Post election prediction

[FunkyDexter]

Don't know why you think it would be harder here.

I could be wrong and would be happy to stand corrected but I get the impression your farming industry is heavily chemical dependent and based around monocultures. That could be a function of our media coverage rather than reality though.

Assuming it is correct then that's the sort of thing that could be addressed. Monocultures give a short term profit because they're much easier to harvest but they strip the soil nutrients over a number of years... leading to the need for greater quantities of chemical fertilisers which leach into the water table and round and round we go. More traditional approaches are better long term but less profitable in the short term.

Couple that with the fact that genetic modification has been used as much to lock farmers into a brand and artificially increase yields at the expense of soil quality instead of e.g. reducing the impact on soil quality and it feels like your farming industry has been negatively impacted by short term corporate thinking in a way that Europe hasn't. Or, at least, not to the same extent.

[dilettante]

I'm certainly not arguing we should blindly trust the ag industry either globally or at home. I think there is a middle ground though, we've just rushed to the excessive end of the spectrum.

If somebody is pushing back then at least it fuels the discussion.

[wes4dbt]

I could be wrong and would be happy to stand corrected but I get the impression your farming industry is heavily chemical dependent and based around monocultures. That could be a function of our media coverage rather than reality though.

Assuming it is correct then that's the sort of thing that could be addressed. Monocultures give a short term profit because they're much easier to harvest but they strip the soil nutrients over a number of years... leading to the need for greater quantities of chemical fertilisers which leach into the water table and round and round we go. More traditional approaches are better long term but less profitable in the short term.

Couple that with the fact that genetic modification has been used as much to lock farmers into a brand and artificially increase yields at the expense of soil quality instead of e.g. reducing the impact on soil quality and it feels like your farming industry has been negatively impacted by short term corporate thinking in a way that Europe hasn't. Or, at least, not to the same extent.

To be honest, I don't know for sure what is being used in the agricultural industry. I know there has been a push to reduce pesticides and gmo produce. It's pretty common today to see labeling claiming to be pesticides free and non gmo. But advertisers are clever people and can find ways to word things that are very misleading.

I would like to walk back this statement,

As for the steroids, I'm not sure. Most of our meat is labeled steroid free. You can make of that what you want.

I was lumping claims of antibiotic free, growth hormone and steroids. Those claims are big sale points Here again I'm not sure what the industry is actually doing. Though the ability to raise 6lb chickens in 6-8 weeks makes me wonder about their claims.

[FunkyDexter]

I know there has been a push to reduce pesticides and gmo produce.

That's interesting to hear and doesn't seem to reach us through our media. Would you say this pervades through the big supermarket chains or is it more of a niche "farmers garden" thing?

[wes4dbt]

That's interesting to hear and doesn't seem to reach us through our media. Would you say this pervades through the big supermarket chains or is it more of a niche "farmers garden" thing?

It's definitely in the supermarkets. I don't go to "farmer gardens". Most big markets will will have a lot of organic produce.

That said. I live in California and we tend to lend into those things a little more than other states. Though the part of Ca where I live is little more redneck than say the LA or SF areas. It does feel like less pesticides and gmo products has been pushed nation wide.

But give the current administration a little while, I'm sure they'll label healthier produce "woke" and find a way to destroy any progress we've made.

[FunkyDexter]

Yeah, ^that's the sort of thing we hear about and a large part of the reason we're not keen on accepting your food exports over here. It's hard to know how representative it is thought.

[dilettante]

Some of that is due to breeding newer lines of poultry, though some is probably the use of growth hormones and antibiotics.

But overall things are no worse than the radioactive chicken that Europe gladly consumes.

Most of this reflects weak economies that require protectionism to survive. So myths are blown out of proportion to support high tariffs. This has been going on much longer than the high use of drugs has been, all the way back to the end of WW II.

[wes4dbt]

Most of this reflects weak economies that require protectionism to survive.

Most of what???

Growing fat chickens? Eating radioactive chicken?

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, ^that's the sort of thing we hear about and a large part of the reason we're not keen on accepting your food exports over here. It's hard to know how representative it is thought.

Out of curiosity when I was shopping today I checked out the chicken packages. On the west coast Foster Farms is the dominate brand and even though Tyson is one of the largest producers in the US you mainly only see it here in the frozen food section. Both were labeled hormone and steroid free. That doesn't leave me with 100% confidence, these are huge corporation and have the ability warp what is designated a hormone or steroid through lobbying.

As for me, I buy the store brand because it's cheaper. lol

[Shaggy Hiker]

Did you pull out the heart and eat it so you would gain their powers?

Don't do that....but if you do, share the story, as the results can be hilarious for other people. I heard a story that...was too gross to repeat, but it sure was funny.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Out here, it's all monoculture crops, though WHICH monoculture rotates through a couple different options year after year. Sugar beets are a big one (there's a sugar beet processing plant here), but an interesting one is mint. Biking past a field of mint is wonderful. When it gets harvested, it's pretty nice, too. Very distinctive in a large field.

