Several things.

1. Everyone seems to be stuck on the fact that travel to get here would be interstellar and that’s impossible. Another hypothesis could be that they’re inter-dimensional or ultra-terrestrial, possibly living in the ocean.
2. The famous videos released by DOD and reported on in the NY Times.
3. If the accounts of these videos by trained military pilots is to be believed then a) they can accelerate many times beyond what any known military craft can to the point where the structural integrity of any known aircraft would fail. b) They were observed entering and exiting the water.
4. If a) then maybe our smartphone cameras cannot see them clearly due to speed or cloaking technology. I’d point to the “Jellyfish” video leaked this year where the UAP was captured by infrared only. Source.. Most normal cameras can’t see lots of things.
5. Kirkpatrick was clearly running diversion tactics on this issue before he left to the Department of Energy. He lied about meeting with individuals about Skinwalker Ranch (the individual produced receipts), he’s purposefully deceptive with his wording - “aliens”, “UFOs” when asked specific questions about Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) and UAP, and gets the facts about the most famous cases wrong when trying to discredit them. Most recently he claimed that one of the videos was an optical illusion because it was filmed during the day but the video was in fact filmed at night.
6. J Allen Hynek, head of Project Bluebook, which was a government program to debunk UAP. The guy who coined the phrase “Swamp Gas”. He finished his work with Bluebook and basically did a 180 and for the rest of his life claimed the government had pressured him into coming up with debunking theories. He believed in UAP and became an advocate for the rest of his life. Why?
7. Rendlesham Forest case, which prompted the US Government to medically pay one of the soldiers who was subject to the phenomenon.
8. The former Canadian head of our DOD and other very senior government officials which speak freely after retirement and say that there is a coverup. Recently Harold Malmgren presidential advisor to Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, claimed that he was briefed on “Otherworld Technologies.” Obama saying famously in that interview that there are things in our skies and we don’t know what they are. He could have just said no they’re not real - why didn’t he?
9. Famous reports in WW2 of fighter pilots seeing metallic orbs, just like the ones still reported today. There was no drone tech back then.

What would be enough proof if what we’re dealing with is beyond our current comprehension? Do they need to trot it out on live TV? Lyme disease wasn’t discovered until relatively recently like the 70s or 80s iirc and it was because a Doctor got it. Up until then they were saying it was juvenile arthritis.

I’m just saying that there has been a lot going on recently if you pay attention.

Either a lot of really high level officials are lying or military/intelligence is. Knowing how going public with this stuff can ruin your life, what possible motivation would they have to lie. There is no big money in this.

I know people who live around where his wife was driving the boat and got in an accident and the people in the other boat died.

They all think she took the fall for him and he was drinking and he was the one driving. They were both drinking let’s be real - heading home from dinner on one of the most exclusive cottage lakes in Canada gimme a break.

Their opinion is he should have been charged and guilty.

The wife got back to the dock and took a big drink if I recall correctly to “calm her nerves” - oldest trick in the book.

Anyway, this shithead says what?

I’m using a hyperbolic comparison to point out that Israel’s justification for killing Palestinian civilians is wrong. October 7th doesn’t give the IDF carte blanche to genocide a whole civilian population.

I’m pointing out that Israel often claims that Palestinian civilians are connected to / harbouring / being used as shields for Hamas so it’s basically fair game to kill them (they are enemy combatants).

Given that stance, shouldn’t the opposite also be true because Israel has compulsory military service. Because of this, all of their civilians are technically connected to the IDF so are they not also enemy combatants?

I don’t understand how Israel’s excuses always boil down to Hamas was hiding there.

Israel’s population does compulsory military service, does that make them all IDF and fair game as a military target? Of course not. So why is “Hamas = Everywhere” a valid excuse when “IDF = Everywhere” isn’t.

CNN has shifted to the right since their acquisition. I used to be ok with it but the quality of discourse, which wasn’t amazing in the first place, has declined to the point where it’s pretty unwatchable.

For example, Kaitlin Collins is a competent journalist, but she’s clearly been given a bigger role to appeal to right-wing viewers. Her background was the Daily Caller, I believe. Hardly a reputable institution, and I do question the integrity of someone who would work there in the first place. And she’s still one of the better ones.

They’re running an absolute clinic on how to tank a brand.

I really don’t think Netanyahu and his genocide cabinet would stop even if they stopped receiving weapons and/or funding. You could prosecute under the ICC but he’s not going to attend any sort of trial. Sanctions will likely never happen.

