billvon

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billvon last won the day on March 21

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  1. Biden trolls Trump by touting the Affordable Care Act, a set of laws that Americans like (59% approval) and that Trump tried to cancel. Trump responds with the following scholarly observation: “I’m not running to terminate the ACA, AS CROOKED JOE BUDEN DISINFORMATES AND MISINFORMATES ALL THE TIME!" From the Alzheimer's Society website: Dementia can affect how a person communicates and the language they use. They may: - not be able to find the right words - use a related word (for example, ‘book’ instead of ‘newspaper’) - use substitutes for words - not find any word at all - not struggle to find words, but use words that have no meaning, or that are jumbled up in the wrong order
  2. Agreed. However, I don't see a murder by an illegal immigrant to be any better or worse than a murder by a US citizen. Hopefully this means you will support the next border control bill. They do. I volunteer at a homeless shelter here that targets the over-55 and homeless veteran population in San Diego. There are hundreds of others who volunteer there as well. And as a nation we spend $250 billion a year on veterans in the form of pensions, VA benefits including medical care, education, rehab, loan guarantees, construction of new facilities and housing support. You mean conservative border policies. Republicans just killed a bill that would have gotten billions for more border patrol, more overtime for them, better unmanned assets (drones) better scanning technoloy at ports of entry and more judges/jails/lawyers to process them. They opposed it to hurt Biden, but the result is that they are hurting Americans. I didn't say anything about ignorant red states, just that they are (on average) less educated. Yep. Heather Heyer REALLY got a taste of Southern hospitality (at the hands of a Trump supporter.) And when Trump supporters marched to vandalize, deface, loot, kidnap and kill in DC, they learned how the US Justice system works. My electric bill is $6 a month and I pay less than $100 a year for fuels (mainly natural gas for our stove and hot water heater.) But yes, on average they are lower. So are electrical reliability rates. Red states also tend to have much higher pollution levels than blue states. You get what you pay for. Same here. The people who have worked in the startup I am at now are Asian, white, black, Hispanic, Arab, cis, trans, straight, gay, male and female. The people who live at the homeless shelter I volunteer at are a similar mix, and are unfailingly polite (if sometimes a little odd.) My neighbors are Italian, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Pakistani and Iraqi immigrants, along with a bunch of San Diego natives. The other kids at my kids' school are also fairly diverse, and include nonbinary kids. I like it that way. And I am glad the trans and nonbinary people I know are not living in a place where conservatives mock and attack them, and try to pass laws against them.
  3. Yep. But as a 10 year old living in such an area, you may not have much choice. Two ways to combat that would be: 1) Move more illegal immigrants into the area. Illegal immigrants are 2x less likely to commit violent crimes than US citizens. 2) Get people nearby voting blue. States that voted for Donald Trump have exceeded the murder rate of states that voted for Joe Biden in every year since 2000. It's likely that the lower educational level, higher poverty and higher gun ownership endemic to red states causes the higher rates of crime. https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/comparing-crime-rates-between-undocumented-immigrants-legal-immigrants-and https://gigafact.org/fact-briefs/do-red-states-rank-higher-in-violent-crime-rates-than-blue-states
  4. A bit of information that confuses and depresses conservatives, and often derails their narratives. Best countered by alternative facts.
  5. Fair enough. You worship a rapist, which would seem to be worse. I think that's what some might call worshiping a false prophet. Yep. When you assign someone a religion to someone, then go off on how filled with hate, hate, intolerance, and bigotry they are - that's a diatribe. Because the opposition to - and support of - elected leaders is central to our democracy. It's how democracy works. Take that away and you have . . . North Korea. Opposing corrupt politicians is actually central to our liberty. Keep in mind that Trump has stated that he will "terminate" the Constitution and become a dictator. That is a literal, direct threat to the Constitution. Rape is out of bounds for me. Sad that it is not for so many republicans. Giving politicians immunity for their crimes is out of bounds. They should obey the same laws we have to. Conspiring with Russia against the United States is out of bounds. Selling our secrets to our enemies is out of bounds. Hurting the feelings of Trump supporters - not so much.