However, one particular monoculture has taken over most of the agricultural lands in the valley: Houses.

The US has a lot of agricultural lands. We also have a lot of water, but the two are not always in the same place. Agricultural lands are often near cities. Some are growing and turning that ag land into housing developments. That kind of disturbs me. I don't know whether it really impacts much of anything. Lots of smaller towns near ag land are not growing at all. They might even be fading away.

[dilettante]

Poor guy, he's yelling in an empty hall. Nobody who needs to hear this will listen.

You've Been Misled About the Political Spectrum | A History Professor Explains

[dilettante]

How the Left Rebranded Fascism as “Right Wing”


The More You Know!

[wes4dbt]

The More You Know!

Not if what you know is false or out of context misrepresentations.

[PlausiblyDamp]

I suppose I would consisider things such as

* Trying to dispute a fairly won election and then constantly lying about it being stolen

* Replacing government positions with incompetent lackeys, whose sole purpose is to support you.

* Organising a military parade for your own birthday.

* Adornining government buildings with huge posters of your own orange face.

* Declaring constant states of emergency to allow you to ignore normal legal processes.

* Deporting people to foreign jails without due process.

* Building your own military force that is masked, and operates without due process or consequence.

* Using your own army against your own cities, using lies about crime rates to "justify" doing so.

* Stripping health care from your citizens. Effectively removing access to vaccines from your citizens.

* Banning books from schools that don't agree with your political thinking.

* Rolling out the red carpet to the aggressor in a war, but shouting at the leader of the invaded country about his suit.

* Openly talking about taking over allied countries (Greenland, Panama)

* Openly talking about how to defy your legal system to be able to serve a 3rd term.

* Firing people for accurately reporting statistics that you don't like.

* Describing opposition to your ideas as being hostile acts (because why shouldn't a leader get to hide information regarding paedophiles, keeping paedophiles anonymous is obviously the correct moral decision)

Might all be considered at least a little bit fascist behaviour.

On a side note...

For someone who swore to release the epstein files before gaining power, he certainly seems to be putting an awful lot of effort into suppressing them. Kind of makes you wonder if the convicted sex offender might be implicated in them. (Assuming they exist, aren't a democratic hoax, and he wasn't really an FBI agent after all)

[FunkyDexter]

...

Renaming the Department of Defence to the Department of War

Yeah, it's all a bit fascy

[dilettante]

The spin cycle is over, but I'm not surprised that the duped remain so.

[FunkyDexter]

Neither am I

So it turns out Trump did send Epstein that "birthday message". You know, the one he told you it didn't exist. oopsy.

[wes4dbt]

...

Renaming the Department of Defence to the Department of War

Yeah, it's all a bit fascy

He just keeps showing his faithful "something shiny".

[dilettante]

So it turns out Trump did send Epstein that "birthday message". You know, the one he told you it didn't exist. oopsy.

I believe he said he didn't create it. I'm pretty sure that Trump is suing the WSJ over this hoax.

Now, when it comes to the Clintons and members of your "Royal" family it's another story.

If you want to worry about children why not focus on the illegal immigration rings that brought in children as slaves, sex slaves, and in some cases harvested their organs?

[PlausiblyDamp]

I believe he said he didn't create it. I'm pretty sure that Trump is suing the WSJ over this hoax.

Now, when it comes to the Clintons and members of your "Royal" family it's another story.

If you want to worry about children why not focus on the illegal immigration rings that brought in children as slaves, sex slaves, and in some cases harvested their organs?

Trump sues people as a threat, trying to force them to back down. It makes no difference regarding the truth.

Do you see any of us trying to defend our Royal family? Had anyone here denied, or excused Prince Andrew? We are appalled by what he did, and condem his actions.

Why is Trump so scared of the files being released if he has nothing to hide? The lengths Trump and the Republicans are going to to suppress this information makes it obvious that he is probably implicated.

If he is innocent then he couldn't be doing anything worse to remove suspicion.

[FunkyDexter]

I believe he said he didn't create it.

And you believed him? You believe that "the deep state" had the foresight to produce a document twenty years ago (before Trump entered political life) and had it inserted into a book with other verifiable documents which clearly reference paedophilia, where it was held for two decades before only being released in response to a court subpoena? That's your hypothesis? It's almost as it you've been... duped.

I've got a simpler theory for you: Trump is a paedophile and lies as a reflex. Occam's Razor.

Now, when it comes to the Clintons and members of your "Royal" family it's another story.

