NeuroTypical

For over a decade, I've felt that pretty much all politicians on the federal level, follow two great commandments above all else: 1. Thou shalt get elected and gain power. 2. Thou shalt remain elected and increase power. That viewpoint has helped me decipher pretty much everything every politician says and does. So, a political party is more a reflection on that party's power brokers (people and entities who can influence votes), than it is of any particular platform or ideology. Trump seems to be a far superior deal maker than the rest of 'em. I truly believe if he had won his 2nd term, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine. Trump would have made a deal with Putin, probably over NATO expansion and energy. Also this:

Correct. It's the financial term. An "endowment" is a big pile of money that sits in income generating investments. You spend the income generated, not the endowment. And there's usually respect and praise for whoever donated the big pile of money. You can endow a college, and get a chair (or even a building) named after you.

I inherited a bunch of religious books from my grandpa. One of them was published in the 1930's (I think), from the church's printing press in Beaver Utah, titled something like "The succession of Joseph II". I briefly thumbed through it, it was basically an in-depth response to a bunch of claims made that Joseph's child should be Joseph's successor after his martyrdom. I put it with the other 2-3 dozen books in a box in my basement. Years later, I was in Yahoo chat arguing religion with an RLDS person about who was right and who was wrong. I ran and got the 70 year old book. He proceeded to make a series of claims, pretty much verbatim to the claims refuted by my book, pretty much in the exact order my book was written. I immediately was able to counter each point he made, clearly and convincingly, by citing various elements of our shared history. Poor dude was forced to say something like "well, I don't know as much as I should about it, but I'm still sure you Brigahmites are the wrong ones." Imagine fighting a battle, over and over again, that was pretty conclusively lost 70 years ago.

Super Tuesday fun: - Haley ended her campaign after Trump got triple the support. She actually won Virginia, but Trump was the clear victor everywhere else. - Hat tip to @Phoenix_person! ~19% of Minnesota democrats and lefties voted “uncommitted” in protest. - In one location, some rando named Jason Palmer actually beat Biden in the raw vote, and tied him in the delegate haul. - Smart money says deep, deep blue Cali will send bright red Republican Adam Schiff to the senate. - I heard Trump's voice on the radio last night, the first time in 3 years (outside of J6 drama). I remember when my leftie buddy honestly claimed to get genuinely triggered by clicking a link I shared and being surprised by hearing Trump's voice. He called foul and said reasonable folks should give TR/CRs before sharing any video or audio of Trump. It's a distinct possibility that a small segment of the US population is gonna spend 4 years in a constant state of being triggered. - Oh, and remember all those decades of complaining we've done about liberal bias in higher education? We've got a graph for that now:

I consider them dear distant Cousins who left the family long ago, and have fallen upon hard times, and we figured out how to help them financially. Reading through their FAQ is sort of disheartening.

Well, BYU is the home of various organizations that preserve and digitize records related to Judaism and Christianity, and we've been partnering with the Community of Christ's historian's office on this and other artifacts and documents for a long time. The original manuscript (including the 1823 Bible Joseph used in the work) is scanned and free online: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/the-papers/revelations-and-translations/jsppr5 But yes, it's nice to have things, and I'm very excited. I remember in the 1980's, people with passionate opinions about when we'd finally get the temple and the manuscript. I'm surprised the CoC has held on to them for so long, especially when we've been offering real $$$ for them for a long time.

omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh!

I'm still mad at DeSantis. All dude had to say was "I'm for all the things Trump is for, but I'm not a dangerous narcissist, and I'm 30 years younger!" He would have had the nomination.

