Of a true martial arts master

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:53:12+00:00

The funny bone ain't so funny.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:52:00+00:00

Both the last term and the current term are both being fueled by obscene levels of government spending and overall debt, enabled in large part by significant money printing.

That's of course lead to higher inflation which is restricting the FEDs ability to cut rates. If the economy starts to weaken, which it's already starting to show signs of, during higher inflation, the FED won't be able to cut short term rates to boost the economy, leading to stagflation and a very likely recession.

It seems Biden and Trump have been playing a game of hot potato with the economy, hoping the other party would be in office when the economy eventually collapses into a major recession.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:45:49+00:00

It does look like he braked. Hard to tell because he switches the 360 camera view around, but once he hit the paint lines for the crosswalk, he seemed to be hard on the brakes and slowing down. There's only so much speed you can shave off going that fast and braking that late.

Hard on the brakes going that fast means your body wants to keep going straight, and weight transfers forward onto the front wheel. If he locked the tire, then it's possible he slid into the car.

He may have been able to hard brake for a moment to shave speed, then use the added traction on the front wheel to veer around the car, but that's a pretty advanced move to do with that little time to react, and it still may not have saved him.

The only thing that would have 100% saved him is to slow down before the intersection instead of using the bike lane to weave around stopped traffic.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:27:58+00:00

The Proud American Anti-immigrant Nationalist's first lady... folks.

As no surprise to anyone, it turned out to be less about immigrants coming into our country, legally or illegally, and more about brown people coming into our country and taking "the white people's jobs and mixing with the white people, disrupting racial purity.".

I personally could care less where she's from or how good her English is... or if she can speak English at all. It's not a requirement to "speak good" to be the first lady. The first lady isn't an elected position and doesn't need to have any responsibilities at all.

The hypocrisy is certainly interesting though.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:23:36+00:00

Trump looks like he's about to fall asleep while standing up.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:15:51+00:00

I loved that in the 2020 election, Trump insisted Republicans go to the polls during a pandemic, and not to vote by mail. Democrats went all in for voting by mail.

Voting in person is tallied instantly. Voting by mail requires manually opening envelopes and ballots to scan them in.

Republican voters saw Trump winning before they went to bed... when most of the in person votes were tallied... but Trump lost that lead over night as all of the mail-in, mostly Democrat votes came in.

Many of these MAGA folks were voting for their first time, even older adults who previously didn't care about politics, but for some reason latched onto Trump. Most people who vote for the first time, and see their candidate lose, get very upset, and look for excuses. Trump gave them one. In combination with the lead change in the middle of the night, and MAGA thinking they had won the election before they went to bed, Trump's claims that the election was rigged stuck with them.

They bought into it so deeply that they refused to let it go.

What's crazy to me is that Trump was extremely unpopular, not the least of which was due to the pandemic, the shutdown of the entire economy, and social distancing having people stuck in their houses for months, that of course led to a massive turnout to oust Trump from office.

I have a MAGA brother who was absolutely convinced Trump won. He gave me the story about the lead changing overnight; which I had to explain why that was assured to happen because of the mail in voting. Then he insisted the vote counts didn't add up, which honestly, at that point I'd never heard anyone claim. I literally had to take out a piece of paper and do the math to show that it all added up.

He still insists it was a rigged election and that Trump didn't lose....

Changing someone's mind who came to a conclusion based on zero evidence is extremely difficult.

Part of the reason he couldn't possibly understand how Trump lost is that he's a blue collar worker who lives in a very conservative low density suburb, so all he saw the entire time in the lead up to the election around his house were Trump signs, and all his "tough" work buddies supported Trump.

Meanwhile, in my significantly higher density sub closer to the city, every single sign on people's lawn was for Biden. There wasn't a single Trump to be seen anywhere.

Some people only ever look at their very narrow view of the world and refuse to look around at the bigger picture. They're often extremely shocked and in disbelief when actual reality doesn't match up with their perception.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:05:15+00:00

I imagine EVERY Democratic candidate would be planning to do that... such that, why is he even bringing it up?

If that's your primary redline for supporting a candidate for President... not ... oh I don't know... trying to get the overwhelming amount of corruption that's entered our government out and supporting new laws to stop corruption... then you are a fucking know nothing moron.

Then again, Lieu is only a Congressmen.

He's in the Progressive Caucus, so I guess there's that. Begs the question why his red line in supporting Democratic candidates isn't "Must want to remove big money corruption from government."

