NeuroTypical
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Posts posted by NeuroTypical
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24 minutes ago, zil2 said:
While I'm sure it's true our theoretical allies aren't spending much on their military, I don't think this is the true reason we're spending so much on ours.
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.
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1 hour ago, Phoenix_person said:
No, but I'm encouraged by this "Uncommitted" fellow that's rising up the Dem ranks. I have a feeling he's going to wallop Dean Phillips in Dean's home state next week.
It's funny when you think a vote for "uncommitted" is a vote for "literally anyone OTHER THAN Biden, Williamson, or Phillips".
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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.
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4 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:
Any counsel?
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.
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7 minutes ago, LDSGator said:
the extremes of both sides are filled with the same types of people.
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:
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On 11/16/2023 at 9:51 AM, LDSGator said:
I’ve noticed that some in the GOP have turned this into a “win win” situation. If a state votes for abortion rights, it confirms how sinful and awful people are. If the state votes to ban abortions, then they celebrate the win. It’s strange.
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.)
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Yay it's @classylady! Glad to see you around.
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1 hour ago, mirkwood said:
Yes. Now if only they would hold the left accountable when they act this way (and they have.)
Oh yeah. June 2020 was lit. We forget pretty quickly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
Just my own personal experiences:
My uncle was Facebooking live from Provo, the day after the mob shot the elderly guy trying to drive around them.
After Colorado Springs had 2 days of rioting and violence, largely centered around a couple of police stations, my kids and I took a drive. We saw the ashes of the torched overturned car. Around the corner there was the police station and some protesters, holding their BLM signs and smiling and waving at the cars that drove by. A big difference between night and day.
As BLM tried to close down I-25, my county sheriff's Twitter account had an active day posting pics and video of the overwhelming LEO response to the blockading cars. I guess my county was ready, because people were arrested quickly and the cars were impounded quickly. Just one day.
As the Antifa started an effort to "take it to the countryside", I saw a local video of a bunch of black bloc-wearing idiots getting into a fight in a rural field. One large local resident had one of the idiots face down in the dirt, yelling "say uncle!". Again, that only lasted about a day.
My buddy @mirkwood was talking about getting training on riot situations.
After the Rittenhouse verdict in Nov 2021, I watched some low-information leftie co-workers burst into tears at the terrible injustice. Then I watched Daryl Brooks finally made good on his Facebook threats to start "bakk knokkin white people TF out ion wanna hear it...the old white ppl 2", and he drove his SUV through a parade of old white women in Waukesha, killing 6 and injuring 62. 4 of the dead were with the "Milwaukee Dancing Grannies". The leftie co-workers didn't notice that part.
As for holding the left accountable, sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who watches boring news. All across 2021 and 2022, I saw brief footnote after brief footnote of rioters who were finally receiving their verdicts and sentences. At least 2-3 dozen of them across the country. Lots of Portland, Wisconsin, local stuff from Denver. The guy in Colorado Springs who led the protest against the police chief's family, showing up at his private residence, got his sentence. I watched a lot of the Daryl Brooks trial and verdict - they never mentioned any politics or racial motivation, his Facebook history of BLM support and advocating violence against white people didn't make it into the trial. Nobody mentioned just before his SUV murder spree, he got released on zero bail for trying to run over his girlfriend - a recent change in how Minnesotans were handling bail, reacting to the defund-the-cops movement.
But yeah, I get it Mirk. Nobody else seemed to notice any of that but me. And yet we've been force-fed an endless tsunami of Jan6 news and commentary for 3 years now.
QuoteAs a noteworthy point. It still was not an insurrection. Nobody was charged with insurrection. Nobody was convicted of insurrection.
Well, lots and lots of seditious conspiracy convictions. I guess that's "insurrection light"? I'm not smart enough to know the difference between seditious conspiracy and insurrection. 730 or more guilty pleas, mostly to minor charges.
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). It's sort of a weak nitpicky point - "inciting insurrection" is not actually committing insurrection. So yeah, Mirk is correct - nobody has been charged with "insurrection", just "inciting insurrection". This point is currently being argued by Trump in his brief to the Supreme Court, as they consider whether he can be on the ballot in Colorado or not.
