Their lives were probably less complex, but that doesn't mean that they had less to worry about. They had fewer, but much serious worries, we have lots more, but less serious worries. You are worried about every fearmongering anecdote from your
right-wing news outlets, they were worried if they would survive the oncoming winter.

Coronaviruses have been around for millions of years, long before humans existed. Paleovirology has found some evidence that we inherited some resistance from the Neanderthals. Still, they died of so many diseases that we consider mild today.
And of course modern medicine has conquered several horrible diseases.
Unfortunately, modern anti-science is bringing some of them back.

The behavioral tendencies for racism are probably very old, but back then tribalism overruled it. People didn't just distrust other races, they distrust everyone outside of their tribe. It's behavior that is even observed in apes.

What I've read about it is that we have evolutionary tendencies to determine in-groups and out-groups, but racism emerged from cultural, political, and economic forces.
Racism as we understand it today—fixed, hierarchical, and global—emerged primarily in the last 500 years, driven by:
- colonial expansion
- the transatlantic slave trade
- European imperial ideologies
- scientific racism in the 18th–19th centuries

Slave trading has been going on for thousands of years, but it wasn't based on race. Read the bible and see how the Jews had different rules about owning slaves for Jews and everyone else. That was not based on race, because everyone in that area looked the same. It was based on in-groups and out-groups.

I don't think it's based on energy conservation, I think it's based on power preservation.
For a dominant group, defining another group as “inferior,” “different,” or “dangerous” creates:
- a boundary around the in-group
- a rationale for unequal treatment
- a story that justifies their power
This makes it easier to maintain control without relying solely on force.

Racism provides ideological cover for distributing benefits unequally: land, jobs, political rights, education, wealth and safety.

By claiming that some groups are “naturally suited” to labor, or “less civilized,” or “less intelligent,” the ruling group can preserve advantages and restrict competition.

A key principle of power is: It’s easier to rule a population that is divided than one that is united. Racism:
- creates divisions among the working class or subordinate groups
- prevents coalitions that might challenge the dominant group
- redirects frustration toward minority groups instead of toward the powerful

It legitimizes coercive institutions. Cultural beliefs about racial difference allow the in-group to build institutions that reinforce inequality, such as:
- segregated schools
- restricted voting rights
- discriminatory policing
- immigration controls
- unequal legal systems
These become seen as “necessary” instead of oppressive.

It stabilizes the dominant group’s identity. Power is not only material—it is also psychological. Racism gives the in-group:
- a sense of superiority
- a justification for their privileged position
- a shared identity built around dominance
This creates emotional cohesion within the ruling group.

It masks the real mechanisms of power. Racism can make inequality appear:
- natural
- inevitable
- rooted in biology
- the “fault” of the oppressed group
This hides the structural causes, allowing the powerful to avoid accountability.

Thus, racism is not an evolutionary adaptation, it is a cultural strategy that societies can (and often do) use to maintain power structures.

You cannot achieve 'true equality' by ignoring differences between people.
Race still plays a part, because of systemic discrimination.
Ignoring the existence of that is the opposite of having the goal of ANY equality.

You think that Trump has any principles, that's where you go wrong.
It's all political theater, to distract you. It's just a grift.
He only says the things he says, because he wants you to believe them.
He turns on a dime, on everything he ever said, if he thinks he can score with it.
He does it all the time, but because you are in a cult, you don't even realize.

Trump only cares about himself and popularity (the 'ratings').
He envies Mamdani for his overwhelming popularity.

No dumb-ass, they are corporatists; wealthy people who like the capitalist system, because it favors wealthy people.

Capitalism works for THEM, because they are the WEALTHY who exploit everyone else.
And if they are still only rich yet, they get paid by the wealthy.

How many times did I tell you that it is shear stupidity to call the Democrats "Socialists!", "Communists!", "Radical left!", "Far left!" and "Marxists!"?

Now you see it for yourself, and then you make some stupid comment about it.

HIDDEN CAMERA – Trump’s DOJ on plans to redact Republicans from Epstein Files
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Like no one thought of them doing that.

In any case, that's a clear admission that he knows that there's lots of Republicans in it.
The first released version will likely be painted black for 80%.

Do you think that camping for 17 years is a worthwhile way to spend your life?