My whole point, was in response to this claim: I found this claim actually more absurd, less defensible, than the leftist media's claim that the spring and summer of 2020 was "mostly peaceful". So I laid out my argument, and ended up coming across as a dupe of the left. Anyway, good post Vort. I agree with all of it, except for 2 points: - I don't think I'm a left wing media schill. I tried quite hard to go to the source, watch the raw videos, read the various timelines and what they are based on. There are endless bits of stupid, virtue signalingly irrelevant, or flat out false accusations against Trump and J6. But dude had a hand in whipping up a violent riot that delayed the peaceful transfer of power, long after his attempts to win ran out of legitimacy. Shame on him and his banana republic tinpot dictator narcissist bullcrap. I'm doing my best to get ready and vote for him again, because I believe the good things he'll do will outweigh the bad, but I hope he's learned his lesson. That is my opinion. It is not handed to me by any group of any agenda, it was developed by me, as I spent the last 3 years reading, watching, learning, and thinking. I am not bound to alter it in order to appear less aligned with the left. - Antifa and BLM riot defenders spent years screaming at the top of their lungs: "You jump to conclusions with your pro-cop pro-capitalist antiblack bias, while totally ignoring the reasons people are mad and pouring into the streets!" I can't see much light between that notion, and yours here: I figure both notions are fatally flawed. It's ok to understand right-leaning issues, black anger, and leftist anticapitalist rage. It's ok when folks protest. It stops being ok, IMO, after the first bit of vandalism, property destruction, pushed-through crowd control barrier. I don't care what side you're on, you lose my support the second your anger and rage and protesting turns into property destruction and interfering with the rule of law or the proper functioning of our protective institutions. Anyway, everything else in your post, I agree with 100%. (And the feelings of goodwill and respect, are, of course, mutual.) We still buddies?

This is an example of the whole "my people seem to have a different colored sky than me" thing I've noticed about J6. It's so bizarre to me. Even Vort, one of the smartest, most reasonable people I know, seems to enter this bizarro world where they read something critical of J6, and hear the exact opposite of what got said. Vort, could you read again, the timeline I laid out? You're far better at math than I'll ever be, yet you seem to have discarded the rules that make 3:13 pm happen after 2:38, and 2:38 happen after 2:13, and 2:13 happen after 2PM. You're also welcome to review the documented timeline yourself, and check it against mine. And could you also read again where I talked specifically about Trump's charges, and the difference between insurrection and seditious conspiracy? It seems like you're reading what I said, and running it through some sort of mirror image generator. Is it opposite day or something? And since when is "oh yeah, well how about what the left does?" a valid response to my post? If I kick you between the legs, is my defense of "well, Hilary Clinton once kicked someone between the legs twice and I see you fail to mention it" an adequate defense? Especially when yes, I did indeed, mention it? Do I need to virtue signal "the left does far worse things, far more often" a bunch more before I can respond to a post?

J6 just made life weird. I'm used to being online interacting with lefties and atheists and church critics, and sometimes it seems like the sky in their world just isn't the same color as the sky in my world. And here in a post-J6 world, I encounter a constant slew of folks on the right, my people, folks who think and vote like me, just saying such weird stuff about J6, that I wonder if the color of their sky is the same color as my sky. @Jedi_Nephite, of course many of the horrible things that happened on J6 were "done by right-wing extremists". I'm amazed that anyone could possibly argue against such an obvious set of facts. Q-anon, Proud Boys, and Oathkeepers are 100% the dictionary definition of "right-wing", and a crapton of them fit the "extremist" definition like a glove. 1200 folks arrested, ~730 guilty pleas, ~165 convicted at trial. Each one of 'em more red-blooded right wing American than the last one. An awful lot of convictions for seditious conspiracy from those folks. I mean yes, there were also neo-nazis and white supremacists and neo-confederates and kkk folks and that Mormon cosplayer guy who showed up dressed like Captain Moroni with his Title of Liberty. Those people can't be called "right wing", although the media sure pushes that narrative on occasion. But holy crap - how can anyone who has given even a cursory scan of the facts, claim that "what happened was not done by right wing extremists"? There I was - sitting in my basement office during Covid remote-work lockdown. On one screen, I was doing my work. On the other screen, I was watching Trump's "stop the steal" rally. Holy, holy, holy, HOLY CRAP was Trump, and Guliani, and especially Trump's son yelling crap into their microphones. Stoking outrage. Claiming foul. Demanding action. Whipping up the crowd into marching on the capitol with inflammatory phrases like "go march and demand justice", and "take back our government". Not so much Trump, but yes Guliani, and especially Trump's son. About an hour before we started seeing the news of people breaking in and doing damage, I came upstairs and expressed serious concern to my wife. "I don't understand what the crap Trump is doing. Doesn't he realize that the most mentally-ill and the fringe-est of the fringe are listening to him and getting ready to start hurting people and get themselves arrested?" Trump was charged for "incitement of insurrection" by the house, (who impeached him over it and the senate acquitted him of it after he had left office). So yeah, nobody got convicted of insurrection. Just seditious conspiracy. And not Trump. "Donald Trump never said anything even remotely close to inciting an insurrection." Ugh. What an impossible opinion to defend. He did indeed begin instructing people to be peaceful, but not until after all the horrible had happened. The march hit the capitol a little after 2PM. Pence and the Senators, engaged in certifying the election, had to stop certifying the election, and started getting evacuated around 2:13. The peaceful transition of power, a founding cornerstone of our great republic, was interrupted by the people who hit the capitol. These people had been whipped up into action by Trump, Guliani, and Trump Jr. This didn't happen until 2:38 PM. Look at the time stamp on the tweet, and do the math to convert to Eastern Standard Time: Trump's later appeal for calm happened at 3:13 PM. His video for calm happened even later. I'm a fan of fiery protests. I'm a fan of people swarming the streets and demanding change. I'm a fan of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". I'm not a fan of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bodycam_video_taken_at_US_Capitol,_January_6,_2021.webm I'm not a fan of this (34:20 is when Ashley Babbit begins getting herself shot): https://archive.org/details/nYiFQbNc65jwFYCWY?start=1993 Look, my fellow conservatives. Our side screwed up royally on J6. If we're gonna have problems with Antifa and BLM riots, and defend what happened on J6, then we're just as hypocritical as the folks who defend Antifa and BLM riots, but have problems with J6. Don't be like that.

