nsplayr

But you're just asking questions right? I treat this like someone saying the moon landing was faked. Or "maybe it was faked." I mean, it could have been, it's not totally impossible, I'll give ya that! But it wasn't. Anyone still left saying the moon landing was faked is a f-ing moron who I am under no obligation to take seriously. Ask the doctors I gave you contact info for. They are experts in autism very specifically and can explain in more precise detail than my layman's summary the likely causes of, current best treatments for, and anything else you'd like to know about it. They will all tell you it is not caused by vaccines. They all fully vaccinate themselves and their children...I asked! I have a second child who doesn't have an autism diagnosis (yet) and so I literally asked, hey, is there anything different we could or should do with the recommended childhood vaccine schedule to ward off any additional risk of her developing autism too? They said no. Anyways, believe what you want I guess, but just stay out of medicine and policymaking if you have doubts about this one. While you're in the "just asking questions" phase, any speculative thoughts about the pyramids or earthquakes you'd like to share?

Congrats on building a successful career & don't have regrets, have plans. If you want to fly, make hay while the sun shines in finance & tech, then FIRE and/or go part-time and start flying, you almost certainly have the money to do so. If you love it, build time flying your rich buddies around or however else you'd like and then become a professional pilot down the line, there's still plenty of need for years and years to come. Either way, good luck! I greatly value my (ongoing) Air Force flying career but it certainly ain't the only way to make a living or do something valuable in this life.

I'll start out by saying this... Thank you for picking the topic among RFKJ's vast web of conspiracies that I know the most about. Ok, so I have an autistic child and have gotten what I consider a great layman's education on the disorder. The causes are not fully understood, but BL it's some combination of genetics and environmental factors, e.g. in-utero maternal stress, maternal immune system disorders, pollution exposure, etc. FWIW there have been lots of studies on vaccine ingredients to see if those could be a contributing environmental factor, and the consensus is no, at least not to the degree that outweighs the benefit of receiving the vaccines. Also vaccine manufacturers have changed some of the ingredients used in vaccines over time in response to both founded and unfounded fears about them. Autism is a challenging condition but one that's always been found in humans. Autistic people aren't "diseased" in a way that's curable or even necessarily bad, they're different in a way that's part of the human condition. There's also a spectrum of impacts the disorder can cause, and autistic people range from very high-functioning geniuses (e.g. Einstein, Turing, etc.) to people who are quite disabled, non-verbal, etc. and require lifelong care. The saying goes, "If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person," and clinicians really do treat every case individually because much more so than with some other conditions, YMMV. But don't take my word for it, even though I have up-close and personal experience. You didn't know that before. What I recommended was not Google MD your way into backing up your beliefs, frankly that's easy. I do recommend that you talk to your personal or family doctor. Please do that and I'd love to hear what they say. Now granted, not every physician is an expert in autism, although anyone providing you primary care should be familiar enough to tell you it's not caused by vaccines, a few odd quack doctors out of millions aside. If however you do want to consult with some true experts, here are some near me who have been tremendously helpful in helping me understand autism: Dr. Rachael Hundley, PhD - clinical psychologist Dr. Angela Maxwell-Horn, MD - pediatrician and developmental medicine specialist Dr. Linda Ashford, PhD - clinical psychologist Dr. Julie Lounds Taylor, PhD - research psychologist Dr. Sloan Sparks, DNP, PMHNP - psych nurse practitioner These are all fantastic doctors that I know personally and who know this subject inside and out. I'm dead serious, reach out to one or all of them, those links to their bios all include phone numbers or email addresses. Since you said you like to read, this book was recommended to me multiple times and I found it really helpful in understanding autism better, since I used to know little to nothing about it. Uniquely Human by Barry Prizant, PhD. Highly respected autism researcher with 50+ years of experience with studying autism and autistic people. BLOB (bottom line on bottom): vaccines don't cause autism. Also we landed on the moon, the earth is round, and anyone who believes any of these asinine conspiracies or others like it is officially too stupid to deal with, no matter how famous their family is.

