He got rid of the penny. *Win

Did you know nickels cost almost 14 cents to make? Time to eliminate those as well. Then coinage will be in order by size and make sense again.

Bfillmaff No, Musk did not do a nazi salute, but people take it at face value because it fits their case.

Sorry buddy...

I loves ya, but I have to stop you here. He did. He did it, he intended to do it. Full stop.
As for the other photos, I've seen those too, but you're not a stupid man, you can see the difference where the other politicians are very clearly being clipped in the pose, but the lead up was different. Musk intentionally did it, and then went on x "the everything app" to further make puns about being a nazi. Musk has also done the "heart goes out" gesture before, but, you know, not nazi-ish, but the heart shaped hands on his chest and spread arms out kinda thing versus the seig hail he did do. If this guy is a genius he sure does do some stupid shit. Some people claim autistic, fine, then he's an autistic nazi, and I have no problem with his autism.

Bfillmaff It is slightly insane that you reference 1984 while giving examples of how you have been brainwashed by the media, 1984 style.

Explain to me where I was brainwashed. Everyone is influenced, yourself included, but I'm definitely more comfortable being influenced by folks demanding being treated with dignity and respect versus the people blatantly lying to demonize them.... kinda like Nazis do.

Bfillmaff "Fine people on both sides".

I saw him say this, in real time, in an invterview, and with full context. He was excusing people chanting nazi sentiment similar to the 14 words

Bfillmaff "Drinking Bleach."

I watched the press briefing where he said this too.

Bfillmaff "Bloodbath"

Not sure which one this refers to

Bfillmaff "Nazi Salute"

I saw Elon do this on tv, in front of the presidential seal. Then I saw him turn around and do it again.

When I say I saw these, I watched the raw footage, the full, unedited (often live) video. Now after that I've certainly listened to talking heads that have given opinons, and that will have influenced my own. But that works both ways, and I'll admit to it, but I will also reject the nazi apologizing and justification... because that's what Nazis do.

Bfillmaff When I say brainwashed it's not a personal attack by the way, I know you guys are all good dudes who genuinely want what's best - no question as to intent on any of this stuff.

I appreciate that, and you and I always got on well, and I'm not being mean or dickish either, but I'm not going to compromise with or excuse people who are doing evil, which T&E are doing.

Bfillmaff Here are a couple of short clips... on theme with Poker + Politics: if former mega-lib Daniel Negreanu has started to figure it out, you guys can too

I'll watch these when I get a chance, but the "why I left the left" narrative is also often referred to as radicalization (yes, that also goes both ways). Ana Kasparian is another similar case, Cenk Uygur to a lesser degree. Folks change ideologies, and it is a big mistake to assign that to "figuring it out".

There's a saying I heard, and some folks say it's from Germany, some folks say it's made up.. .but, like, all sayings are made up?
"If there is a Nazi sitting at a table with 9 other people, you have a table with 10 Nazis"

Mark

Hormone blockers are reversible, further gender affirming treatments are usually made by adults. I'm sure again we could come up with same studies again, resulting again in reliability arguments.

It's a hot topic and I take this as an offer to "agree to disagree" because we're so far apart. I'll accept your offer and just say "let's hope you are right." (Just know that IF you are wrong, we will have done unimaginable damage to children, at large scale.)

(Re: DOGE) Please share some of these already uncovered wasteful spending

The one in the news right now is the USAID program. On the surface, you would think that is for "aid to foreign countries"... but it's become another example of "The Name Of Our Cause Sounds Good So We Can Do Whatever The Fuck We Want with No Accountability" (noticing a theme here?)