And the current politically-timed charges Trump is facing is also not incitement.
- One count of conspiracy to defraud the US
- One count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of conspiracy against rights (an 1870-era charge created to keep the KKK from oppressing blacks in the South) -
29 minutes ago, Phoenix_person said:
Left wing extremists have no love for Biden.
I noticed this for the first time when Hilary was running. The amount of hate directed at her from the hard left surprised the heck out of me. But it made sense after a little thought. 15+ years ago, Democrats were the people-friendly anti-corporatists, and Republicans were the pro-business fans of deregulation. By the time Hilary was on the ticket, we all knew the Dems were all making millions with insider stock trades, in bed with big business and lobbyists. They were livid that Hil and Trump were basically both (in their minds) corrupt capitalists bankrolled by big business.
In fact, it was from a hard leftie that I got this pic:
29 minutes ago, Phoenix_person said:Liberal Dems will weep if Biden loses, but there won't be an insurrection. Liberals don't have the stomach for that.
Agreed. They're all about supporting the 2020-21 BLM civil unrest, but they do it by wearing blinders and refusing to acknowledge the lawlessness/rioting/looting/destruction/violence. The average democrat or liberal has zero interest in actually moving onto the street and trying to do something themselves. They're all about having government do the things with other people's money.
As for J6, I'm grateful they found, arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced so many. 98% of what happened that day was just fine, but holy crap that 2% was a doozie.
- LDSGator, Phoenix_person and mirkwood
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1 hour ago, Emmanuel Goldstein said:
Executive orders hold no power over anything other than the Executive Department.
Ooh - warning - snark incoming.
You're absolutely correct. Other than matters that have to do with State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, executive orders really have no power whatsoever.
And with a paltry $105 trillion to spend every year, and a scant 4.3 million employees to do the executive's will, what real impact could executive orders possibly have?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_executive_departments
[/snark]
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Oh I get it. My guy is an off-grid almost sovereign citizen, who lived in a tent for a year until the county kicked him out of it.
Folks passionate about end times predictions tend to be real real interesting folks!
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2 minutes ago, laronius said:
I was watching a YouTube video yesterday where the guy was performing some pretty serious prophetic gymnastics to make this General Conference as a possible time of His coming.
My guy can beat up your guy! My buddy put this together, with 2nd week of December 2034 ad the clear and obvious time.
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18 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:
The Republicans say they want to stop what's happening at the Border but then vote against the strongest border bill in decades, one they helped craft even!!!
I read through the highlights of that bill. A handful of millions for wall construction over 5 years, and a several billion for ankle monitors? Yeah, the bipartisanship wasn't there enough to craft a serious bill. And it wasn't the Republicans who refused to fund wall building.
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On 2/19/2024 at 4:41 PM, Vort said:
Secretly, I have never been a huge fan of the hymn. I mean, it's fine, nice message and all, but it has always seemed a bit maudlin and overwrought to me. Plus it has like twenty-eight verses, all pretty much restating the same theme of some hapless soul in need of charity who, in receiving the care, seems to give it back in manifold* measure.
* @Vort (aka Julian Bashir) must be referring to a hyperspace manifold.
- Jamie123, mordorbund and Vort
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4 hours ago, Ironhold said:
Is there something I'm missing as to why this song is so popular? Something I'm missing?
It might be one of the most relatable stories about caring for the poor and needy out there. Joseph Smith loved it, and it's been a favorite of the saints ever since.
Plus:
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In the Barbie movie, the dad was reduced down to the guy who did some of the driving, and did Duolingo so he could better bond with his hispanic wife and her daughter. He meant well.
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See that everyone? Australia needs members! Go move there instead of Colorado - then they can have their temple!
- askandanswer and zil2
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1 hour ago, Ironhold said:
Nobody actually bothered to confirm how many were still within the stake, a critical step as we're supporting a major military base where people come and go all the time.
