Sidewalker

Pope Leo XIV added “Let those who have weapons lay them down!”


“Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Leo said. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them! We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people.”


“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world.”


President Donald Trump, in a social media post added:


"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran," and adding, "Open the F***in' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!"


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked God to give U.S. troops attacking Iran “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”




Sidewalker
While 'marine' is semantically associated with the sea, the marines' role are not on the sea but on the ground. They use the sea, or even the air, as a path to reach their objective. So, the marines sent to Iran are for taking over a territory (or an Island as it seems to be in this case).


OK, in practice, and especially in the middle east right now, I'll give you that.


This explanation is also for @fauxlaw.


Good luck with that. I'm pretty sure you'd have a better chance of explaining chess to your cat, than explaining anything to Fauxlaw.


If they actually take the Island, this thing will escalate to biblical proportions.


If you want to predict it, watch for Trump to have Dr. Oz diagnose bone spurs in Barron Trump, when that happens, you will know it's gonna blow up big time.

Sidewalker
You are why Trump says he “loves the poorly educated”, you just don’t know what you are talking about, and that is why the Republicans have invented this campaign issue for gullible people like you who readily believe lies and conspiracy theories because it's easier than trying to comprehend the real issues. The article you searched out is from 2022, gender reassignment surgery and other gender-affirming medical care (such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy) have been illegal for minors in Florida since they passed Senate Bill 254 in 2023. Even with a Google search to justify your bigotry, you came up with nothing. Try again.


Nice moving of the goalposts. Yes, it's illegal.


I'm not moving the goal post, I said it's illegal and it's illegal, I never said it wasn't happening three years ago, I said it isn't happening now. You moved the goalpost back to three years ago because that's the best your Google Scholarship could do. But hey, no facts, no problem for MAGA minions, who needs facts when you have lies and conspiracy theories.


So is murder. So is theft. So is fraud. They all still happen. And politicians successfully campaign all the time on stopping them from happening. Because, surprise, making things illegal does not make them stop happening. Resources have to be allocated to enforcement. Knowing how often illegal things happen, to whom, and where is also a logistical challenge for governments.


LOL, I see, so when these Republicans campaign by saying they will stop it if elected, if they aren’t talking about the law, how are they personally going to stop it, will they wear a cape when they fly around stopping it?


If you had read the article I posted, instead of going down your beep-boop decision tree of 'Trump Bad' talking points, you might have noticed this line:


I read the article you posted, it’s about top surgery which is breast reduction or removal, it’s a stretch to call that gender reassignment if that's all she was doing. But if that’s all you could find to justify your hatred, then that’s all you need, congratulations, your bigotry is officially justified.


'A recent article in The New York Times indicated Dr. Gallagher provides "top surgeries," or a procedure in which a child's breasts are removed, to multiple trans youth around the age of 15 every month, despite it being a clear violation of state health department guidelines where she practices.'


Yes, back in 2022, before it was a felony, she was violating state “health department guidelines”, you know, before it was outlawed in 2023, back in 2022, she was not following "guidelines". Back then she was risking fines, and perhaps sanctions to her license, but that is nothing resembling proof that it is still occurring. Rather than proclaim that to be a timeless truth, you should be able to Google search to find a record of her trial and imprisonment for breaking the law. Did you check with Alex Jones or David Icke, I’m sure they can give you what you need.


While all such care for minors was outlawed in 2023, even in 2022 performing such surgeries on children that young was not permitted by the state health department and yet it was still happening. And it likely was not showing up in officially reported statistics, as when you repeatedly break state health guidelines you tend to find a way to not report that.


Ah yes, it’s the good old vast conspiracy again, and funded by George Soros of course, if we can fake a moon landing, fake a spherical Earth, the shapeshifting, middle Earth dwelling Democrats can certainly hide all those gender changes in toddlers, easy peasy.


Hence why the article is a perfect counter to your dumb claim that this 'isn't an issue' simply because a law was passed and the official numbers show that everything is fine. Murder has been outlawed since Hammurabi, and it's still an issue.


LOL, that desperate huh, no matter how much you count on your Google scholarship, you still couldn’t find any evidence contradicting my OP. you know, today, here in the real world. I get it, your mind is made up and you don’t want to be bothered with the facts, that’s a good little MAGA minion.