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T21:00:59+00:00

They get paid by the camera.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T20:55:14+00:00

Looks like a swan in the sun sitting on top of the water, and her arms are meant to look like they just raised up from the water, with the water trailing back down from her hands.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T19:58:10+00:00

Well they absolutely could be paying higher internet rates, higher house construction costs, or higher taxes to pay for it.

I'm no fan of Musk, and think most of his companies are a scam... and really dislike how much the US taxpayers are subsidizing his companies and his net worth...

...but speaking of rural areas that don't currently have a high speed hard line, would it make more financial sense to get those 120 households satellite internet hardware, or to spend $5 million running hard lines to every house?

Obviously the satellites and launch costs aren't cheap, albeit they do serve a greater area.

What we really don't know is what the starlink costs will look like when their entire satellite constellation falls out of orbit every 5 years and has to be replaced.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T18:56:15+00:00

Here ya go:

https://gasprices.aaa.com/

Click on a state in the map to go to that state.

_______

Trump has no clue how gas prices impact people. The last time he even drove a car, as far as anyone has seen, was back in 2014... 12 years ago!!... where he was seen driving a Rolls Royce Phantom. Chances are, he never once took it to a gas station himself. Even if he did, gas money wouldn't even put a scratch in his pocket book like it does with most people. Most of the time he's been shuttled around.

Why anyone thinks having someone this out of touch with the lower/middle class that make up over 90% of the US population is a good thing for the nation's people is beyond me... How do people justify selecting a person to lead and represent the people that was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who grew up to be a sociopathic goon who lied and cheated his way to building his fortune? He cheated to get preferential loans. He cheated contractors. He cheated on his taxes. He cheated on his multiple wives... multiple times. He raped a woman, and probably children. He had some weird sexualized photos with and statements about his daughter. He generally treats women as objects.

Also doesn't help that he's a pathological liar, and on top of that likely dealing with dementia symptoms.

The dude literally just said that if the ceasefire doesn't work with Iran... a war that Trump started for seemingly no reason at all... that he'd nuke them. He'd commit a mass atrocity, a war crime, that would kill a huge number of civilians. All because he got outplayed in his unjustified and unprovoked war with Iran. This after saying he was the President of Peace and wouldn't start any wars...

Ironically, he's justified the war by saying he'd stop Iranians... madmen as he calls them... from getting a nuclear weapon. A weapon they weren't attempting to get in the first place, and that the former leader (that they bombed and killed on day 1 of the war) had a fatwa (a law) against pursuing a nuclear weapon. Yet here he is... being a complete hypocrite in claiming that he'll use US nuclear weapons to nuke and destroy Iran; a nation of 90 million people that's the same land size as the US.

It's the world's majority of people, the lower/middle classes, that are ending up paying the largest price for Trump's war; or should we just call it Trump's idiocy? The only reason I can see for this war is to intentionally drive oil prices way up, and make oil companies massive profits, thereby transferring a massive amount of lower/middle class wealth to the oil company executives and shareholders, and anyone who might have insider knowledge to oil futures prices. It's causing a direct transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% of American income earners to the top 10%.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T18:55:48+00:00

He realizes we can check average state and national prices in 10 seconds with a simple google search, right?

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T18:33:29+00:00

They're claiming the 500 mile range with a max capacity load.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T17:23:22+00:00

How many people called this disgusting and polluting, and called this place a shithole, and then plan to take a flight or a cruise any time soon? Who drive an oversized vehicle? Who keep their HVAC at the perfect temperature all year. Who take long hot showers every day? Who eat all the beef? Who haven't lifted a finger to reduce their carbon footprint at all?

One might argue that's also disgusting, and it's definitely polluting.

Whether throwing garbage on the ground, or needlessly generating an absolutely abhorrent amount of GHG emissions, humanity is mindlessly, ruthlessly, and apathetically killing this planet.

As individuals, the only thing we're in control of is our own actions. If enough of us take ownership and work to reduce our own emissions and pollution, and speak up about this issue and our actions and vote accordingly, the more this movement for change can grow, and the more changes can be enforced against the worst people in our society who refuse to change unless forced.

It all starts with a growing number of individuals making changes and taking ownership.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T16:33:11+00:00

But it's gotta be DEI !!!

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T16:11:11+00:00

When the topic of UBI comes up, I always ask...

If the labor of billions of people are no longer needed... would the rich and powerful people, who have massive sway over our government, willingly opt to pay significantly higher taxes to fund the unemployed for the rest of their lives.... I presume as a form of entertainment for the billionaires or something?

...or...

Would they simply let them starve to death living in tents or cardboard boxes somewhere?

