Lurker > Humble_Novice

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TC even you know Biden is better for America. I don't know why you keep on with this tirade every chance you get.

You spend your time shitting on Biden but not once you don't do the same for Trump knowing he's a cancer for this country.

US wellness influencers are increasingly targeting birth control pills, pushing their followers to abandon the contraceptives with false claims about infertility and low libido that researchers say leave them vulnerable to unintended pregnancies.

The explosion of misinformation on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram comes as reproductive rights take center stage in the looming presidential election, in a country where abortion is banned or restricted in nearly half the states.

Many influencers -- who are not licensed medical specialists -- are part of what appears to be a cottage industry of self-proclaimed health gurus monetizing misinformation as they hawk "healing" oils and fertility-tracking services.

People seeking reliable information about contraception are met with internet personalities overemphasizing the side effects of pills.

That includes Taylor Gossett, a TikTok influencer with nearly 200,000 followers who explicitly called the medication "toxic" alongside offers to join her "master class" in "natural" birth control.

Conservative commentator Candace Owens suggested on TikTok that birth control causes infertility problems, while "life coach" Naftali Moses told his 280,000 followers that it "changes your sexual behavior."

Podcaster Sahara Rose called birth control the "divorce pill" in a video viewed more than 550,000 times, claiming it impacts who "you're attracted to" and leads users to choose the wrong mate.

The pill's effect on libido has been debated for decades, with some women complaining of impacts on their sex drive.

But while some women may experience such side effects, medical experts say individual experiences do not represent widespread causal links.

Experts also say there is no direct causal evidence that birth control pills lead to widespread infertility or altered attraction and sexual behavior.

Whoever wins Novembers election, inflation will present them with an immediate challenge. More than two years after the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates to alleviate a pandemic-era price spike, the so-called core consumer price index remains well above the central banks target. Its a bit puzzling, then, that former President Donald Trumps economic agenda seems to be dedicated to raising prices.

What policies would a second Trump administration pursue? The former president hasnt been a model of clarity on the campaign trail, but some general themes have emerged.

Tariffs, one of Trumps only consistent enthusiasms, are a sure thing. Starting in 2018, his administration imposed several rounds of duties, prompting predictable retaliation. Combined, these measures eliminated jobs, slashed incomes and cost consumers about $51 billion annually. Now Trump wants to impose tariffs of 60% on Chinese-made products and 10% on other imports. Bloomberg Economics estimates that this would raise consumer prices by 2.5% over two years and reduce growth by 0.5%. Trump has also promised a 100% duty on imported cars. Details TBD one analyst describes the likely effect as catastrophic but the point is that trade wars of this kind are always prone to raising prices.

Trumps plans for monetary policy pose a similar risk. According to media reports, his advisers are laying the groundwork for the president to weigh in directly on interest-rate decisions. (His campaign has vaguely disputed these reports.) The rationale for central-bank independence among the most successful policy innovations of the post-war era is that politicized monetary policy will tend to have a pro-inflationary bias. In this case, a self-fulfilling prophecy is likely: Consumers and businesses, expecting the Fed to tolerate higher inflation under Trump, will behave in ways that (once again) boost prices.

More directly, the former president is toying with devaluing the dollar. Although the hope is to revive domestic manufacturing, exactly how hed carry out this plan isnt clear. (Like many products of Trump World, it seems to be premised on a lot of needless belligerence.) On balance, such manipulation is likely to invite retaliation, erode faith in the dollar and do little to actually boost exports. By raising the cost of imported goods and inputs for domestic producers, it would also (perhaps youve sensed a pattern) increase prices.

Trumps tax plans, finally, would tend in the same direction. He says hell extend the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and has at times mused about a further reduction in the corporate rate, to 15% from 21%. Recall that the drafters of the law tied themselves in knots to avoid acknowledging its true costs (hence the expirations). Extending it in full would cost about $3.8 trillion by 2033. A 15% corporate rate would cost perhaps a half-trillion more. Trumps plans for further tax cuts Ill give you a Trump middle class, upper class, lower class, business class big tax cut, he said at a rally on Saturday remain rather nebulous, but fiscal discipline does not sound like the governing priority. Its safe to say (at risk of repetition) that these policies, too, will contribute to higher prices.

I live in Japan, the media here is overwhelmingly pro-Palestine as is the population (based on polls anyway, but I also only ever see pro-Palestine demonstrators).