Personally, when I think of foreign aid, I think of helping build water supplies, helping improve living conditions, helping displaced individuals, etc. Instead, the US taxpayers extremely generous foreign aid dollars goes to bullshit like:

• Funding for an LGBTQ Advocacy Program in Serbia - Aimed at improving the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the workplace, with a commitment of about $1.5 million over three years.
• Transgender Health Clinic in India - USAID funded a transgender health clinic in India run by transgender individuals.
• Funding for a Transgender Opera in Colombia - $47,000 was allocated for a transgender-themed opera.
• Transgender Comic Book in Peru - $32,000 was spent on creating a transgender comic book.
• Sex Changes in Guatemala - $2 million was used for funding sex change operations.
• Anti-Israel, Antisemitic Songs Production in Gaza - $3 million was reportedly given to a Gaza rap artist to produce anti-Israel songs.
• DEI Initiatives in Serbia - $1.5 million was invested to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces.
• DEI Musical in Ireland - $70,000 was allocated for a musical focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Funding for Moroccan Pottery Classes - $2 million was spent on pottery classes in Morocco.
• Sesame Street Show in Iraq - $20 million was used to promote a local version of Sesame Street.
• Fashion Week for Ukrainians in Paris - Funding was provided for Ukrainians to attend Paris Fashion Week.
• Electric Vehicles for Vietnam - $2.5 million was allocated for electric vehicles in Vietnam, part of a green energy initiative.
• Funding to Print Personalized Contraceptives - Money was spent on printing personalized contraceptives in developing countries.
• Unfinished Power Plant in Afghanistan - $335 million was spent on a diesel-fueled power plant that was never operational because locals couldn't afford diesel.
• Unsafe Dam Construction - $300-500 million was spent on a dam in Afghanistan deemed too unsafe to use.
• Non-existent Healthcare Facilities - Millions were spent on healthcare facilities that were reported not to exist.
• Cancelled Projects with Retained Payments - $70 million in contractor fees for projects cancelled before starting, where contractors kept the money.
• Police Training Facility in Afghanistan - $500k was spent on a police training facility that disintegrated in the rain due to poor construction materials (sand).
• Unsafe Cargo Planes - Nearly $500 million was paid for 22 cargo planes that were unsafe to fly and later sold for scrap at a fraction of the cost.
• Incomplete Road in Afghanistan - $249 million was spent on a road that was never completed.
• Gaza Pier - $300 million was used to build a pier attached to Gaza, which was destroyed by waves, with an additional $200 million spent to dismantle it.
• Funding to EcoHealth Alliance - Millions were given to EcoHealth Alliance, involved in research at the Wuhan lab, which stirred controversy.

I'm sure there are some holes to be poked in some of those, but it shows the trend. Taxpayer funded political activism at best, or flat out money laundering schemes at worst. And that's just one agency, and only a couple of weeks. Next he's talking about looking into politicians who make $280K per year that are accumulating 30M Net Worths (The Pelosi effect lol) - or the 150 year old people receiving their social security cheques. HOW is this a bad thing, other than "we don't like the guy doing the looking??"

As two white males, I'm sure we're the best people to speak on this.

DID YOU JUST ASSUME MY GENDER??? (OK just being a dick here... moving on.)

However, one fun thought experiment: Two identical candidates, one straight white male, one a POC / person of a visible minority of your choice. Some might say that it's a coin flip then, but the fact is the latter candidate has statistcally overcome more challenges, faced more bigotry and other hurdles, so is actually probably a better candidate.

This is literally a fantasy though. We're not talking about situations where "two exactly equal candidates are up for the job" - we're talking about injecting racial / gender bias into policy. As in, reducing the pool in the early stages based on race / gender. I get it, they are trying to solve for the struggles you mention... but no one is qualified to do that, let alone measure those struggles. No one is willing to admit they are making things worse either - because the intentions were good and that's all that matters. The law of unintended consequences hits this shit hard on so many levels here. People who earned their positions get labelled a DEI hires. People who did not earn their positions get thrown into positions where they aren't qualified. We ramp up division. We dedicate resources on whole departments created to keep track of all this shit instead of being productive. And in the end.. what did we fix... really just the optics of "look how many x race we have". I'm sorry, but you're flat out wrong here.