Well, according to SCOTUS, they were thinking the wrong thing. [Bolding and underlining mine.] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf

I had to do some serious googling here to decipher these acronyms. @Phoenix_person, let me know if I get anything wrong. DFL: The democrat party in Minnesota. Usually Democrats call themselves Democrats, but for whatever reason, the Democrats in MN is the "Democrat Farmer-Labor Party". DSA: Democratic Socialists of America. These ain't liberals, they're lefties. If you don't know the difference, it's about time you went to the two wikipedia pages to hear how they describe themselves. So, a bunch of Minnesotan old democrats are mad because [insert crotchety old lady Minnesotan voice] a bunch of commies are showin' up and pretending to be old democrats, but they're really commies! [/colMv] Dems are happy with Biden. Leftie socialists tend to be mad at him because of his "soft stance on Israel".

LibsOfTiktok and Andy Ngo's Twitter account, because you're not nearly outraged enough at what some folks are doing. www.nationalreview.com , because you were asking for a real answer.

Ask the 3 wise men. There have always been stars going supernova. Ask Noah. There has always been extreme weather killing lots of people. Ask Pharaoh. Plagues and locusts are endemic to the human experience. Kind of a flip answer, I know, but consider: Whether God caused those things to happen, or whether He simply saw them coming and used the events as a way to prepare and shape His children, you have to admit the historical record is full of folks in awe and wonder that a supreme being not only knew it was coming and told humans about it. I'm not a huge fan of speculation, but if I were to speculate, it would be along the lines of "God will tell His prophets of unexpected things in advance. That way, faith gets rewarded, and faithlessness gets a consequence too." In other words, I'd guess this predicted solar eclipse isn't going to be a sign. Especially since we're not hearing a bunch of "The Lord cometh soon and will show a sign by turning the day sky to black" and whatnot coming out of General Conference. You'd think if there was going to be any of it, it would have shown up in Oct, to give folks a little time to prepare. With the next GC happening on April 6-7, and the eclipse happening the 8th, one wonders how much preparation folks could do with 24 hours notice.