I highly doubt this. See Pooter's post above about two-tiered justice, which absolutely exists. It takes a special case of stupid to be found guilty of serious charges when you can afford the best and most connected lawyers. Trump is certainly trying his damndest though! I believe this is ongoing in the House. Last I checked they may have lost the "smoking gun" audio recordings or something, IDK, I'm sure you are tracking this more closely than me. What I'm spiking the ball on is this: many of y'all said "Biden's son could never be charged!" Well guess what, he was, pled guilty to some tax crimes and got a year of probation for a gun-related crime. Seems like decent justice to me, y'all can quibble if you want but I think it's good when criminals face justice, even when they are the son of the President of the United States.

All true, agree with you here.

If Brett Tolman (Republican) wants to air these concerns, be should call up David Weiss (Republican) and harass him for being so soft on crime. I bet he can get his number from a mutual acquaintance. If the case were so easy to prove and win a harsher sentence, why did the Trump-appointed US Attorney for Delaware pork it up so badly? It’s easy to talk a big game on cable, you even get paid handsomely to do so! It’s harder when it’s your name is on the case and you have to bring it in court for real I’m imagining. So if you want more politically-driven slam drunk prosecutions of Dems, y’all gotta get your appointments squared away apparently. Sorry this one didn’t quench your bloodlust, even though I was told in no uncertain terms Hunter would never even be charged. I for one want my US Attorneys to prosecute all criminals and seek sentences that are appropriate for cases they think they can win. No special deals but also no throwing the book at low level dudes, which we’ve unfortunately done a lot of over the years. Maybe Trump had different criteria when filling these important positions in the federal government, IDK. Tolman should ask Trump during his next ring kissing session maybe. Hard to blame the evil Dems here IMHO.

Nom nom nom I do love cheese 😁

You’re correct that I did not rebut RFKJ’s ridiculous claims, and I don’t plan on it. As to where he gets his ideas, IDK, aliens injected them up his ass when he got abducted maybe? Vaccines do not cause autism. SSRIs don’t cause mass shootings. Your wifi isn’t giving you cancer. Bush won Ohio in 2004 despite my wishing he hadn’t. These are not controversial, “data on both sides” takes. But don’t take my word for it. Next time you go to your current family or personal doctor, I encourage you to ask about the medical conspiracies and see what he/she says. I hate conspiracy theorists. Yes there are actual conspiracies in the world, but that doesn’t mean everything is a conspiracy. Occam’s Razor, uncertainty, and poorly executed plans explain like 99.69% of situations. It’s just a personality type I loathe and refuse to deal with. I sometimes take the time to rant or mock them because it is a little bit satisfying to dunk on people who are so consistently wrong. If RFKJ wants to think the moon is made of cheese great, but GTFO out of here thinking you can be President or represent my party - you can’t and you don’t.

So Chris Wray (appointed by Trump) and Davis Weiss (appointed by Trump) are in a deep-state conspiracy to protect Hunter Biden? Ok…that is a take I guess. If there are other appropriate and legal ways to investigate or charge Hunter, be my guest. Whistleblow to your heart’s content, let the truth be known and the corrupt among the powerful be held accountable.* *if there is a case to be made and truth to allegations Also from what I understand Hunter got a year probation for the gun charge, and after serving that it would essentially go away. I’m not a sentencing expert but that doesn’t seem out of the ballpark, it’s not like he used the gun to shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue! If you want a more rigorous and strict federally-led enforcement regime for gun-related crimes, I am all in favor of that.

Let him/her speak then! Do it. If they’re correct then bring more charges. I don’t understand how you do not grasp my position on this issue.

Ya know the Dem President’s son was just charged and plead guilty to crimes. I, a Dem, am fairly happy about that because he pretty clearly did some crimes and no one should be above the law. Meanwhile all the Law & Order right wingers who hate Biden and longed for this even though they said very authoritatively that it could never happen are all pissed off and grouchy, as usual.

If you think he should have been given harsher charges or not given a plea deal, please take that up with the Trump-appointed US Attorney who brought the case. For all his talk, Trump sure did a completely shit job of appointing people that share his corrupt “values” like viciously attacking Dems using the levers of government lol. Wray, Weiss, Judge Cannon, etc. When you pick the refs and still lose it really says something about your case. I am in favor of prosecuting all criminals and holding them accountable. If you want to do that more widely and seriously for political and business elites, I say it again, your terms are acceptable. I have some ideas of where we can start!