Codifying Roe v. Wade. As in making it law. Are you really so fantastically illiterate when it comes to political history and general current events that you don't know that this has been an important policy debate for years now? Roe was always seen as legally unstable and vulnerable to being overturned (RBG famously said of it that "doctrinal limbs too swiftly shaped, experience teaches, may prove unstable"), so abortion rights activists have sought to have it pushed through Congress and passed officially into law multiple times. The WHPA was first introduced in 2013. These attempts have always conveniently failed, often by very slim margins. This is a persistent pattern with Democratic promises, leading activists on the left to cynically wonder the status quo is being kept in place by both sides of the political aisle to avoid confronting the growing contradictions between the influence of K-street and the policies which the public want implemented. Whether politicians intentionally tread water on policy to avoid having to choose between their financial sponsors and their constituents, always finding a convenient scapegoat to explain why they were 'just one vote short!' every time.


I’m fully aware that Roe v Wade resulted in a legal quagmire for the next 50 years, it was driven by sheeple that buy the outrage your millionaire handlers are selling. And as you know, even though Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, the Boogieman is still eating babies, BOO!


Keep arguing with this imaginary yokel friend that you've dreamed up.


You are the only yokel I'm arguing with, and it's against Mark Twain's warning too:


"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience," i- Mark Twain.

.

I'm sure debating is much easier when every argument is with the same strawman that lives in your head - less stress, less strain to just endlessly regurgitate the same canned lines every time.


Just so you know, I’m a 33rd degree Mason, which as you well know, means I can have our mind control ray guns aimed at you any time I want, and you can’t wear your tin foil hat forever, so be careful what you say. I assure you, you don’t want us to turn you into a drag queen, and even worse, you don’t want to be zapped by our Jewish Space Lasers either. BOO!


Bwahahahaha.



Sidewalker
The claim that it doesn't happen is flat-out untrue. One Florida surgeon brags about performing double mastectomies on girls as young as 13, claiming to do an average of one surgery on a 15-year-old a month. And who knows how many are quietly doing it if you can openly brag about it in a Republican state?

https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/miami-surgeon-performs-top-surgery-for-15-year-old-transgender-kids-report-says


You are why Trump says he “loves the poorly educated”, you just don’t know what you are talking about, and that is why the Republicans have invented this campaign issue for gullible people like you who readily believe lies and conspiracy theories because it's easier than trying to comprehend the real issues. The article you searched out is from 2022, gender reassignment surgery and other gender-affirming medical care (such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy) have been illegal for minors in Florida since they passed Senate Bill 254 in 2023. Even with a Google search to justify your bigotry, you came up with nothing. Try again.


In the end its a two way street. The Republicans use these wedge topics because they are 80/20 topics that the Democrats are ideologically captured on and are stuck taking the 20% stance.


No. Republicans use this wedge topic because they have a base that loves to see them paint the “others” of their “us/them” thinking whether the accusations are true or not.


The Democrats could take both these issues off the table tomorrow by passing national legislation that would throw such surgeons in jail and formalizing nationwide bans on transgender athletes in sports. They could even extract concessions to do so. They won't, because they are captured by an ideologically rabid segment of their base.


My OP was factual, it’s a made up issue, and Republicans are the Majority in the House and Senate, so it’s the Republicans who could take the issue off the table tomorrow, they don’t because they are the ones who invented it so they can make gullible people like you blame the Democrats for it, It’s like the “War on Christmas”, just a made up issue to paint Democrats with. The Republican party counts on the “poorly educated” to fall for these distractions because, as Trump said, “smart people” don’t like him, so they rely on the dumb people. I think MAGA actually means “Morons Are Governing America”.


Conversely, Republicans have little incentive to actually fix the issue, as it's an effective way to posture and drum up support that doesn't aggravate their donors by hitting their bottom line like actual reform would.


Yes, that’s exactly what is, “an effective way to posture and drum up support”, it’s also a distraction from the real issues because they have jacked up almost all of the real issues, that’s why they make these things up. The Republican party is the party of anger, they aren’t providing solutions to real problems, they and their Fox News propaganda machine are selling outrage to naïve fools who are way too easy to upset with lies. The Boogieman is eating the cats and dogs, BOO! The Boogieman has declared war on Christmas, BOO! The Boogieman is changing children’s genders, BOO! It’s almost too easy.