No it isn't. The outrage against Prince Andrew is VERY vocal over here. He lost his military titles and is no longer considered part of the Royal Family - he can no longer refer to himself as HRH. (We do still tend to refer to him as "Prince" Andrew which we actually shouldn't but that's mostly because it's a convenient shorthand rather than a deference to his station). He does still retain a lot of his financial privileges but there are loud calls for those to be removed.

[Shaggy Hiker]

You could just call him randy Andy.

[FunkyDexter]

Or Andy Pandy. But that seems disrespectful.

[dilettante]

[PlausiblyDamp]

So are you claiming the entire birthday book thing was false, or it was real apart from anything to do with Trump?

If all of this is a hoax why is Trump so determined to not release the files? Surely if they are false then it will be obvious and he will be exonerated....

Or, and stop me if this sounds a bit outlandish, but do you think there is a possibility then a convicted sex offender who has bragged about sexually assaulting women, who entered the changing rooms for Miss Teen Universe unannounced, admitted his [b]17 year old[/17] daughter made him agree to not date people younger than her, who has a complete lack of respect for women, and was obviously good friends with the convicted paedophile Epstein - just might have similar interests in "younger" girls?

If Mandelson was involved with Epstein then this absolutely needs to be investigated, if the current UK PM supports him without any further investigation then I would accuse him of shielding a potential paedophile from justice and consider him complicit.

The video saying fake signatures (no evidence they were faked btw) aren't as bad as Mandelson being involved is a pathetic attempt to excuse and distract. If Trump was involved then that is just as bad as Mandelson being involved and both deserve to be arrested and suffer the consequences, pointing towards the signature is absolutely an attempt to distract and provide a false comparison.

Can you think of one single reason why Trump doesn't want to release the files if he isn't implicated in them? Seriously, one possible reason why he wouldn't want the truth to come out, because surely the truth would exonerate him and put an end to all this damaging news. Trump would throw anyone under the bus, he has no loyalty to anyone but himself, he would let the entire Republican party go down for being in those files if it would clear his own name - yet he is utterly desperate to prevent their release, can you think of any why that would make sense?

[wes4dbt]

What does that video have to do with the Epstein files? Certainly nothing evidentiary, just her political views.

Do you have any information that supports your "hoax" claim or is that solely on your political views?

[PlausiblyDamp]

What does that video have to do with the Epstein files? Certainly nothing evidentiary, just her political views.

Do you have any information that supports your "hoax" claim or is that solely on your political views?

Trump said it was a hoax. What further proof do you need? How dare you question Trump (who is possibly the most popular person on the planet right now apparently), he only speaks the truth, he is incapable of telling lies and anything you read to the contrary is just down to the Libs, Main Stream Media, of Lib owned Main Stream Media.

[wes4dbt]

Trump said it was a hoax. What further proof do you need? How dare you question Trump (who is possibly the most popular person on the planet right now apparently), he only speaks the truth, he is incapable of telling lies and anything you read to the contrary is just down to the Libs, Main Stream Media, of Lib owned Main Stream Media.

That does seem to be all Trump has to do to pacify the true believers.

I personally don't think there is anything in the Epstein files that would turn his faithful against him. Trump has already admitted he sexually assaulted women on the Access Hollywood bus and it didn't bother his believers.

[wes4dbt]

The Trump/Epstein thing looks about as fake as the Hunter Biden laptop thing to me.

The sad thing is I don't think it matters whether it's true or fake to anyone other the people that already believe he is morally bankrupt or to the people he has harmed.

[PlausiblyDamp]

That does seem to be all Trump has to do to pacify the true believers.

I personally don't think there is anything in the Epstein files that would turn his faithful against him. Trump has already admitted he sexually assaulted women on the Access Hollywood bus and it didn't bother his believers.

I honestly think this is part of Trump's success.

Normally someone who has an aspect of their personality / life that might be considered as bad would get support from similar people, but rejected by the vast majority of people.

So if someone was a rapist (as a wild and unrelated example) the vast majority of people would condemn them; but to people who saw women as objects to be used, he would appear to be someone they could support. Obviously there aren't enough rapists (actual or potential) to make a big difference.

When you have someone who is a rapist, an adulterer, a tax dodger, a fraudster, a liar, who dodged military service, who is racist, etc. all of these people see the bits that they align with, but ignore everything else. Oddly though because he constantly makes claims about improving America he gets a lot of people believing him regarding that as well, despite the evidence to the contrary.

He is a person supported by hate, corruption, and abuse.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The Trump/Epstein thing looks about as fake as the Hunter Biden laptop thing to me.

I'm not so sure anymore. If Trump has ever had friends, Epstein looks like one of them.

Still, I don't think that's the biggest question. Where did Epstein get his money? He came from nowhere, appears to have done pretty much nothing (he was technically something like a stock broker, or some such, but it isn't clear that he did all that much there), and suddenly has an awful lot of wealth. He seems to be unusual in that regard.

I'm not suggesting his source of wealth had anything to do with Trump. I rather think it does not. It might be the bigger secret, though.