This is a man who believes wifi radiation causes cancer, that Prozac causes mass shootings, that W stole the 2004 election because of voter fraud in Ohio, and that vaccines cause autism. If that’s you’re kind of “Democrat” it’s no wonder you’re a Republican! If this were the Dem party I would be a Republican too. Luckily that’s not the case. RFKJ is a piece of crap conspiracy peddler. He’s Marianne Williamson with a dick and a better last name. Never will be President, never should be taken seriously, a disgrace to his name and I’d bet his father has been rolling in his grave for years listening to the volume and variety of BS coming out of his son’s mouth in public.

🤷‍♂️ I was told on good authority by Baseops, Esq. that he would not be charged and couldn’t be charged because he was being protected by The Big Guy. I guess next time I’ll pay for my legal advice instead of relying on the Shitposter School of Law graduates we all are around here. 😅 Why is there no investigation?! (There was one since 2018) Why are there no charges?! (Here they are) But he’s guilty!! (He pled guilty to some of the charges and took a deal on others, which is common) Rabble rabble rabble…nevertheless.

It’s this 100%. The AF gets top talent across AFSCs when compared to the other services or especially the general population, but the system most non-rated folks are operating in beats any innovation, mission-focus, or adaptability out of the vast majority of folks. I know several highly competent lawyers, engineers, loggies, etc. who have succeeded & thrived in dynamic jobs in the civilian world after leaving the Air Force because they could not stand the BS their career fields shoehorned them into for 4-7 years.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/hunter-biden-charges/?id=98765518 Health & wellness check on everyone saying, “Oh you could never charge the President’s son!” Well he was charged, pled guilty, and reached a deal with the (Trump-appointed) US Attorney from Delaware David Weiss.

Yup, I’ll optimistic about US soccer’s future, both this talented USMNT and with Messi coming to Miami, general interest increasing for MLS. Not that I ever really played much soccer or care too much about the sport honestly, I mostly just want the US to dominate the world as part of a global manifest destiny thing and we’ve yet to do it in men’s soccer. It’s high time that we get to it! Back-to-back World War champs yet no men’s World Cups, gotta remedy that soon.

🤷‍♂️ USMNT qualified for the World Cup every cycle 1990 through 2014, until they missed it during Trump’s term. They made it once again in 2022 under Dark Brandon’s sage leadership. #IBlameTrump /sarcasm if y’all can’t tell

Agreed! Not my meme but it’s apt 😁 I believe that we will win!

Not entirely gone 👑

I too can write a caricature about the right and what "they support" and then propose it to folks online asking, "HoW cAn YoU sUpPoRt ThIs???!" My man, I/we disagree with the premise of the things you wrote there. Pride month allows LGBTQ folks to celebrate their struggle for equal rights and the progress that's been made there, no different than other "XX history" months. I'm neither radically in favor of over-the-top celebrating differences but I'm not against people doing that either. Some redistribution of wealth via taxes is a hallmark of an advanced economy & society, we can quibble about how much but I support free & fair market capitalism backed by a robust welfare state to help catch people when they fall. A floor, not a ceiling. I'm not sure what vague "ideologies that will eviscerate the family unit" you mean so you'll have to be more specific. I have a very traditional, conservative-friendly family unit and we're doing just great! Other families I know that are quite different than my own are doing great as well. Some people struggle, as always. I hope the same can be said for you and yours. This I actually agree with, as do some of my gay friends, although not all. Younger people tend to see it all as the same struggle, but LGBTQ people closer to my age or older I know say that the wild explosions of different identities, flags, tiny shredouts of identities is counterproductive and that radical trans activists need to follow the model more or less of plain-ole-gay rights and not try to move so rapidly as to diminish support from a general populace of straight people who don't live and breathe this stuff and just want to go on with their lives. I am straight, so I don't wanna speak for others, but I tend to agree. It's mostly from the right in terms of statistically significant losses of support, but it is concerning either way if you are a fan of gay people having the same human and civil rights as straight people. I'm gonna say this up front and it applies to everything below, you need to update your data / assumptions. Income inequality specifically has declined for the first time in decades in the COVID recovery where there is very robust wage growth specifically among the lower-paid 50% of workers. Depicted below is this metric during the Biden Admin, Jan 2021 to EOY 2022. I would argue that both the broad, world-wide post-COVID economic conditions + the Biden admin's actions + Fed/ECB actions have led to our current tight labor market where workers have more leverage than at anytime during my lifetime to negotiate higher wages, switch jobs, or generally leave shitty, low-paid work for greener pastures. Having a hard time hiring servers at a greasy spoon diner that pays tipped minimum wage isn't a sign of a recession, it's a sign of a strong/tight labor market because those waitresses are working at the other businesses down the road paying $15+ an hour. TBH if you want plentiful low-wage workers, you need to encourage more immigration, as immigrants are often more willing to take low-paid jobs than native-born citizens. This used to be true, if you only counted Jan 2017 through March 2020 Trump admin. If you take the whole time Trump was President, it was never true due to the huge losses during COVID. Understandably there are some asterisks there, and rightfully so. Trump did not cause COVID and the whole world took a beating. BUT, it's no longer true. The Biden admin has set new records for declines in income inequality, low unemployments rates, "black unemployment" as Trump so frequently touts, etc. Trump often says on the stump he had the lowest black unemployment rate ever...which is a good thing and was true! But it's not true anymore. Lowest under Trump was 5.3% in August of 2019, current under Biden is 4.7% in April 2023 and continuing to drop. I support a low unemployment rate for all Americans, and the Biden admin is leading the way on employment. Bottom line: if you wanna debate current events, you have to stay current.