I stayed in Canada for 6 weeks for some corporate training once, and we stayed in a mostly-empty Canadian military base that was partially leased out to my company. Before the internet made things easy, so I was calling up the local ward leadership to ask about services and location. The bishop was so excited to hear where I was, he seemed to have the same problem as @Ironhold, with hundreds of students/soldiers on the rolls, but nobody came to church and nobody knew if they were real or not. He was sad to hear I was an American only there for corporate training and had nothing to do with the base.
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Here in sunny Colorado Springs, we've been growing for 20 years and show no sign of stopping. My original ward boundaries are now home to 2 stakes and a dozen or more wards. A while back I was talking to a guy who had lived in the same house, but ended up in 3-4 different wards because of all the boundary shifts due to growth. Most of it is people moving here, but also in my ward we've had 3 baptisms already this year.
All y'all with shrinking membership, maybe stop sending them to us?
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Interesting stuff. We're tinkering with how it's been done in the US and Canada, and we're standardizing things across the whole earth.
QuoteCreating a stake now requires 2,000 total members in the stake. Stakes in the U.S. and Canada previously needed to have 3,000 members; stakes outside these two countries needed 1,900.
In 2024, stakes will need 150 active, full-tithe-paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders capable of serving in leadership positions. They will also need a total of 500 participating adults.
The new requirements also state that wards need 250 members and 20 active, full-tithe-paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders who are capable of serving in leadership positions. Each ward also will need 100 participating adults.
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I'd like to comfort myself with tales of how weird or fringe or troubled or problematic folks associated with this production are. But I'm afraid the story of it's acceptance by the culture overwhelms any relief I might feel at Vivziepop's controversy. The YouTube pilot has 99 million views and counting, 78% RT and 84% Viewers at Rotten Tomatoes, 7.8 at IMDB. It's an indication of how many folks out there lack any sort of Christian worldview or respect for those who have one.
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3 hours ago, mikbone said:
Satan: He Gets Us
Yeah, once again, the Bee reflects reality. The show is called "Hazbin Hotel", season 1 fresh out on Amazon Prime. Most of the story takes place in hell, but the angels are the bad guys. Our heroine, daughter of Lucifer Morningstar, and her girlfriend Vaggie, on their quest to find a way for sinners to be rehabilitated and allowed into Heaven, via her Hotel. What's currently happening is Heaven's yearly assault, where the angels come down and massacre wayward souls due to Hell's overpopulation. The angels don't want anything to do with her nefarious plot.
I am sad, because I absolutely love whimsical eclectic animated shows with catchy songs, but I'm so turned off by the plot and worldbuilding, I am unable to enjoy it. Songs by Parry Gripp (we raised our kids on his songs). I'm a fan of several of the voice actors. The animation is unique. The characters are instantly relatable. And I can't for the life of me find a way to enjoy the show, because it's entire reason for existing is to call good evil, and evil good. I've been known to wade through a manure pile in order to find a precious gem, but this is simply too much.
(Mikbone's playlist, however, is top notch! Grabbing it now.)
- JohnsonJones and mikbone
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1 hour ago, Phoenix_person said:
a MAGA warmonger or a transgender leftist pacifist.
I had that, and I lost it. My old childhood friend and I were so happy to have found each other on facebook and were gleefully solving all the world's problems by battling it out and arguing online. Dude was disabled former military, who married a lady who transitioned apparently.
Then COVID lockdowns and social strife occurred, and my buddy's PTSD kicked in, the conversations got so personal for him he just turned nasty. No more arguing online with the opposite side of the fence. It's one of the reasons I'm glad you're here, PP.
- LDSGator and Phoenix_person
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On 2/12/2024 at 11:52 AM, NeuroTypical said:
I note the following story in today's Wall Street Journal:
QuoteThe Biden administration is dedicating billions of dollars to strengthening the U.S. battery supply chain and reducing reliance on China, which dominates the global production of battery minerals.
Also, all of these links:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=biden+administration+battery+supply+chain&ia=web
Coming eclipse
in LDS Gospel Discussion
Posted
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/