No problems? One tiny infection can kill you.
What do you think his teeth are like? Would he still have some?

Maybe you would have more rational political insights, if you wouldn't romanticize
living like a wild animal or some caveman. You are probably still recovering somewhat from a medical intervention that saved your life, but instead of absorbing that into your worldview, you think people are better off living like we did 10,000 years ago.
Understand that even the poorest person in the modern world has a much better
quality of life than the people back then. About half the children died before the age of 5, from some disease, accident or being eaten by a predator.

Every Day Began With Uncertainty. A person woke up not knowing if they would eat that day. Seasons mattered brutally: winter or drought could mean days with almost nothing—maybe a handful of nuts, bitter roots, or dried meat if they had been lucky enough to store some.

Cold, heat, wind, and rain all mattered more than any predator.

Clothing was animal hide, often stiff, smelly, and poorly insulating. Shelters were drafty huts or temporary camps. A single storm could wipe out a group’s food stores, trap them indoors, or kill the very young and the very old.

Aches, injuries, and infections were simply part of existence.
- No painkillers beyond plants that dulled the senses
- No medical treatment for sprains, fractures, or infected wounds
- Teeth worn down from grit in stone-ground food
- Parasites, fleas, lice
Most adults lived with chronic pain that would send a modern person to the ER.

Large predators still roamed in many regions—lions, wolves, cave bears, saber-toothed cats (in earlier periods), hyenas.
Even more dangerous were simply:
Falls, Cuts that got infected, Snakebites, Fires and Conflict with other groups. Any of these could be fatal.

Parents expected to lose children; grief was constant, quiet, and communal.

Whether hunter-gatherer or early farmer, work was exhausting.
For hunters:
- Track animals for hours or days
- Carry heavy meat back to camp
- Face dangerous prey
For gatherers:
- Bend and kneel for hours collecting roots, seeds, nuts
- Process plants by scraping, pounding, grinding

For early farmers:
- Dig, plant, weed, haul water
- Defend fields from animals
- Store grain or risk starvation

While some individuals lived into their 50s or even 60s, the average life expectancy was dramatically pulled down by:
- infant deaths
- infections
- accidents
- childbirth risks
- malnutrition
Living to 30 was already an accomplishment.

Anxiety was a permanent companion:
- Will we eat tomorrow?
- Will the weather turn?
- Is that sound a predator?
- Are other tribes approaching?
There was wonder, community, and meaning—but also relentless uncertainty.

The only upside I see from that time is that the tribe helped each other to stay alive. Nowadays, people are completely isolated from each other. People are selfish, because that is idolized as the goal for self improvement. The sad thing is that people who support that selfish system often point to 10,000 years back, calling it "survival of the fittest".
That is very dishonest propaganda to justify inequality, because it is the opposite of what evolution teaches. Humans survived because of cooperation, resource sharing, division of labor, caring for the vulnerable and group solidarity.

Nonsense, the average government debt-to-GDP ratio for the European Union (EU)
was 81.9% at the end of the second quarter of 2025.
In the second quarter of 2025, the U.S. government's debt-to-GDP ratio was 119.4%.
If the EU is broke, the US is much more broke.

The EU is asking the UK for “billions”, but these are not arbitrary demands; they are part of a legally binding Brexit financial settlement. It’s the UK repaying agreed obligations as part of the Brexit exit deal.

So, you're just parroting filthy lies for a political reason.

Trump is ILLEGALLY withholding hundreds of billions of dollars in funding from California,
while Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are successfully fighting Trump
in court and taking back $168 billion of the money that they are owed, and now you are blaming California for their deficit? Wow, that's dishonest!

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Californians already paid about $275.6 billion more in federal taxes than they received
in federal spending, keeping afloat all those poverty stricken red states, and you have
the nerve to blame them for their Trump induced deficit? Damn!

Brooke Rollins (U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) claimed that, but provided NO underlying data publicly, in a way that independent fact-checkers could fully verify the 186,000 deceased number.

Brooke Rollins is a political figure with close ties to Trump. There are plausible motivations for her to frame SNAP-fraud data in a way that aligns with Trump-era policy goals.

You're cherry picking the most positive poll in existence,
and he is still below 50%, in your most positive poll.