  6. We drove our first Tesla (a Roadster) in 2011, right before our first son was born. It made such an impression on me that I bought about $50K of Tesla stock a few weeks later. Turned out to be a good decision.
  7. Yep. And still do. And we fight against those who say they will "terminate" it. Wait. I thought our religion was climate change? Or vaccines? It's tough to have to change your religion so often when conservatives change their mind . . . But seriously no liberal I know worships government. It's good at some things, bad at others. It is at its best when it protects the rights of everyone - women, minorities, LGBT people - against the tyranny of the masses. It is at its worst when it's used to support and enable individual strongmen. Sure. I support better control of our border, for example, even though I oppose Trump. That being said, it's ironic that what triggered this anti-liberal diatribe was the mention of one particular politician.
  8. Yep. Let's see - anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, convicted criminal and druggie. Thinks 5G causes cancer. Helped kill 83 foreign kids in American Samoa by denying them measles vaccines. Thinks the Deep State CIA is assassinating his relatives. Says guns are not the problem in gun violence. Claims vaccines cause autism. Sounds like he's going to appeal to Trump supporters a lot more than he will appeal to Biden supporters.
  9. "Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes Long as I have my plastic Jesus Riding on the dashboard of my car I could go a hundred miles an hour Long as I got the almighty power Glued up there with my pair of fuzzy dice" Theme song for the Right Reverend Billy Sol Hargis, pastor of the First Church of the Discount House of Worship. A typical Holy Offering: By special arrangement with Him, Billy Sol is offering you the Chance for Heaven-Right-Here-On-Earth, say Hallelujah! (Hallelujah!) That's right, he asked Billy Sol to purchase 700 acres of land for a Heaven-Right-Here-On-Earth. And he told Billy Sol, he said, he said "Billy Sol, let them in on this tremendous offer!" Can I get a Hallelujah! (Hallelujah!) Well, Heaven-Right-Here-On-Earth is as close as Miami Beach, because the Promised Land Development Company is making this offer for as little as $27.77 a month, VA and FHA approved! Unfortunately Billy Sol died in 2019, but thank God his spiritual son, Donald Jesus Trump, is there to take over.
  10. They're not. Heck, the DZ manager is very much a non Trumpie. But non-Trump supporters now know to not talk about it, to avoid the attacks against them.
  11. I fear Winsor has gone so far right that he has become innumerate.
  12. Unfortunately, with a gun, the time it takes to go from a law-abiding gang member to a criminal is measured in milliseconds - just long enough to pull the trigger. I oppose laws that make it easier to arm law abiding gangsters. Given that illegal immigrants have a far lower crime rate (both property and violent) than US citizens - no.
  13. When the GOP is too dishonest for George F*cking Santos . . .
  14. So after the sudden and aggressive ouster of McCarthy as Speaker for the republicans, Mike Johnson seemed like a safe pick. He had the least amount of experience as any Speaker, ever, which was a plus for the idiocracy of the GOP these days. He was also as hard right as they come (anti-LGBT, anti-minority) thus appealing to the Trumpies. But the honeymoon didn't last long. MTG has just made a motion to oust him after he was foolish enough to do his job and call for a vote on the temporary measure that funded the government. The GOP has responded forcefully by . . . not recognizing her, so she can't introduce it and start the clock on it. I think a lot of republicans are sweating this. If Greene and her cohorts manage to destroy Johnson, and prevent any passage of any bills, voters are going to see that and realize the consequences of sticking with a republican majority.
  15. And Barack Obama, and the IPCC. Some other lesser known Nobel laureates: Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi for their work on climate variability, and accurately predicting the global warming "signal" (the actual warming beneath the variability of the weather) William Nordhaus, an economist who modeled the costs of climate change