Peterkin

You know he's replacing government workers with people loyal to him - or who, at least, know better than to ask 'Why'? This cabal is hell-bent on crippling not only science, but health care, education, agriculture, justice and and abolish civil rights. Their agenda was announced through microphones, on posters, in social media posts. And yet most Americans are still unaware of or denying what they let themselves - and the world - in for.

He already got it. His beautiful Christians will never have to vote again. He's not worried about 'eventually' or the next election. His legacy of causing maximum harm to the maximum number of people is already assured.

It hardly matters when you either own or can intimidate the judges and law enforcement agencies. If the law worked, he'd be in prison, not the White House.

Oh, goodie! We've seen Trump's egregious wrongdoings in the hands of the courts.

Wait and watch. The ones who are not 'helping' will be replaced, whether he decides to ditch the religious faction or not. He intends to issue a lot more illegal and unconstitutional edicts that just banning gender non-conformity and exiling landed immigrants. And if he hurts the economy too much and doesn't live long enough, there are hands ready to catch the ... maybe too many hands? ... torch

It will if Trump keeps his promise to his 'beautiful Christians'. Of course, he may renege on it if his more influential 'advisors' disapprove.

It's certainly not alone in that tendency. As to why: The churches have been politically involved, and Americans have been God-fearing (lauded overt piety) since the first Pilgrims. The whole legal system - bar finance law - is based on biblical tenets. Nearly all federal and state administrations have paid both lip service and substantial material aid to religious organizations. Not only are the more recent televangelists staggeringly rich - and thus able to contribute to the campaigns of candidates who endorse their agenda - but those preachers have huge platforms, through mass media to broadcast propaganda. They can deliver solid blocs of votes. Moreover, those blocs can be mobilized to further the interests of a political party, in return for that politician enacting legislation in their favour. Church and state, while nominally separate, have always been close partners - though rarely so blatantly as now.

MAGA crowd does - at least, a large part of it; I don't think the militant Christians do. I've heard from and met a number of Trump supporters and they all seem to have selective hearing: it transmits speech relating to their particular bugaboo and filters out everything else.

I didn't mean the internet kind of troll; I meant the ones that live under bridges and eat unsuspecting wayfarers. They're having their moment in the limelight now - with any luck it will blind them.

They didn't care about that. They cared about abortion (from the perspective their limited information sources portrayed abortion) and they worried about the changing of gender identities. Many of them were concerned with only one of those issues. They were not the only single-issue voting bloc that ignored everything else their candidate is and stands for --- if 'stand for' is not too strong a term to apply to this candidate. What the militant Christian faction wants is to determine the state religion and push everything else - other faiths, science and secular ideas - to the sidelines. In this, they will be sorely disappointed. He won't crusade for them. He'll persecute helpless minorities to please them, but he won't piss off the Catholics, Jews, moderate Protestants and non-affiliated billionnaires.

Whoever has the political power. Right now, the guy with the power is paying off the various factions that brought him to power. Which means he's insulting or damaging adjacent factions. Every gesture he makes to please militant bigots pisses off Christians whose values are more akin to those of the biblical Jesus. Since the decent, reasonable Christians outnumber the militant bigots, pretty soon he'll begin to worry about the backlash and repudiate his former extremist allies. Then 'Christian values' in the US will change again.

He's just feeding the trolls who carried him into the White house. (He'll probably have it repainted.)

That is far from a comprehensive definition. You don't have to hate women in order to have an incorrect view of them. You don't have to hate society in order to organize it badly, or the rule of law in order to make counterproductive laws. Some people believe that society works best with everyone having strictly assigned places in it, according to simple designations according to birth: peasant, soldier, labourer, breeder, cleric, landowner, aristocrat, prelate, ruler. Hate is not necessary to promote social injustice; ignorance and self-interest are quite sufficient. Anyway, skill has nothing to do with Trump's government appointments. He doesn't hate anyone except those who criticize him and doesn't love anyone except those who applaud him - and both sentiments can flip at a moment's notice.