The polling aggregator Silver Bulletin (built on the work of Nate Silver) reports his approval at about 41.2 % as of Nov 22, 2025.
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A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found his approval at only 38 %
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Barack Obama's popularity, as measured by various job approval polls, was frequently less than 50% during his time in office.
While he won the national popular vote in both his presidential elections with over 50% (52.9% in 2008 and 51.1% in 2012), his day-to-day or weekly job approval ratings fluctuated considerably.

Key points regarding his approval ratings:

Early Presidency: He started with a high approval rating of 67% in January 2009.

Declines: His rating gradually dropped over the next two years, hitting a low of 40%
in September and October 2011.

Mid-Presidency: For a period of about three years, from March 2013 to March 2016, his approval rating consistently stayed below 50%, never dipping below 40% but also never rising above 49% during that time.

End of Term: His popularity rose again toward the end of his second term, finishing his presidency with a final weekly rating of 59% in mid-January 2017.

It is important to say that Obama didn't have majorities in congress, so he couldn't do anything he wanted to do. Trump has a majority in congress. That doesn't really matter, because Trump is the king of national emergencies and executive orders, bypassing congress. He also has a supreme court that mostly lets him do whatever he wants.

That is significant, because it means that Obama was not very popular for not being able to do the things that he promised, while Trump is unpopular for doing the things that he's doing. Trump can do what he wants, but is still ignoring lots of promises that he made.

It saddens me to see that the American public doesn't understand this,
and values one of the best presidents that the US ever had only a bit higher
than the worst one.

That's called "cherry picking": picking ONE outlier that confirms what you want to believe.
And then you act happy about a positive outlier putting him below 50%. That's funny to me.

Rasmussen’s methodology: They focus on likely voters, and their daily tracking poll is a specific type of sample. Other polls use all adults or registered voters, which can yield different results.

Polling averages show his approval is lower than 47 %. For example:

The polling aggregator Silver Bulletin (built on the work of Nate Silver) reports his approval at about 41.2 % as of Nov 22, 2025.
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A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found his approval at only 38 %
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She isn't really that dumb, she is just playing it. She is absolutely useless though.
Never did anything positive for the people she represents. But, that's the type of people your side is voting for. You like the dumb, hateful rhetoric, and you have no idea
what they are actually doing.

Of course you hate Rachel Maddow. She represents everything you hate.
And she makes your president look stupid and evil every day.
And of course you need to use a slur for her being lesbian,
because you're a bigot.

No, MTG is NOT unpredictable. She is doing exactly what is best for her,
long term. She hitched her wagon to Trump when he was hot, and she is now unhooking it, before he drags her into the ravine. She is stupid, but she is not as stupid to believe all the things she is saying. She just panders to stupid people. She is the alt-right candidate, a Neo-Nazi, like Nick Fuentes. Horrible people, who also hitched their wagon to Trump, but who are not in the Trump cult,
like you. They have their own cult, and they want to take over, when your cult crumbles. That's what MTG is preparing for.

Almost all Republican politicians voted to release the Epstein files.
That's them doing the same as MTG; unhooking their wagon from Trump.
Trump showed no loyalty towards ANY of them EVER, so they will kick him down when the time comes. If that happens, and MTG takes over, you will be licking
her feet in no time.

Why the Stock Market Hasn’t Crashed Yet? What They Don’t Want You to Know.
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"Markets don't crash when things look bad, they crash when the forces
holding everything together finally break"

The McLaren SLR is hypercar royalty. Maybe Paris Hilton ruined it.
Or the guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
Or the guy has expectations for cars that doesn't match.
If you want to take your wife and four kids shopping, the McLaren SLR sucks.

The topic was "What happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene? Did she get bitten by Rachel Maddow?" -The Daily Show

Iran's ayatollah is a Far-right, ultraconservative, dumb-ass.

You're also a dumb-ass for calling the Democrats "far left".

Damn, you don't know, nor understand, anything!

Nothing of what you said is applicable to Marjorie Taylor Greene or Rachel Maddow.

Yes, I'm a socialist! No, I do not hate Israel. No, I do not hate Jewish people.
I hate the Netanyahu regime, that has committed a genocide, which has not stopped.
Many Jews, in Israel and all over the world, hate Netanyahu too.