Multiple people have already talked about using actual polling/election results in recent elections instead of theoretical/predictive assumptions, which are polls like this, to determine the results of an election. Especially so far out.

Once again I'll bring up how all of our media and polling kept fearmongering over a GOP takeover of Congress in 2022 with a red wave/tsunami and they only got +5 in the House, which is likely a historical low given the usual pattern where their party normally would win big.

The country is especially turned off by Trump and Trumpism. The fact that the GOP has turned their party's mission into nothing else except appeasing him and justifying his criminality/fascism has done them literally no favors.

If it was one election that'd be a fluke, however it's a pattern that's been observed since 2018.

Sales of raw milk appear to be on the rise, despite years of warnings about the health risks of drinking the unpasteurized products and an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows.

Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cows milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ.

That runs counter to advice from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls raw milk one of the riskiest foods people can consume.

Raw milk can be contaminated with harmful germs that can make you very sick, the CDC says on its website.

As of Monday, at least 42 herds in nine states are known to have cows infected with the virus known as type A H5N1, federal officials said.

The virus has been found in high levels in the raw milk of infected cows. Viral remnants have been found in samples of milk sold in grocery stores, but the FDA said those products are safe to consume because pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus.

Its not yet known whether live virus can be transmitted to people who consume milk that hasnt been heat-treated.

But CDC officials warned last week that people who drink raw milk could theoretically become infected if the bird flu virus comes in contact with receptors in the nose, mouth and throat or by inhaling virus into the lungs. Theres also concern that if more people are exposed to the virus, it could mutate to spread more easily in people.

Bonni Gilley, 75, of Fresno, said she has raised generations of her family on raw milk and unpasteurized cream and butter because she believes its so healthy and lacks additives.

Reports of bird flu in dairy cattle have not made her think twice about drinking raw milk, Gilley said.

If anything, it is accelerating my thoughts about raw milk, she said, partly because she doesnt trust government officials.

Such views are part of a larger problem of government mistrust and a rejection of expertise, said Matthew Motta, who studies health misinformation at Boston University.

It not that people are stupid or ignorant or that they dont know what the science is, he said. Theyre motivated to reject it on the basis of partisanship, their political ideology, their religion, their cultural values.

CDC and FDA officials didnt respond to questions about the rising popularity of raw milk.

Motta suggested that the agencies should push back with social media posts extolling the health effects of pasteurized milk.

Communicators need to make an effort to understand why people consume raw milk and try to meet them where they are, he said.

They do this because they want Dems to lose to "prove the point" that Sanders should have been elected in 2016 & 2020 and that only progressives should be viewed as able to win elections, even though reality paints a different picture. And I say this as a progressive, however I do so as one who accepts the reality of what the U.S. is and that the majority of the country, while supporting their views as individual issues, have confliction with supporting the actual candidates unless it's in a very blue heavy district.

A bid launched by the Republican National Committee to block voting rights in Arizona failed Tuesday after a Maricopa County judge summarily dismissed a complaint lodged by the RNC against the states 2023 Election Procedures Manual, handing a win to voting rights advocates. Conservatives launched a tsunami of legal attacks in February against the manual, to impede voting rights and allow for voter harassment in Arizona. Tuesdays decision is the first ruling addressing those lawsuits and mud in the eye of the RNC, newly run by nepobaby-in-law Lara Trump.

According to Democracy Docket, the lawsuit filed February 9 by the Republican National Committee, Republican Party of Arizona, and Yavapai County Republican Party sought to block enforcement of the EPM on the basis that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes failed to give the public enough time to comment before implementing the EMP and that portions of the EMP violate state law. The complaint also sought to have provisions removed regarding limiting public access to voter signatures, restrictions against challenging early mail-in ballots before theyre returned, and allowances for out-of-precinct voting.

The suit was filed by the RNC the same day as another suit by conservative group Arizona Free Enterprise Club, which claims the EMP, by prohibiting voter intimidation and harassment, inhibits free speech. That case has not yet been decided.

Polls are fucking shit, that's why. Polls are opt-in; the only young people who take them are loser chuds who wanna feel big.

What reality do you live in? Polls were not saying Biden was going to crush it in 2020, and they predicted a red wave in 2022 that failed to materialize.

EDIT: Oh fuck me.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1e385363.png

TC's an alt, folks.