There is big money in selling outrage to the suckers, and your handlers, people like Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and all the other grifters getting rich of your outrage are laughing at you all the way to the bank. Your handlers are making millions and millions fleecing the patsies, damn, I wish I had the moral bankruptcy to fleece you guys, it is so easy, and so profitable, but unfortunately, I have a fucking conscience damn it.


In this way its like a mirror image of abortion, where the Republicans are captured by an out-of-step portion of their base and too extreme on the issue and the Democrats milked the issue politically for years without actually doing anything to address it, despite ample opportunities to codify Roe v. Wade.


WTF are you talking about? Roe v Wade stood for 50 years, it protected a woman’s 14th Amendment's right to privacy, giving a pregnant person the liberty to choose to terminate a pregnancy, the Democrats didn’t have anything to “milk”. It’s the Republicans who milked it by making it a source of outrage for their suckers for those 50 years. The Boogieman kills babies, BOO!


Why solve an issue when you can fundraise and campaign on it?


Because it's better to invent an issue "you can fundraise and campaign on"


I'm from Georgia, the home of Marjorie Taylor Green, do you know what statement resulted in the biggest fundraiser for her was? It was her claim that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish Space Lasers, when you clowns heard that, you took out the checkbook LOL.


You guys just make it too fucking easy to be sleazy, damn that conscience.


Sidewalker
You don't need marines to protect the Strait. Marines are meant to fight on the ground, not on the sea.


Egads man, go look up the definition of the word marine, it is "of, found in, or produced by the sea." The US Marines primarily function as an amphibious force-in-readiness, providing a rapid-response combat force for maritime and expeditionary warfare. OORAH!


It's those punk ass Army guys that are "meant to fight on the ground, not on the sea."

Sidewalker
Transwomen commit more rape per capita than cis men.


Nonsense, this is just a figment of your warped, creepy imagination. Transwomen are 400% more likely to be the victim of rape, they are no more likely to commit rape.


THIS is why the 19th amendment might get repealed; because women shown how much they lack foresight they are for choosing the bear.


LOL, the only place where the 19th amendment might get repealed is in your twisted creepy little mind.


You epitomize the creepiness that makes women choose the bear.


Sidewalker
Yah, not a word you typed justified the blind acceptance of the 20 percent side on most 20-80 issues.


I understand that this "20-80 issues" thing is part of the MAGA indoctrination, but other than just proclaiming it, can you list some of the major issues that it applies to?





Sidewalker
Its funny to think about. No matter what trump does, his core base will say hes exactly right. He could have done the exact opposite thing to what they think hes exactly right about, and either way, they'll think he's exactly right. I dont think his core base has enough awareness to know they do that.


It's a personality cult, it is not formed around issues, it is formed around a personality. Truth isn't about correspondence with reality, it is about their cult leader, Trump is what's right and true to them, and Trump brags about it. In the early days Trump said he could shoot someone on 8th avenue and he wouldn't lose a single vote, I thought that was one of the most preposterous things I ever heard a candidate say, it's insulting and demeaning to his base to brag that they don't care what he does morally or legally, he simply owns them. But that been proven to be one of the only true statements he made as a candidate, and time has proven him right, they really can't think for themselves, he really can do anything he wants, and he won't lose their vote,


I find it amazing that he can brag about his base in such an insulting manner, not just the 8th avenue thing, but common statements he regularly makes like “I love the poorly educated” and “Smart people don’t like me". He constantly brags that his base is morally bankrupt, "poorly educated", and "not smart" and they don’t care.


The Trump cult just can’t separate fact from fiction, and it looks like they never will. To the cult, knowledge isn’t in my head or in your head, it’s in Trumps head and we are blessed that he shares it with us. Apparently, being part of the Trump cult’s community of knowledge makes them feel as if they understand things they don’t, and the understanding that Trump has, or claims to have, makes them feel smarter.


He can do, or say anything, and they will mindlessly follow him, it's not so much that he is simply believed, it's that he is worshipped.



Sidewalker

The other related issue is trans men playing women’s sports, which Americans are overwhelmingly against, but that seems like a no brainer to fix, mandate that anyone getting gender reassignment surgery and wants to play sports, must play in the gender they were biologically assigned. 


That’s an easy fix that almost nobody would oppose, there is clearly no "right" to play women's sports for trans men, just make that illegal, and there is no problem.