This is a common misconception and is not true. Biological sex for humans 99.9% is one of two options, male or female, that is a fact. You can technically be intesex, but I digress. Some animals also have other options but we're talking humans. Gender on the other hand is, "...a social construct and generally based on the norms, behaviors, and societal roles expected of individuals based primarily on their sex." Ask any psychologist or mental healthcare provider and they can explain this to you if you don't have experience in dealing with this concept. So yea, people can decide, "Ya know what, I don't feel fully male or female or feel like some combination of the two, and I don't accept the norms, behaviors and societal roles & expectations that come along with my biological sex." A lot of change in society's norms/expectations/etc. over time has taken place by people doing just that! What jobs men and women can and should have, can women vote, etc., were all questions that arose not just out of the ether, but by people being like, "Wait a minute, f that, I wanna do X and why not??" Today men can be nurses, women can be senators, I can wear a skirt if I want and my wife can wear a top hat and tails if she wants...I think society is better for it. Some percentage of people saying they want to identify as nonbinary (neither male nor female in gender) or gender-fluid (fluctuating back and forth between primarily-male and primarily-female gender expressions) is no different than any of the past changes. Society is usually (1) at first aghast, then (2) tacitly accepts in some places or circumstances, then (3) widely accepts the change, then (4) eventually there's a generation of people in charge who believed the change is perfectly normal. Perhaps you're on step 1 and I'm saying a lot of people, myself included, are now on step 2. All the Zoomers and Gen A kiddos I've known and observed seem to be on step 3, and when they are in charge of things welcome to step 4 my friend. You and I will be left behind and return to dust regardless of how much we yell at the clouds, and how painful that is for each of us to some degree depends on how well we accept that this process is inevitable and maybe it's better to accept it rather than to just grow old and bitter. You don't have to like it, you don't have to feel like your gender is in any way in question, but there are people who say a non-typical gender expression is an innate quality that they cannot change and are asking to be treated with respect and to have the same basic human rights as everyone else. I would advocate being accepting of other people as a general policy, and at minimum letting people be themselves without undue burden from your opinions of them. Is someone a good person? Do they have a solid moral system as evidenced by their behavior? Do they work hard? Do they treat others with kindness? Those are relevant questions for the people I want to associate with - who you want to bang and how you want to be addressed / dress / look / feel is not super relevant to me.