(re Death penalty) Pretty sure this is said in jest, but I really hope so. It doesn't work, and the only justification is if you want revenge, not justice.

Nope. Not familiar with that thread you mentioned, or at least can't remember it... but to make it clear, I'm even OK with you calling it revenge and would be fine with a John Wick style implementation. There are certain crimes there is no coming back from. Not sorry.

edit - almost forgot about this one:

Also, not sure if I'm detecting a vibe of climate change denial?

Let's say Climate Change is real for sake of discussion. The lefts approaches to solving it are so fucked up that just going ahead and destroying the planet would be a reasonable alternative. Luckily, most of the "science" is on the same level of "settled" as Covid was, and we're probably fine.

You are wrong. I watched the press conference as well and Trump never suggested drinking bleach. He was suggesting to inject it. So much for personal recall. You are a dubious witness Mark.

Women need safe spaces too and a fair playing field. I don't think you would find any woman feeling comfortable with this person being naked in their locker room, who still had their male genitalia. Which did happen.

https://images.app.goo.gl/RuXZDXXrUgKara7Y9

You can't tell me that this person suddenly became a great swimmer. This is clearly unfair to women.

DEI? Read this ridiculous crap.

From the National Post today.

All federal scientific funding agencies are now following the lead of the Department of Energy science office, which is the largest funder of physical sciences in the country. Following Trump’s executive order, the office promptly ended the requirement for all scientific grant proposals to include a diversity plan, formally known as a Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plan as part of the proposal. PIER Plans, which had been mandated since 2022, were to “describe the activities and strategies of the applicant to promote equity and inclusion as an intrinsic element to advancing scientific excellence.” Plans that had already been submitted would not be reviewed going forward.

These plans were required for all fields; a mathematical physicist studying string theory in 11 dimensions, for example, would have to discuss how their work actively promoted “anti-racism.” This sounds like fiction, but it isn’t. Many grant review committees and university hiring committees would first read DEI-related statements and filter out candidates who were not sufficiently committed to this social justice imperative before their actual research proposals could be read. For example, Daniel Ortner, a contributor to The Hill, reported that at UC Berkeley, 76 per cent of applicants for a faculty position were rejected based on their diversity statements without looking at their research records.

This crap is happening in Canada. "chanicka" wore out his welcome pretty quick at the Waterloo school board but not before trustee Mike Ramsay got suspended (a black person! ¯_(ツ)_/¯) for trying to speak out against the DEI cabal running the board at the time. BTW chanicka doesn't capitalize his name because he doesn't want to consider himself more important than trees, plants and dirt which aren't capitalized. And this guy was hired to determine policy for the education of our children.

And let's not forget the poor principal who upon trying to have a reasonable discussion had his career ruined and eventually committed suicide after speaking up during a DEI indoctrination session.

Finally birthright citizenship isn't really a thing in most of the rational world. The Americans invented it 175 years ago after the civil war as primarily a means to ensure blacks born in the US were guaranteed citizenship, at a time when it took weeks to travel between countries. It's not the only amendment in the US constitution that is now outdated and the US is now stuck with. Just because it is in the constitution doesn't mean it is still relevant and unassailable (hint guns).

Moose that post is so on point that I won't even bite on the guns thing.

The world is healing... ( we couldn't even talk about this stuff before - like the example in your article with the career suicide and/or actual suicide once the mob piled on)

*Re Injecting bleach: .. I pulled the video to see what I was missing. Context here is a multi hour unscripted press conference, with the clip in question directly following a doctor's presentation about disinfectants and UV light. He's quite obviously speculating having just watched the presentation, and the quote is:

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that? By injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs... So it would be interesting to check that. You`re going to have to use medical doctors - but it sounds interesting to me."

I just have to say: if you watched this and your takeaway was to go inject bleach... you weren't going to make it anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zicGxU5MfwE