Sidewalker

I live in Georgia where there is a bitter campaign for governor happening, the negative campaign commercials among Republicans running in the primary are common and intense. If you go by the commercials, there is only one issue at stake, Gender Reassignment Surgery for Minors. The three primary republicans running for Governor are all primarily promising they will put a stop to reassignment surgery for minors, as if there are no other issues upon which we can vote for Governor, they all say they will make it illegal when they become governor.


Fact is, gender reassignment surgery for minors has been illegal since 2023 in Georgia despite the profusion of ads from the front three republican candidates claiming they will make it illegal. Two focus their shock ads on putting a stop to gender reassignment surgery for preteens, something that has never happened in Georgia and nationally. It just doesn't happen.


This campaign issue is simply “made up”, it is not an issue anywhere, nationally, the number of preteen gender reassignment surgeries is zero as it is for under the age of 15, and for 16-17-year-olds, the rate of occurrence is 2 per 100,000 transgender people. That’s almost nothing, and almost all of those are corrective surgeries, not elective surgeries.


How is it that people have been fooled into being outraged about something that doesn’t happen, and Republican Candidates present it as the most important issue in politics. Is it just that they have nothing else? Is it that in issues that matter, the Republican positions are overwhelmingly opposed by the American People?


Can anyone explain why this non-issue is supposed to be such a major political issue?


Are these just imagined issues used to justify hatred and hostility towards transgender people?


If you do have this irrational hatred of transgender people, can you share why?


Sidewalker

Savant,


Do you actually have any kids? I raised three, and they were self-destructive all the way through their teen years, when you are doing it it seems like a parent's primary role in caring for a child is to check their excesses and protect them from the bad choices they make, especially when they are teenagers. It's a full-time job too, no way the government could handle it.


PS I speak as one who knows too, I happen to be the world's greatest Dad, and I have a coffee mug to prove it.



Sidewalker
I think shifting the responsibility for children's well-being from parents to the government is a terrible idea.
The government is already controlling what kids do and don't do, but it's doing so via parents. And the parents are the ones voting for the government as well. At the end of the day, adults are controlling what kids do, I'm just saying they should control slightly less.


Do you really think the government can do a better job than parents?


Our government has already encroached on our personal lives way too much
I don't think the government should tell kids what to do, I just don't think the government should legally restrict kids from practicing a particular religion because it conflicts with their parents' beliefs. Maybe this will be unpopular, maybe it will require an amendment, but I think it's preferable to the current system, even if it's unlikely.


Oh pulease, the government does not "legally restrict kids from practicing a particular religion because it conflicts with their parents' beliefs". Sure, there are parents that restrict kids about religion, but there are also parents that encourage their kids to think for themselves. What is certain is that increased dependency on government systems and a reduction in parental accountability will result in a less responsible population and an erosion of our civil liberties.

the government's appetite for totalitarian control
If the government gives kids the right to do [x], that's reducing the total amount of totalitarian control. Totalitarianism can come from parents—I mean, you don't trust the government, and it's the parents voting for that government, no? Abusive parents exist, just because the control isn't directly coming from the government doesn't mean it can't be totalitarian.


Parental authority is not inherently totalitarian, it can become "authoritarian", but totalitarian really only applies to government. Again, there are certainly bad parents out there, but in general, parents are going to be better than government at raising responsible, well-adjusted kids in a safe and supportive manner. You can never detach authority from responsibility, parents are ultimately responsible for the welfare and upbringing of their children, anyone who would abdicate that responsibility to government control is a bad parent.


In the end, I think we need to minimize government intervention to avoid dependency, enhance personal responsibility and limit bureaucratic influence.

Sidewalker

I think shifting the responsibility for children's well-being from parents to the government is a terrible idea. No parent will support such a move, even if it's by baby steps. Sure, there are some bad parents out there, and we need laws to protect children, but beyond that, the government needs to stay out of our private lives. In general, government has no business taking any degree of control from parents, there are only a few things government is good at, and parenting isn't one of them.


The first amendment forbids government to get involved in the religious issues you mentioned, and on everything else, the fourth amendment protects our privacy against unwarranted government intrusion, no way should we allow government to get involved in how we choose to raise our children. If they don't have enough evidence that a crime is being committed to get a warrant, then what we do in our home or family, is none of their damn business.