I’m not saying what the west (it’s not just the US) is doing is right in backing Netanyahu’s cabinet. What I am saying is this leader’s actions are a prime example of evil if I’ve ever seen it in my lifetime.

What happened to Israel on Oct. 6 was evil beyond comprehension. It is not ok to genocide a whole population on that basis.

Additionally, it’s disheartening that Trump would be even worse amid reports he’s counseled the Israeli PM to avoid a ceasefire for his own political aspirations. Dangerous fascist dictators flock together, it would seem.

Online literacy is really impacting boomers and elder gen x. Like QAnon or Covid Vaccines - some of them flip and just go psycho to the point it impacts their lives.

He could pay to go there. He’s all horny for space anyway. So go. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

Uh yeah it kind of is? You’re the one who said it’s about the Last Supper (incorrect) and who has a bee in their bonnet about drag queens for whatever reason.

People have been performing different gender roles for hundreds of years. In Shakespeare’s time they didn’t let women act in plays so it was all men.

Japanese Kabuki theatre is also all men acting in male and female roles.

And yes, Ancient Greece - y’know, where the Olympics originally come from - also had men dressed in drag for female roles in their theatrical performances as women generally did not act in theatre.

Let’s also not forget France’s most famous drag king, Joan of Arc!

So I’m not sure what the issue seems to be.

You need this.

It is likely not legally habitable. And to make it so for a renter would be beyond my current financial capabilities.

I have a second home but I inherited it. It would need 100s of ks in renos to rent out. It wouldn’t bring me much money to sell it - would probably need to sell for land value only.

But - it’s a place of refuge for my family member in an emotionally abusive relationship, a friend struggling with her marriage, a crash space if anyone I love is in a rough spot. It’s brought my family together and it’s where we gather.

I don’t think this is wrong because I am using it for net positive purposes in the long term, and someone otherwise probably couldn’t use it - it would be a tear-down.

Not a lawyer or American but here’s the text of the law. I’m guessing it depends on how you define dispute, controversy and whether is “with” the US, or whether this constitutes “defeating the measures of.”

Playing devil’s advocate I could see an argument of he’s just looking for alternative solutions in America’s best interest.

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

Is there wiggle wording here? For example, would the Supreme Court be like “welllllll the dispute isn’t with the US”

Yeah I just don’t think having a kid under the premise “well you can kill yourself later” is a really great argument. And they’re not really letting us kill ourselves humanely anyway - Medical Assistance in Dying laws are still incredibly restrictive and they actively prosecute people who sell alternatives.

Just because I find joy in life I can’t force that on other people. We all have different perspectives.

I look at it like joy is not guaranteed. The only thing that is guaranteed through life is suffering and death.

I don’t need to have kids for survival and we have too many people already. Why guarantee suffering in another person.

Oh my heavens no it’s not the only reason not to have kids and it’s not even factor #1 for me as a reason to not. Just one factor among many.

But this part of the thread started with a claim, as I understood it, that population growth wasn’t the problem - that the problem was instead capitalistic exploitation.

I’m just pointing out that limiting one could solve the other. Because I don’t think the oligarchs who rule the world will ever let us protest/unrest in a meaningful way again. People are kept just comfortable enough with fast food, Starbucks, entertainment, etc and just tired enough from selling labour that the vast majority of people wouldn’t care or engage with any sort of meaningful reform to the system.

We can’t even get people to engage in not electing King Fascist (US) and far-right populist Milhouse (Canada). For what reason??? Our other alternatives are middling, one is too old and in Canada I think they’re just tired of the tone and the tone deafness of our current guy. Seems like pretty lame excuses peddled by media that is owned by the very same oligarchs who stand to benefit the most from far right governments. The recent news in the UK and France makes it sting a little less, I guess.

How bad are we prepared to let things get? It’s gonna have to get pretty ugly at a local level for any meaningful change to happen.

I’m being a little snide but yeah supply and demand right? If the population reduces it impacts the demand for products and also the supply of workers.

Capitalists aren’t going to stop ruining the earth out of the goodness of their hearts or anything.

More like yes those are the problems and children are not the answer to those problems.

The capitalists would extract less if they had fewer workers and not as many people to sell stuff to.

So the answer boils down to kill yourself when you turn 18 bud? That seems like incredibly callous and unnecessary pain for all involved.

Consent 101: If you’re unsure about whether or not someone would consent, the answer is no. And since we can’t ask the unborn, people who don’t want kids assume the answer is no.