolution created machines that could harvest entire fields in a matter of hours, not days.... and it only took 1 man! Where would all the displaced farm workers go? The Information Age is replacing a lot of "menial task" jobs (some fast-food places are experimenting with AI-driven order takers... and if you've looked inside a McDonalds or Burger King lately, there isn't a huge grill anymore... those "cooks" have been largely replaced by automation already)... you mention call centers, but computer "front-ends" are being used more and more for handling all kinds of customer-service jobs. Where will all of those displaced workers go? I don't know, but I do know that our economy consistently expands and creates new kinds of jobs - for new skills, as well as unskilled labor. Love them or hate them, but our Economic Boom under Presidents Obama and Trump was unprecedented... until COVID, we were breaking all the rules: continuous expansion, continuous declines in unemployment across nearly all groups... we'd never EVER done that before, at least not for more than just a few years, and it'd always "burned itself out"... You may be fearful of immigrants taking jobs, but I look at it differently.... once COVID is finally managed, and the economy once again starts to expand, we're going to be limited in our growth by the available workforce... and when that happens, there will be wage - and therefore overall - inflation. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, is not a good time for migration - but, once the economy starts up again, we're going to need people! Doing what? I don't know - but that's the beauty (and genius) of Capitalism: we don't have to plan it! We just let it "grow organically"! The system works! It's taken us hundreds of years to learn how to manage it properly (to avoid the lurches forward and backward), and we FIRST had to learn that it had to be managed at all! PLUS, we most certainly have more to learn about it! But, we know how to do this! Post-COVID, we'll do it again! A rising tide lifts all boats!

@raphjd said in ACLU does something right, for once: @bi4smooth I thought you said you were a conservative-libertarian. IF we went with national service, I do agree that no one gets an out for any reason, except for extreme mental/physical disability. Mandatory public service is considered a conservative idea in many other countries... but it most certainly does not jive with pure libertarian idealism! Still, 27 countries have mandatory MILITARY service: here But I am not a slave to any political ideology: Social Security and Medicare are socialist programs - but I'm not fighting to abolish them! In other words, Conservative Libertarian describes my beliefs, but it does not define them! In the GENERAL CASE, I think the Government should be small and keep out of people's personal lives... But, in practice, there must be exceptions: we need laws against fraud, for example...

@bi4smooth When we would visit our cousins, we sometimes had to play with girl dolls because that's what they had or when they came to our house they had to play with male dolls (action figures) because that's what we had. My step sister was 12 when she came to live with us and both of my half-sisters were born while I was in the military. So they got our hand-me-down toys, plus new ones for themselves.

@raphjd said in Harry Shearer fired as Dr Hibert: @bi4smooth It is hypocrisy when they say that whites can't play any other race, but that other races can play whites. I'll give you that.... (Hey! We agree on something!) But, it's important to note here that no one lost their jobs: Harry Shearer (the prior voice of Dr. Hibert) will still be the voice of Principal Skinner, Mr. Burns & Smithers, and several others... just not Dr Hibert. And, no one new was hired: Kevin Michael Richardson is already the voice of several characters (including Maggie LOL). The character was simply re-cast That said, Harry Shearer has regularly threatened to leave the series over salaries... they make $300,000 PER EPISODE! (No one is paid per-character, so no one's pay is being changed, either!) So this is either extremism looking for something to be outraged about, or rich people fighting over who voices a bit-part... (Did you see that dog pee on that mailbox over there! That's disrespectful to the men and women of the USPS! -- Oh wait, maybe its just a dog being a dog...) In more striking and unsettling news: Did you know that Blue's Clues replaced the mail with email? "We just got a letter" is now "we just got an email" AAAACCCCKKKK!!! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?? Is NOTHING SACRED! What about the voice actor who played Mailbox?

@raphjd Thank you so much for adding this block feature. I could just imagine the fuckery he is typing.... I don't have the patience for liberals anymore. Everything down to the new anti-discrimination bill is all for show. They don't give a fuck about anyone. They only care about the sound of their own voices.

@raphjd said in Trump-a-holic My-Pillow founder sued for $1.3-billion: @bi4smooth Keep making excuses for Biden's 5 decades of lying about the truck driver. It is amazing the mental gymnastics you liberals will resort to, to defend Biden. Just admit it, you have lied the whole time that you are a conservative. You're just some blue-haired, man-hating lesbian Antifa member. And this relates to Mike Lindell how? Swing and a miss! Strike!

@raphjd said in Coca-Cola told its employees - "be less white": Coca-Cola made its employees take an online course that told them to be "less white". They provided a list of white traits, that if said about any other race would be deemed as racist; ie oppressive arrogant certain defensive ignorant not humble non-listening non-believing apathetic There were more, but you get the idea. Leave it to an Atlanta-based company to fuck-up a class on race by fully demonstrating a lack of understanding about the problems we have about race in this country! You know what was wrong with living in Atlanta 40 years ago? (I attended Ga Tech in Atlanta) Once you left the Perimeter (I-485), you were in GEORGIA!

@bi4smooth I'm not seeing any of the 4 is under investigation, that you mentioned, other than Cuomo. VA and IL are under investigation for campaign finance and taxes, respectively. There are a few others as well.

@anythingold [image: 1614084122716-eus5f9kxeaez3n7.jpeg]

@raphjd said in Biden's plan for unity, picks vile Neera Tanden: @bi4smooth Thanks for proving Godwin's Law. LOL extreme examples to describe extreme people