Setting boundaries that limit government involvement in our personal lives is critically important if we want to protect individual liberty, foster personal responsibility, and promote economic prosperity. Our government has already encroached on our personal lives way too much, our country was founded on the principle that legitimate government exists only by the consent of the governed, with the Constitution establishing specific boundaries to prevent abuse, which seem to be weakened every week under the current regime.


Especially now, when the government's appetite for totalitarian control is so exposed, we need insist that the primary role of government is to secure rights, not to manage society.






.



Sidewalker
Well, on the happy side of the question, I like to reminisce about past moment sometimes.
There are funny, beautiful, interesting moments in life.
Sometimes useful moments.


There are also embarrassing, intimate, and private moments in life, minimally you'd want the ability to turn it off when you want..


I'd settle for an unobtrusive bodycam, or camera/mike on some glasses.. . .


Even unobtrusive and automatic, it seems like you still have the POV problem. I'm retired now but in my career, I was considered a great public speaker, motivational and all that, people would tell me I seemed very comfortable on stage, some would tell me I could be a motivational speaker or TV Evangelist if I wanted. But...when there were cameras, I would fold like a lawn chair, just knowing there's a recording completely discombobulated me.I think it was my POV went from focusing on the audience and content, to the audience is focusing on me now, it really threw me off.


On a less happy side of things,
I sometimes worry how many abusive moments or people there might be in life.
And whether living without any privacy, in a type of human hivemind, might be better for people.


Yeah, it would be great to deter crime too, but that raises the privacy issue, which is the biggest concern, I don't trust the government to respect my privacy, and if you can turn it off, then criminals would just do that.


Also people with mental illness of drug use,
'Recording of events maybe would help convince 'some of them to degrees.


Good point, one of my roommates in college would have absolutely no memory of when he was drunk, if he wasn't with us we would start calling around to find out where his car was, what he did, etc. He could have used it. But it does seem that the times it would be most important are the times when people would be most likely to turn it off.


Maybe not, so much of our life is recorded now, maybe privacy is just a thing of the past.


Sidewalker
I often think people ought video and audio record their entire lives.
The human brain memories seem too fragile, subject to invention and distortion.
Flaw of course, is that digital and electronic recordings can 'also be edited. . . Hm, to a 'degree, possibly ways around that and safeguards to mitigate tampering.


I don't know what the benefit of that would be, but I think the cost is huge.


There is a big difference between being fully engaged, living in the moment, so to speak, and recording the moment. When I see people doing taking selfies in front of a beautiful sunset, I think it is a shame that they aren't enjoying the sunset, rather than focused on telling others that they saw the sunset. The POV is all wrong, when you are recording, you pretty much have to assume an "external" point of view at the expense of the internal experience, which in the end, is where reality takes place for us. If you are recording everything, there is no time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.





Sidewalker
For sure, we are what we are and are what we have become...There's no denying that.

Though in the end we will be freed from this madness. - Sergeant Lynch.

So recreational sex is the pinnacle of human endeavour for you?


I certainly didn’t say that, that is a false dichotomy. You said, “the point of sex is procreation” and “recreational sex is essentially pointlessly going through the motions”, and I responded half-jokingly that “as far as pointless activities go, it's the best one.” That is a far cry from claiming recreational sex is the pinnacle of human endeavour”. I really am challenging both premises, that procreation is “the” point of sex, it is “a” point, but not “the point”, there is much more to sex than just procreation.


In reducing sexual activity to a single dimension as if its only goal is to produce babies, you are eliminating love from the equation, reduced relationships to a simple means of reproduction, and reduced women to baby making machines. I will contend that sex is much more than a means to the end result of childbirth”.


Sex is a sensual act of emotion and connection; it is the fulfillment of the ultimate act of intimacy between two people, and not simply a baby making process. It is an expression of love, an act of attachment and bonding, an intimate sharing of love in physical union.


And in the end, it is LOVE that is “the pinnacle of human endeavour”.


Though I'm not sure that recreational sex is the greater purpose of the organic computer and materials management device...That's if there is a greater purpose of course.


Of course there’s a greater purpose, and it’s up to us to define it and then bring it about.


Chance or purpose...Such is the dilemma.


Human endeavour is what turns chance into purpose.