[wes4dbt]

I'm not so sure anymore. If Trump has ever had friends, Epstein looks like one of them.

Still, I don't think that's the biggest question. Where did Epstein get his money? He came from nowhere, appears to have done pretty much nothing (he was technically something like a stock broker, or some such, but it isn't clear that he did all that much there), and suddenly has an awful lot of wealth. He seems to be unusual in that regard.

I'm not suggesting his source of wealth had anything to do with Trump. I rather think it does not. It might be the bigger secret, though.

You made me curious. If your interested this is a pretty lengthy article by Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomo...n-got-so-rich/

The whole things does seem ripe for conspiracy theories.

[PlausiblyDamp]

Regarding Peter Mandelson and his friendship with Epstein - he has been sacked from his role, mainly due to things he has said regarding Epstein's first conviction.

So it looks like for him there have been consequences.

[wes4dbt]

I haven’t been active much lately, but I didn’t want to get off of chickens. Basically what we eat today are really fat chicks and not matured chickens. In the early 1900s, chickens were killed around 15 weeks old, today it’s closer 6 weeks.

This is almost the exclusive reason why commercial chicken today is so bland. Living in rural Louisiana, I get fresh chicken (and rabbit) regularly and it has a much stronger taste. Almost like if you could eat a less salty chicken broth.

When I was a kid, for a couple of years we raised chickens. We'd buy300 newborn, raise them, eat them. Disgusting animals, they'll eat anything (even each other). But good eating.

Then one year my dad had planted a huge garden, the veggies were almost ready to harvest, then the chickens got out of their cage. They pecked almost all of veggies and the garden was basically to total lose. Never raised chicken again. Which made me happy, I hated cleaning their cage.

[wes4dbt]

Another government report is being dropped.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news...220107764.html

With the usual justification. Keeping the public uninformed seems to be a priority for this administration.

There is a possibility that the report has inaccuracies but not fix it, not just stop it??

Edit:

This is what I mean by another report being dropped,

Numerous US government reports, surveys, and web resources have been canceled or removed since January 2025 by the Trump administration. These reports covered topics related to climate change, social welfare, public health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Some reporting rules for businesses have also been revised.

Canceled or discontinued reports

Annual Hunger Survey: The Department of Agriculture (USDA) canceled its annual survey measuring food insecurity across the U.S., ending a 30-year effort. The USDA stated the report had become "overly politicized".

Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS): The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) canceled the 2025 annual survey of federal employees. It announced plans to revise the survey for 2026 to remove questions added by the Biden administration.

National Climate Assessment: The White House dismissed all authors working on the next congressionally mandated climate report. Websites and datasets related to the assessment were also taken offline.

Removed web pages and datasets

Following executive orders, government agencies removed or modified thousands of web pages and datasets, including:
DEI initiatives: Web pages and training materials mentioning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) were deleted or archived across numerous agencies.

Public health research: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saw content altered or removed related to topics like Long COVID, HIV/AIDS, and gender identity.

Environmental data: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed its environmental justice screening tool (EJScreen) and other related pages.

Justice and crime statistics: The Department of Justice (DOJ) removed state-level crime data, information on anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, and a study on immigrant crime rates.

Police misconduct records: The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked federal police misconduct, was removed.

Changes to business reporting

Corporate Transparency Act (CTA): New interim rules from the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) exempted all U.S. domestic companies from reporting beneficial ownership information. Reporting requirements were narrowed to cover only certain foreign entities.

[wes4dbt]

It's hard to believe that our country will accept this much idiocy.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-h...orin-pregnancy

[PlausiblyDamp]

It's hard to believe that our country will accept this much idiocy.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-h...orin-pregnancy

The sad thing is that this level of nonsense is barely newsworthy anymore. Admittedly it has the usual level of lies, no evidence to back it up, and potentially is going to cause suffering in women - so certainly "on brand"

[wes4dbt]

The sad thing is that this level of nonsense is barely newsworthy anymore. Admittedly it has the usual level of lies, no evidence to back it up, and potentially is going to cause suffering in women - so certainly "on brand"

Not only the mother, also the damage to the fetus from an untreated fever. It they try to just "hang in there". These people are dangerous.

[PlausiblyDamp]

Not only the mother, also the damage to the fetus from an untreated fever. It they try to just "hang in there". These people are dangerous.

Notice how vaccines made an appearance in that speech as well, good to see RFK being true to form. But at least there is a cure now - leucovorin (a form of folinic acid) which just happens to be something that Dr Oz has pushed recently, and he happens to be a paid advisor to iHerb, and coincidently also happens to be the Administrator of the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Good to see rigorous scientific principles and nothing corrupt is going on here. Apart from the obvious lack of any real scientific justifications, a failure to understand the studies, and obvious political and financial benefits to those involved that is.