In February, Republican Missouri Secretary of State candidate Valentina Gomez burned LGBTQ books. Now, shes telling Missourians that they shouldnt be weak and gay.

In America, you can be anything you want, Gomez said in the video, posted on X on Sunday. So dont be weak and gay. Stay fucking hard.

In the video, Gomez is running while wearing a bulletproof vest. She is then seen in a photo holding a gun and wearing a National Rifle Association hat.

The candidates homophobic video earned her an immense amount of backlash on Xincluding replies that her video was cringe.

Dont be what? an X user responded. Girl, its 2024, not 1980.

Super cringe, another person replied.

Gomez made her prejudice against the LGBTQ community known in her February viral video in which she uses a hand torch to destroy books with queer themesor what she calls grooming books.

When Im Secretary of State, Gomez tweeted alongside the video, I will BURN all books that are grooming, indoctrinating, and sexualizing our children.

SEATTLE After a weekend of controversy, there will be just one Bob Ferguson appearing on Washingtons August primary ballot.

Two other Bob Fergusons, who filed late Friday, have both withdrawn their names for consideration. That leaves the states current attorney general as the only Bob Ferguson on the ballot in the race to be Washington's governor.

On Monday morning, Ferguson had some hard words for the other two candidates sharing his name.

"I want to be very clear; this is not an attack on me. It's an attack on our election system. Attack on our democracy, Bob Ferguson said during a news conference.

One Ferguson who filed on Friday to run for governor is from Yakima, and the other Ferguson is from Graham.

Ferguson said both of the other Bob Fergusons had the same campaign manager, a man named Glen Morgan. Ferguson's campaign calls Glen Morgan a far-right activist.

"Their goal is to mislead voters and split my supporters three ways to depress my vote totals and keep me from moving into the top two in the general election, said Ferguson.

all Trad wives are probably sad on the inside

if you read the go fund me it dont sound like pulling through is an option

sounds more like her sister just wants to let her live her final days in her own home

i could be (and hope to god i am) wrong but just how it sounds to me

Sun Ce from DW used a Tonfa

So can we agree that the USA does not need to send aid to them. The Ukraine war was never our problem, and anyone that thinks otherwise is propagandized that Russia is bad.

Sure Putin is evil, but the USA shouldn't be the world's police man. Getting involved in foreign affairs only brought trouble and I blame our foreign policy on 9/11. I got the message that was sent that day. We should focus on our internal problems like trump than a war in a war away land.

Some 2,300 people joined a demonstration called by the Islamist group Muslim Interaktiv in the northern German port city of Hamburg on Saturday, according to police estimates, after the rally only got the go-ahead from authorities under strict conditions.

The demonstrators gathered in the city's Sankt Georg district near the central railway station on Saturday afternoon amid a heavy police presence. Most of the participants were men, according to a dpa reporter at the scene.

The protest comes after more than 1,000 people attended a rally in Hamburg called by Muslim Interaktiv last month which passed off peacefully but participants had made calls for a caliphate.

The protest sparked nationwide outrage in Germany and denunciations from leading politicians. Muslim Interaktiv is classified as an extremist group by the German authorities.

As a result, authorities only let Saturday's rally, held under the motto "Against censorship and the dictatorship of opinion," go ahead under strict conditions, including a ban on inciting hatred or violence.

At the beginning of the protest, the conditions were read out aloud in German and Arabic.

In addition, Israel's right to exist may not be denied and Israeli flags may not be burnt or damaged, police said on Friday.

It is also forbidden to call for a caliphate in Germany in word, image or writing. At the previous demonstration on April 27, the words "Caliphate is the solution" could be read on signs. Speeches also called for a caliphate as a solution to social problems in Islamic states.

A caliphate is a religious state under a spiritual leader, a caliph, who claims succession from the Muslim prophet Mohammed. There have been several historic examples in the Islamic world, but the most recent and controversial one was created by the terrorist organization Islamic State in large parts of Syria and Iraq. It was widely condemned, including by Muslim scholars.

Contrary to the organizer's wishes, Saturday's event was only allowed to take place as a stationary rally, with no march planned, according to the police. The assembly authorities reported a counter-demonstration with 100 participants.

In the end, people like this are just trying to blame the Jewish community without just coming out and saying it. Which really is no better then accusing them of having magic space lasers.

The article is getting a lot of push back from what I'm seeing so that's good. But man, you really have to keep various movements and organization laser focused on a singular goal and avoid deviating.