I don't hate the USA, I hate your ideology. Your ideology is anti-American.
You are committing treason towards American values.

When our country is attacked, according to our NATO alliance, that is an attack
on all other NATO allies, including your country. You would be obligated to help.

By the way, your country is doing war posturing right in front of our borders,
because Venezuela is a neighboring country. We don't like it.

Aruba lies less than 15 miles (24 km) from Venezuela's shores.
Curaзao is about 40 miles (65 km) north of Venezuela.
Bonaire is approximately 50 miles (80 km) off the coast.

If We Tax Rich People... They Will Just Leave!
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Real economics destroying the wealthy's favorite lie.

Yeah, it's the Jewish space laser broad, of course.
You didn't think she was crazy then, just now she opposes the sex offender.

Maybe learn to not pull QAnon lunatics into your ranks.
It's all fun to accuse Democrats of having a pdf file ring,
until you vote for a president who was very much part of it.
Then the people you turned crazy, might turn against you.

Of all the reasons to abandon a politician you once supported, that is a good one.
Don't you think?

How many Trump supporters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
None.... Trump says it's fixed, so they sit in the dark and cheer.

He is giving orders to have people murdered by the military.
He doesn't have to face anyone personally. He doesn't even see the death bodies.
The most cowardly person in the world can do that. (and is)

No, dumb-ass, it's the corruption that makes some Democrats switch party.

Also, being a Republican politician is SOOOO EASY.
You lot don't want anything and believe such childish lies.
Hurting people is your ONLY demand, and that's EASY.

Marjorie Taylor Greene or Rachel Maddow?

Thanks, but it's just sad that some foreigners have to tell Americans how they are screwed.

We just had an election in the Netherlands. Healthcare was a very important topic. We had at least 6 parties debate their healthcare plans clearly. All parties had their programs analyzed, so the Dutch people can clearly understand the impact of their vote on healthcare. Some parties invest in lower costs for the people, other parties cut expenses and reduce what the basic insurance will cover.

MAGA Americans don't know shit. They refuse to understand that cutting billions
from taxes funding healthcare will make their insurance premiums higher and their coverage lower. Either they believe in fairy-tales or they just like to be lied to.

They voted for a president who clearly does the opposite of what he promised,
and they like it. I come from a country where promises matter.

They are talking about the Milankovitch cycles, which I explained about in the
'YouTube can be educational too (let's share videos)' topic.

There are three main cycles:
1) ~100,000 years for changes in orbital eccentricity (shape of Earth's orbit)
2) ~41,000 years for changes in axial tilt (obliquity)
3) ~23,000 to 26,000 years for the wobble of the Earth's axis (precession)

They are completely irrelevant for human made climate change, that has the potential
to decimate humanity in a few HUNDRED years, from increasing the temperature,
many thousands of years before the next ice age is due, if humanity DOESN'T ACT.

The reassuring article from Bill Gates, that you posted a while back, takes into account
that humanity DOES ACT, SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN WE ARE ACTING NOW.

September 2015 – “60 Minutes” interview with Scott Pelley on CBS 60 Minutes,
Trump said: “Everybody’s got to be covered … I am going to take care of everybody.
I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.”

When asked who would pay, he responded: “The government’s gonna pay for it.”

He added that his plan would still involve private plans, with competition:
“It’s going to be a private plan … people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans … they can have their doctors … they can have plans … everything.”

As president-elect, Trump told the Washington Post:
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody. … There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

Feb 13, 2025 – Trump signed an Executive Order to establish the “Make America Healthy Again Commission.”. According to the White House fact sheet, the commission will investigate major causes of chronic disease in America, “prioritize gold-standard research,” and develop strategies to improve health coverage flexibility.

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Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” includes about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years.
According to ITEP, more than 70% of the net tax cuts go to the richest 20% of Americans.
ITEP also says the richest 5% alone will get 45% of the new tax cuts.
For the top 1%, ITEP estimates they’ll receive total tax cuts of $1.02 trillion over 10 years.

The Americans for Tax Fairness group claims Trump’s plan would cut “nearly $2 trillion from health care, mostly Medicaid.”
The CBO estimates those changes could leave 10+ million people uninsured.