Colorado had a partial eclipse some years ago, I dj'd the event, with a custom selection including: Leading up to the eclipse: Eclipse - Pink Floyd Bark at the Moon - Ozzy Ozborne The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen When The Bright Lights Grow Dim - Eddie Noack I put a spell on you - Screamin' Jay Hawkins Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival Blue Moon - Frank Sinatra The Moon Rises - EileMonty During the eclipse: Total eclipse of the heart - Bonnie Tyler Ring of Fire -Johnny Cash Dancing In the Dark - Bruce Springsteen Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel Pink Floyd - Time As the eclipse receeds: Here Comes the Sun - Album "Abbey Road" Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann King Of Pain - The Police Why Does The Sun Shine - They Might Be Giants A Sky Full Of Stars - Coldplay You are my sunshine - Johnny Cash Also, here's a totaled Mitsubishi Eclipse for you:

I'm always happy to see Giving Machine-related news: Givers and receivers blessed by record donations at 2023 Light the World Giving Machines Warms my heart.

My dad needs to avail himself of the temple work I did on his behalf after he passed. Given his mindset during this life, that might be a major effort involving an awful lot of resources. I give this personal anecdote, not to make fun of my dearly departed dad, but to illustrate that we figure missionary work and conversion efforts continue to happen on the other side of the veil. Given the oodles of unbaptized billions, it's surely no small feat.

Are you talking about the solar eclipse, or the crush of illegal immigrants Denver is experiencing? https://www.benefitspro.com/2024/01/19/denver-hospital-system-in-critical-condition-due-to-migrant-crisis-we-are-turning-down-patients/?slreturn=20240229155801 https://www.nationalreview.com/news/denver-weighs-cutting-some-public-employees-hours-to-zero-to-tackle-migrant-crisis/

Good point. NATO spends roughly $366 billion, and although France/Germany/Spain would bump that up substantially if they met their %GDP goals, them and everyone else would only make up a few tens of paltry billions, maybe, if they started paying their share. While the US spends $812 billion per year. But yeah, if the US had a few tens of paltry billions it didn't need to spend on NATO, that's not exactly pocket change.

It's funny when you think a vote for "uncommitted" is a vote for "literally anyone OTHER THAN Biden, Williamson, or Phillips".

I think I understand Trump's rhetoric re: "Let Russia have any Nato country that won't meet it's funding committments" https://drescherlaw.com/case-results/threat-bankruptcy-helps-tenant-renegotiate-commercial-lease/ I was looking for a clip from an old episode of Law and Order, where the new boss impressed everyone by threatening to move offices, which brought his landlord to the negotiating table, whereupon he negotiated a much superior lease agreement, which allowed him to pay his co-workers' bonuses. Basically, Trump has no intention of weakening NATO or abandoning any of it's members. It's a shock tactic to enable the under-contributing nations to step up and do what they agreed to do. Politicians and leaders of nations do what gets them support, so if you're the leader of a nation that's used to old reliable USofA paying your bills for you, why on earth would you want to spend your precious political capital with your own people by making them pay more? The specter of Russia coming to get them while the US sits there and laughs at the cheapskates getting what they deserve, that's why. Geopolitics is a nasty game. Like a group of unsupervised 12 year old boys fighting over the best toys in the sandbox.

I used to think of myself as a constitutional conservative too. I still do, even though folks' opinions about me change. My counsel is to grab on to the 2nd great commandment with all your heart and strength, and do whatever politics it compels you to do, no matter what people think of you.

Agreed. And not only that, but the extremes seem to point at their counterpart on the other side when they're looking to get offended. Antifa and the QAnon people pay attention to and fight each other. Conservatives and Liberals stoke outrage by pointing to what the other one is doing. Democrats and Republicans spend a lot of time criticizing the other. Socialists and Capitalists attack each other and defend their own. I'm still of the opinion that my various opinions and principles which make me who I am, are more correct than those with whom I argue. But boy howdy does the whole human experience look an awful lot like this:

Well, to be sure, this is hardly a phenomenon from the right. It's not uncommon for me to hear my woke millennial buddies, talking about how grateful they are to live in Portland or Seattle or Cali, where people who actually care about humans are in charge, and good sane progressive policies are more abundant. They roll their eyes at Texas and Florida, wondering aloud what must be wrong with people to go live in those barbaric spaces, where the people and the government hates the rainbow and women. They're enthusiastic about Colorado, which seems to be pulling itself out of it's history of white colonization. (This is a rough summary of their comments over a few years on the topic, and yes, I've seen eye rolls.)