Sexist, racist - name your bigotry, he's manifesting it. That doesn't mean he believes it. He's a narcissist: doesn't care about anybody one way or the other, just he can use them - even if only as golf balls. I would consider competence for the job a difference, yes. They're his supporters. No, they're not all men.

about 80%, if that someone takes into consideration all the information readily available to the public.

If it's any consolation, he'll wreck it before any credit is given. At least we did get the benefit of all that Y2K effort, earthquake-proofing and vaccine research, if not the recognition.

I knew a number of people who worked in IT at the time, and they were genuinely concerned about the rollover. They also put it in a vast amount of overtime, fixing what they could in various industries. My best friend, a contractor, worked days in one and late nights at another government agency over 1999 and took three months off afterward to recover from burnout. Even so, there were problems arising, including - so I heard - a few near misses at air terminals. Of course we were relieved to avoid disaster, but it it didn't seem as risible as was later made out.

It gets a little OTT at about the three-quarter mark, but the concept is interesting. I found a couple of his other novels equally original, yet uneven in execution. But that's just my literary critic talking. They're wild rides.

Read the the old testament. That god was. Still is in much of modern preachment. Read Norse or Greek mythology. Those gods were. Read 'Towing Jehovah' by James Morrow. Other people have considered these ideas.

Whatever for ? The statistical improbability argument has been a non-starter since the day we became aware of the existence of other planets. Plus, of course, you can always shove it up one decimal point and argue the statistical improbability of god/s.

Nothing new or western about this phenomenon. The rule of vertical societies was recognized in the bible It's the same cycle repeated over and over in all eras, all cultures, all societies that are stratified in classes and controlled by an established elite. The privileged are always in a position to enrich and empower themselves through the effort and privation of the underclasses. Wealth and power keep being funelled upward - and the process accelerates in periods when the balance is precarious (during a crisis situation, especially when disparity is already high) and then the economy, or the whole society collapses. These cycles used to be local, affecting one ancient civilization or one modern nation at a time, so that recovery was hard - now the economy and social organization are global. When this cycle comes to its natural conclusion, the world order falls apart all at once.

Did 'they' actually say "just a form of self-expression" - which you interpret as the same as deciding to get a tattoo? Or did 'they' say "it's simply an expression of one's real self"? What the wording means to the speaker an what you would infer are not necessarily in the same realm of communication. What, like children who play cops and robbers grow up to be police officers or criminals?

no, but ain't we lucky to have 'em qm aspirin is also blood thinner and sometimes hard on the stomach. i take a low dose one every day. for this pain, ibuprofen seems more effective - not too bad now. some side effects are more than inconvenient, some are life-threatening. much depends, too on how one's tolerance has been affected by treatments for previous conditions.

That's scary. as someone with difficult-to-control blood pressure, i'm glad i have enough hair to be going on with. [sorry about cockroach style typing; i fell and bloke my left wrist. how does the aspirin know where the pain is [qm] It doesn't. i only hope it can also find the ones in my head and knee.

There are very many medications not aimed at specific antigens, viruses and bacteria. Researchers don't just design a molecule that you can ingest or inject; the active ingredient needs a stabilizing agent so it doesn't fall apart before it gets to the drug store, possibly some factor to neutralize a toxic component and it has to be attached to a vehicle, so it can be made into a pill or liquid. Even those that are antibiotic or anti-viral may also have ingredients that disagree with some people. No two metabolisms and medical histories are alike: there may be pre-existing conditions, allergies and sensitivities, changes in specific organs due to earlier illness and treatment... all kinds of different conditions. Drugs designed to alleviate pain have to act through the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems. In a sense, all chemicals that do this are toxic to various extents. (That's a broad generalization, I realize.) If they're effective, they may also be addictive or acidic and therefore hard on the stomach. Drugs designed to correct an imbalance in hormone or enzyme production can't not affect the entire system of which their targeted organ is a part. It's impossible to seperate systems in the human body. Basic reason: it's complicated.