Conclusion: Trump is taking away healthcare for 10+ million Americans,
to give the richest people in the US some more money.
Is that what he promised the American people?

I know you don't care about anything bad happening under a Republican
and you don't care about anything good happening under a Democrat.
I just don't understand what you are voting for then.
Do you understand that politicians should represent you, not the other way around?

Trump did achieve something; he angered all the other countries, who have now found other trading partners than the US, and made them consider to abandon the dollar
as the world's principal reserve currency.

By the way, do you want to sell me some fine Canadian products?
You can also come to Europe for your winter vacation.

China makes everything from ridiculous scams to complete competition busters.
Some of their good products are kept from you, by your government.
There are often good reasons for it, like China using forced labor.
But, some of it is just protectionism. That might not even be a bad strategy.
However, if they have access to the cheapest electricity in the world, because
they make the best solar panels at the best price, it is not smart to keep them away
from our manufacturing, because then they pay more for electricity. That's a setback
that puts us further behind.

There is no dignity to the people who work in motels, it's exploitation. No American can life of that wage, but immigrants are forced to, out of desperation.

If you want Americans to do those jobs, you need to exploit them less, because that is bad for the economy. Those people cannot spend anything, can only live in slums, cannot afford children or if they have them accidentally, they cannot afford a decent education. Then you are losing against China even more, because they have armies of well educated, highly motivated, young people, to fill any technical position.

I'm saying this about the US, but it's getting more applicable to my country fast.
We are not educating our young people enough for the highly technical jobs.
Young people more often choose Business Administration, Commercial Economics, Finance, Medicine, Nursing, Psychology, Communication, Marketing, HR, Social Studies, Design, Media, Music, Gaming, Tourism, Pedagogy, Cybersecurity, Embedded Systems, AI Engineering, etc.
They keep pulling away to those educations, while the demand for technically educated people is skyrocketing, because we want to be less dependent on China.

I see it in my own work environment. Many of my new colleagues are from another country. I'm surprised if one gets introduced in Dutch to me. I speak more English
than Dutch at work. If the right-wingers in my country win big, and actually stop immigration and sends these people back, my employer can close up shop.

Meanwhile, the right-wing has NO strategy to invest in automation for when they stop the refugees from the horrible countries, who do the lower skilled work now, nor do they have a strategy to invest in technical education, to replace the expats who are filling
the technical jobs now. It's just blind short-term thinking: "We don't like immigrants!".

Melania Trump: South Park vs. Reality
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Sorry to hear that. We're not all 'blessed' with good health by nature.

Some things that are 'natural' like milk and butter, are not better for you, than the 'fake stuff'. Some margarines are made from oils with lots of poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, just like olive oil.

Hopefully your soil isn't polluted. If not, nothing can beat home grown veggies.
Having a few chickens can also give you more healthy eggs, if you feed them good food. My government now warns against it though, because PFAS is everywhere, and ends up in the eggs at high concentrations.
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Bon Appйtit

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which is the autoimmune disease, or osteoarthritis?
I never heard of RA resulting in vascular problems though.
There are biological inhibitors for RA inflammations, but they are incredibly expensive and most insurances don't cover it, or only in the worst case, even in the Netherlands.
Celecoxib is said to help with RA. I'm sure it's less expensive.

Sure, if you throw out the immigrants that did it, Americans should.
Or you say goodbye to the small bit of production industry, you still had.
It's only 10% of the GDP, who cares? You cannot compete with China anyway.

You don't disprove leopoldij to be independent from a car,
by showing he is dependent on walking, biking and public transit.

The question is: which specific independence makes your life better
and which doesn't. Being independent from the supermarket might
make some people happy, but to me it would be just a shit ton of labor,
that I can direct to more productive uses.

Personally, I'm not dependent on a car, but it's comfort is worth it's money to me. However, I'm not dependent on any transport, 3 of the 5 working days, because I work from home then. It does mean that I'm dependent on my self-discipline and failing a lot, and dependent on my own electricity,
but you cannot have everything. If you think you will become happier by becoming as independent as possible, you have my blessing to try.
I'll warn you that it will probably suck balls though.

"IS there light,if there are no eyes to see it?
IS there sound,if no one hears it?"

