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David, You are the future and you are right for the task. When you actually have the real ability to change things most of us here will be long gone. Please take that responsibility seriously. Joe

Hi John, That'll teach her to be a woman. Jerry Baumchen

Elon needs to mind his own business, not everyone else's.

Reminds me again of that Carl Sagan quote: "The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

The election will almost certainly happen if not with absolute certainty. In the history of the republic since George Washington was elected, US presidential elections have never been canceled, and I genuinely don't see how 2028 would be any different. One of the worse case scenarios I could see is that the election becomes "less democratic" and more "controlled", which could signal that the US is indeed on the path to a dictatorship, but it would most likely be a slow process. That being said, I believe things will get a lot worse before they get better with all the Trump & Musk & DOGE stuff. Resistance against the Trump Administration has started everywhere - people are speaking up and protesting, states are filing lawsuits, judges are blocking Trump's orders, and there are internal conflicts among Republicans on various issues. It's really easy but also deeply understandable to have a "doom and gloom" attitude. Heck, I was reading some news about the "Nazi Salute" at CPAC the other day, and I even hypothetically thought about what I would do personally if I were living in Nazi Germany 2.0. In the meantime, I have been learning about human emotions recently, and emotions pretty much always come before logic. People tend to react emotionally first and use logic later, and this is especially true on social media. The thing I've been taught - and am trying to do - is to use both emotion and logic to form a more balanced perspective, which is why I want to choose intentional optimism. Current American democractic institutions are being tested, but it's not hopeless.

Trump is a con-man. His record as a con-man is long and public. They knew he lied all the way through his first term. Yet they voted for him anyway. Well, they got the result they voted for, just not the one they expected.

John, what a relief to know you are still with us in these troubled times. Especially now when DEI principles are under attack from every direction do you think someone here should extend an olive branch and an invitation to Brent?

Glad to see you back

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-recalls-380000-vehicles-us-over-power-steering-issue-2025-02-21/ 380 000 Tesla’s recalled because the steering’s not right :)

Unfortunately that is a huge problem. The people spreading disinformation rely on people who only think and process in sound bites and the world is a complex and messy place. Anyone can compress the solution to a problem into a soundbite

Thanks for your perspective, David. Wendy P.

Thanks for your perspective. I admire your optimism and the fact it isn’t based on blind ignorance. I completely agree about the emotions trumping logic. Unfortunately there are people who are able to harness that and use it to manipulate people into blindly following down a dark path (think cults and the like). I believe one of the reasons the dems struggle is that they appeal to logic and not emotions.

History is indeed a great subject. While not an identical parallel to Ukraine what transpired with the Sudentenland is worth a review.

It sounds cooler that he boarded with an attache case versus “He boarded with an attache case and a shopping bag from Publix”.

Well, I don't think Elon should be involved in politics at all and am completely opposed to anything that even closely resembles a nazi salute. I am of an age where my parents served during Korea and had great Uncles that served during WWII. Anything Nazi or Commmunist goes against the grain.

So, a racist screed is okay so long as it's "good racism?" Got it. I hate to break it to Amnesty, but focusing on race is racist while refusing to consider it is anything but. Deal with it.

I was addressing the blanket statement, not the "and in particular." As in going to other countries and fighting for their right to have the same whilst you built your little DZ and increased your coffers, or do you mean like now; where I help veterans every day (of any creed, color, race, gender, or religion) whilst you sit on your yacht drinking $300 bottles of wine and send politicians money to pat yourself on the back.