Ok Dr. Aeroplanez, let's talk mental illnesses and fitness to serve. What do you mean by this? What specifically does "correctly" mean? Does it mean typical? Does it mean functional? At what level? Ok do you want to define "mental illnesses" as anything diagnosable in the DSM-5? If so, I've got bad news for your theory. PTSD - a diagnosable disorder in the DSM. You can, in fact, have PTSD and still serve in the military, have a security clearance, be a cop, etc. I know people who are doing this right now. Depression and anxiety - diagnosable conditions in the DSM. Same as above, I know people with these diagnoses who serve honorably every single day Autism - same as above. Alan Turing and Albert Einstein were both very likely autistic and had higher level security clearances than either of us ever will...I think they did some pretty good work! I could go on. Mental illnesses/disorders/conditions are like physical ones, they're not somehow more shameful, more disabling, or more able to painted with a broad brush. Some mental and physical conditions do indeed prevent someone from holding a sensitive or security-related position, and that's fine. You won't be a good infantry troop from a wheelchair unfortunately. And some mental illnesses are that way too. But not all, not the ones I listed above, and importantly, not gender dysphoria, another DSM condition. Gender dysphoria is primarily diagnosed when you have discomfort with your biological sex and the gender-norms that go along with that. It is treated in ways that are meant to reduce that discomfort. The level of discomfort may or may not rise to the level of being disqualifying for some positions in the military/police/etc. Just like back pain. New flash: not every person who is nonbinary or gender-fluid experiences discomfort with their biological sex! The person I am close with going through some of these issues says they are nonbinary and gender-fluid, but is also perfectly comfortable in the body they have and does not experience discomfort with their body. So, they are not actually diagnosed with gender dysphoria. I did not understand the nuances of this even a few months ago, which is why I'm wasting my time typing all this shit out here. Hopefully if any of this can help even one of you numbskulls better understand and support one of your kids, one of your troops, etc., it's worth the effort.

Are you asking if LGBTQ people are disadvantaged/persecuted? I can provide a litany of examples if you need. No, if someone is an asshole, they are an asshole. Disagreeing respectfully with an opinion is fine. Also everyone's a little bit of an asshole on some things, so I don't mean it necessarily maliciously. I appreciate you asking and no ill-intent received. No, I am not LGBTQ myself but have close friends and family members who are gay and also have someone close to me recently going through gender identity issues. Separately have also recently gotten a great layman's education on mental illnesses so it's a bit top-of-mind for me. More on mental illness in a sec. BL: I've learned new things during this process and changed some opinions I had, which is partly why I'm saying the things I'm saying here. I started out basically thinking, look, all this trans & gender-fluid stuff is kinda BS and we need to pump the breaks on these people demanding so much of the rest of the world when they're like 0.1% of the population. I still don't totally disagree with that view. Gay rights happened very slowly over time before they happened seemingly very quickly when Obergefell was decided. I do want folks, even those being persecuted, to understand that they're not necessarily special snowflakes so much that the world has to immediately turn 180 degrees on their every whim. Everyone deserves equal human rights, but you also have to account to a reasonable pace of change that most humans are willing to accept. All that being said, my recent experiences have opened up my aperture a little bit in that, in my new understanding, people that want to define a third gender (nonbinary) or see themselves as gender-fluid aren't really fundamentally different than people who are gay. I have been told by the person I know this isn't a choice, I wish I could just "feel normal," but that this is how I am and I just want to be loved & treated equally just like anyone else. In the end even if I don't really understand it fully, it's really not too much to ask IMHO. So yea, my old-man opinion has changed a bit and other than some fringe issues like competitive sports participation where there are some legit concerns, I am now more of the opinion that just there's much greater acceptance for folks who are gay, whatever people wanna do with their lives & their gender expression is fine. If you want me to attempt to use they/them, that is fine, I will try. If you want to feel more masculine one day and more feminine the next day, that's fine. What haircut you have, what clothes you wear, if you dye your hair blue or have a body full of tats, that has next to zero bearing on A) my life, and B) if you are a good person or not or if you deserve equal, basic human rights or not. It costs me very, very little to be loving and accepting and it means a lot to people who genuinely feel God made them this way. On mental illnesses...

Mumm, disagree I guess. People with non-standard gender expressions in my opinion aren’t advantaged over “regular” people, quite the opposite. Not too many folks jump at the chance and choose to be a persecuted class of people for one reason or another. And I don’t really have or need traditional “objective standards” for what clothes other people wear or how they cut their hair or who they want to sleep with anymore. That does affect me in any way I found out! Is this a good person? Do they do good work? If so great, you be you and good luck. Obviously it’s easy to default to what was traditional when you grew up, but times change and so does the world, like it or not. I’ve often found those who espouse the idea that others can choose to do whatever but I don’t have to condone/endorse/can speak against are often just assholes. To me being accepting by default (which is hard!), even when you may not understand or fully accept a choice someone else makes, has been be a better policy. I have high standards and specific expectations for a lot of things, but not this thing. And I have a lot of recent, first-hand experience, so it’s not a point of view I come to lightly or held right away necessarily.