People have asked those questions for millennia, and of course many other questions. Philosophers have gained some ground on answering those questions, but it has been the scientific method, of a continuous, evidence-based, self-correcting process of asking questions, testing explanations, and refining refining those explanation, that has resulted in our most useful understanding of reality.

There is almost nothing left of reality that scientists have no explanation for at all. They have found logical processes that explain almost everything. Never has science come to a complete halt, requiring the conclusion "something unnatural is occurring".
Meanwhile, science has disproven many of the claims about reality proposed by religions. The religions have either doubled down in pushing a literal interpretation of the texts that forces proponents to reject all evidence against it, believing lies and just sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "Lalalalala!" if someone tries to correct their lies or mistakes, or they say the texts are just meant figuratively. Well, even the figurative parts of religious texts are all contradicting each other, and the only way to explain that is saying all other religions wrong, which means all of them are wrong. When science comes up with explanations, it doesn't matter where in the world the scientist is born and what their parents believed. The explanation works everywhere.

Science knows what light is and knows what sound is. They still occur, if there is
no observer. It's only philosophical babble, if we call that 'light' and 'sound'.
Don't blame scientists for talking about such metaphysical ideas.
They do often inspire new metaphysical ideas. That's why there are now creationists asking "Oh yeah, then what was there before the big bang?".
The answer is: "Science is working on that. You didn't discover the big bang, your explanations were disproven, so shut up and let the grown ups do their work.".

"You leave a little space for things that might appear as explanations for what we don't understand yet"
True. There are lots of things that we don't fully understand yet.
However, I personally do not know of anything that justifies considering explanations of a non-material nature.

The proposal of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' are originating from measurements that show a big inconsistency between the calculations how a galaxy should keep together, based on the gravity of the observable matter and on how the whole universe should expand, if there is no force that expands it. They have not found the type of matter yet, that can explain how galaxies stick together, so they call it 'dark matter', simply because they cannot see it. They have no explanation for why the universe keeps expanding at an increasing rate, so they call it 'dark energy'. They are just placeholders for explanations, not explanations itself.

I agree that there is a materialist view behind that practice. However, why shouldn't they? Do they have any reason to suspect any spiritual cause behind how galaxies stick together and how the universe keeps expanding at an increasing rate? And if they were to do so, how would they research that?

The 'god of the gap' argument is indeed a bit childish, but the reason for rejecting
'god of the gap' arguments is valid. If scientists would just say "god did it",
for something we don't know, nothing would ever be explained by science.

Funny! That was wide open goal, wasn't it?

I have no problem with being called stupid, if you can show me to be wrong on anything.
Instead, you show you don't understand basic concepts.

"Celecoxib, sold under the brand name Celebrex among others, is a COX-2 inhibitor and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It is used to treat the pain and inflammation in osteoarthritis, acute pain in adults, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, painful menstruation, and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. It may also be used to decrease the risk of colorectal adenomas in people with familial adenomatous polyposis. It is taken by mouth. Benefits are typically seen within an hour."

Is that applicable to you?
If inflammations are the main cause of your health problems, it's good to treat them.
It's not treating the root cause, because you need to know what is causing the inflammations, but it's a layer closer to the root cause, than treating the effects
of the inflammations.

I understand why the doctors are hesitant. Celecoxib may pose higher risk for people with heart disease or stroke history. However, if your heart and vascular issues are originating from an inflammation issue, I would think it's good to treat the cause.

Republicans are not excluding r@pe from their ban, so your support is moot.

Timing and partner reasons are mostly financial too. That's where the 75% comes from.

That mostly of them COULD be prevented is probably true. That's not reality though. Women get pregnant unintentionally, and the reason can be an argument for who pays for it, but not for it being illegal.
Do you think having children should be punishment, for being stupid?

I sort of agree that careless people need to pay for their own abortion,
but look at it this way: the people who cannot pay for it are in the worst position to take care of a child.

Why do you want all those unwanted children, being raised by stupid people,
in desperate financial need? Don't you think your country has enough losers?

You are complaining about your drugs problem, but that is not a supply problem, that is a demand problem. And your idea of putting more losers on this earth
is creating the demand.

Interesting. Stress, anxiety and depression are at least very unhealthy.

I know that Jehovahs can enter your property, without it being trespassing,
that was the whole argument. I'm explaining the slippery slope argument to you, because you didn't understand it the first time, and it's going right over your head again.

I am arguing against pharts argument "where do you draw the line?",
saying "oh this baby may have a iq lower than 125, abort abort abort!"
The "line" that we draw is the law. The same law that defines the limit between Jehovahs entering your property and trespassing, which you specified.

So, there could be al law that keeps abortion legal, but excludes the reason that it's IQ would be lower than 125, or whatever other nonsense phart makes up.
We we talking about abortion for a fetus that develops without a brain, like the woman from the article that phart shared. Do you you have an opinion on that?

Do you think that every fetus with abnormalities or genetic diseases should be born, even if they are sure to live like a vegetable or will likely die immediately after birth? That's what Republicans are enforcing now, so your primitive thinking about who funds it, is a bit unsatisfactory for all those women who must deliver a baby that has no chance at a normal life, and the parents who have to care for it, the rest of it's life (if it dies young) or the rest of their life (if it doesn't die young).

We are talking about abortion being legal or not, not if it is funded with tax-dollars.
It was YOU who said that elective procedures shouldn't be funded by tax-dollars. That includes joint replacement and other serious medical procedures.

But, since we are talking about money. Do you understand the energy, time and MONEY that a severely disabled child costs? With your broken healthcare system, a child like that is unaffordable. If parents cannot meet that burden, is your government stepping in? Are you OK with your tax-dollars funding all those severely disabled people, because Republicans took away the CHOICE to abort them?

Is it a false equivalence to compare abortion with joint replacement and other serious medical procedures? It fucking well isn't, when Republicans are excluding abortions for DEAD fetuses. The total abortion ban has already caused 59 deaths of women with abnormal or death fetuses, and the ACPM estimates potentially 210 additional maternal deaths per year in certain states as a result of abortion bans. That makes abortion more important than a joint replacement, in a lot of cases. How can one function, when they are DEAD?

No, pregnancy is not 100% preventable. Many girls and women get r@ped. Republicans in some red states are already banning abortion for r@pe victims.
Do you think every fertile female should be on anti-conception, in case they get r@ped? Also, anti-conception is not 100% effective. The end result is that many women get pregnant unintentionally, without any fault of their own.

Let's throw insulin into that mess. Who is grasping at totally unrelated medical ... , here? (it's not even a procedure)
I think it should be either 100% covered by insurance or funded by taxes.
With your attitude, I expect you don't.

Again, no one was talking about who pays for abortions, until YOU did. We were talking about abortions being allowed by law, or not. Most abortions can be performed with some pills. I am fine with people paying for them out of pocket.

In 75% of the cases, abortions in the US are performed because the woman
is not financially secure enough to take care of it. So, if you don't like abortions,
maybe start thinking about solving that. Even giving birth itself sets people back on average $2,743. Do you think giving birth is an elective procedure?

And even if some women are getting pregnant due to their own stupidity, do you think that those dumb-asses should be parents? How about having people wait with parenting, until they have some idea that they are up to the responsibility?
Why do people like you always support ideas that fuck up your country?
It's very clear that you don't have an IQ limit for abortions. DAMN!

What Trump wants to do, is replace Maduro with some friend,
who takes your bribes and sells out his people, by selling off
the rights to the oil to some American oil company.
The Venezuelan people will get nothing, because
the American oil company and it's shareholders will
take everything. That's what your country always does,
when it goes into some country, 'to fix the place'.

The drugs story is just an excuse to take take their oil.

Remember how Trump said "I would have taken the oil" about Iraq?
The US had no fucking reason to attack Iraq, but Trump wanted
to take their oil, to pay for your war against an innocent country.
That speaks a lot about his morality and his intent with Venezuela.

The US doesn't want to fix the place, but to rob it blind.

Thanks, and back at you.

Being pure materialist would be shutting your brain for anything miraculous.
I've had personal experiences that felt like making brain contact. In my head, I said something to another person, and they reacted to it. I'm very sure that I was completely silent. It just happened only 2 times in my life, both women. That makes it very likely just a coincidence. Still, I'm not just dismissing it as evidence, it's just very weak evidence.
I would need much more, to be convinced.

And that's my attitude towards everything, from the purely materialistic up to the fully spiritual and religious. My confidence in an idea is entirely dependent on the confirmation of the idea. I can switch my idea of something on a dime, if you provide me stronger evidence for the alternative, than I have for my original idea. A few years back, I switched my idea on the 'big bang'. The idea I held was that the whole universe was once concentrated in a point, smaller than an atom and almost infinitely dense.
Then someone told me that there is good evidence that the universe is infinite. Something finite cannot grow into something infinite, unless it grows/grew at infinite speed. We observe the universe growing at a finite speed, so it has been infinite all along. Everything we can see still was concentrated in a much denser state, but just
not in one tiny point, but everywhere.

In no way do I think that I understand everything. It's not needed to have opinions.
I have opinions on what I understand and have justification for, and if I don't have justification, I don't have opinions on the matter.
Having an opinion on something, because of a lack of knowledge or understanding,
is called 'the god of the gaps argument'. Unless science finds some evidence for
non-material concepts, it means those concepts are an ever receding pocket
of scientific ignorance.
(Borrowed from Neil deGrasse Tyson, who borrowed it from someone else)

It's the damn union that should make sure their compensation is fair, without them needing a $10K bonus.
If their job IS providing safety, then when are they 'going beyond the call of duty'?

Here is an assessment of ChatGPT:

Overall Assessment

Yes, there is strong evidence that many TSA agents are serious about safety and do their job diligently. The high rate of firearm detection, combined with TSA’s public statements about security priorities, supports that view.

But no, the picture is not totally unblemished:
- There are genuine risks in how TSA handles internal misconduct (per the OIG report).
- There are serious policy and legal concerns around discrimination (e.g., transgender screening).
- There are tensions between security and operational efficiency.
- Labor unrest could erode performance or morale going forward.

That last sentence leads me to believe that they might deserve a raise, instead of a one time bonus. A bonus can be a good temporary motivation, but it doesn't attract new personnel. If they deserve $10K, better raise their wage by $5K-$8K and add a bonus program for achieving goals of $2K-$5K.

It seems like he didn't.

He should have known to not be friends with people who challenge you to do stupid things.
They just want to have a laugh at your expense.

This one was hard work from about 29 minutes in.
I had to listen to it several times, to get some idea what he was talking about.

Although these ideas about perception of time and progress are interesting to know
some basics about, I think it's mostly useful to understand perception of reality, but not
to understand reality itself. I don't agree with his 'Absolute Idealism', I'm very much a 'Materialist'. I think reality is doing perfectly fine, if there are no conscious creatures perceiving it. I agree that there are interactions between events that have non-linear effects, but that doesn't mean that time is non-linear. I'm sure that Hegel was smarter than me, but intelligence can also result in them perceiving patterns that only live in their minds. He also lived in a time, when science hadn't yet demolished many metaphysical delusions.

[For people who think this term 'Idealism' means the belief in and pursuit of high or noble principles, goals, and values, and 'Materialist' describes a preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, wealth, and physical comfort, with a corresponding lack of interest in spiritual, intellectual, or ethical values; NO, the philosophical terms have completely different meanings, than how these terms are commonly known and used.]

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Colombia’s role is much larger, especially in production, while Venezuela
plays a more limited but still significant transit (and potentially processing) role.

The US just wants to end the Maduro government, because he nationalized, restricted and weaponized the oil exports to your country, because the US was extorting them. The US doesn't want their oil at a 'reasonable price', but very cheap. In response, of Maduro nationalizing THEIR oil, the US tried to force regime change for your buddy Juan Guaidу. To push Venezuela on their knees, the US sanctioned their oil. Because that doesn't work like you hoped, Trump has made up this lie,
that Venezuela is somehow the worst offender when it comes to drugs cartels
in South America.

It's a repeat of the US attacking Iraq, in relation to 9/11.
Why waste a reason to attack who you want to attack, even if it's false.
It's easy to sell a lie to Americans, because they don't inform themselves.
Then there are people like you, who want to believe Trump's lies and ignore him
when he runs his mouth, and tells you his real intentions.

That's you understanding the exact reason for why Trump is making up these lies.
How about your principle of not taking what doesn't belong to you?