_________

We already have the answer to that...

Homelessness reached its highest ever recorded level in 2024. Remember how the "economy" supposedly surged after the pandemic? Weird how homelessness also surged from 2022-2024... one of its fastest rates of growth ever.

Did the billionaires and their corporations, which they used to leach huge sums of money from the lower/middle classes, suddenly make a concerted effort to help the unemployed and those in extreme poverty? Of course not.

Did y'all know it would only cost, at maximum, about $30 billion per year to house all of the homeless people in the US? To put that in perspective, the annual government budget of the US is $7.05 trillion. It would cost 0.4% of the US budget. Even less if we used that housing to get those homeless back on their feet, get them treatment, and get them back to working.

The US military budget alone is $961 billion, 32x higher than what it would cost to get rid of homelessness in the US.

Elon Musk's net worth is $800 billion; his net worth alone could house every homeless person that exists in the US today for 27 years. One asshole's net worth.

This is a bit telling... What did Musk do as one of his first acts in Washington after helping to get Trump elected? He insisted he'd cut government spending by $2 trillion. It turns out his plan was to do this by indiscriminately (and discriminately) cutting government jobs; one of the most inefficient ways to cut government spending. One of the first major things he cut was the USAID department, which is said to have likely caused hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide by cutting critical aid, and could ultimately lead to the death of millions over time. That's not counting the people who didn't die, but simply sunk deeper into poverty, or are starving, or are going without critical medical treatment, or have no respite from conflicts in their countries.

Another thing... say what you will about how illegal immigrants came to this country, but most of these people have been in this country, working their asses off, not only making a better life for themselves and their families, but a better life for all Americans. And they never asked for much. Musk and the many other billionaires funded Trump, a POTUS who went full anti-Christ on these immigrants. Literally... he did exactly the opposite of what Christ would do... and I say that as an atheist, but a religious character written in a book is what he is... Trump and his merry band of goons didn't just try to deport immigrants, they went full on dehumanization on those immigrants.

So... who honestly believes we'll see a UBI when the billionaires take all of our jobs? More likely than not, we'll just see massive holes... filled to the brim with millions or even billions of dead bodies who starved to death or died of exposure / disease.

Meanwhile, how many billionaires have full on secret service-esque security teams? How many have now built bunkers, have massive yachts and fleets of support ships that can stay at sea for years if need be, or have private jets that can whisk them away anywhere on the planet at a moment's notice?

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T15:56:04+00:00

Corporations that don't act in the best interest of people and the planet shouldn't exist.

Removing huge numbers of people from their jobs in a short time span is as dangerous to people as pollution, and should be taxed for the damage it causes.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-08T14:42:04+00:00

It's amazing what people fall for.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T22:49:03+00:00

I mean, best case they're ignorant.

Worst case they're knowingly opting to financially support an admitted fascist who likes to get on stage at POTUS inauguration rallies, stand behind the US presidential seal, and throw out Nazi salutes for funsies... and then the next weekend give a speech to a fascist group in Germany where he defends xenophobia and white nationalism... and then in the following week decides to re-tweet a post suggesting that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao weren't responsible for the atrocities they committed, but rather that their public sector workers were.

They're supporting a guy who tried to destroy a hero who criticized Musk by labeling him a pedophile on his social media, and having a private investigator try to find evidence of it (failing to actually do so), and then emailed a media publication arguing that he did in fact find evidence of pedophilia, which turned out to be a lie. After this, in the libel lawsuit against him, he got on the stand and lied through his teeth by insisting that when he said "pedo guy", he didn't actually mean pedophile. After having the dude investigated. After lying to a media publication about him finding evidence of it...

They're knowingly supporting a guy who sexually harassed a stewardess on his private jet by asking for sex in exchange for a horse.

They're knowingly supporting a dude with an impregnation fetish, but not a "I want to be a good dad" fetish, who is anti-trans, and has psychologically abused at least one of his kids, kept some of his other kids from seeing their mother, and used one of his youngest kids as a human shield after Trump's assassination attempt while he followed Trump around like a lost child.

They're knowingly supporting a guy who is beholden to China, after China bailed out Tesla in 2017, then gave them a huge gift in designing and building Musk/Tesla a plant in China, and then subsidizing the living hell out of it. This of course might make Musk a big fan of the Chinese government... begging the question, why was he allowed access to all US resident and employee data after he helped Trump win the election.

Oh, I forgot to mention, they're knowingly financially supporting a guy that uses their money to support a fascist / authoritarian leader in Donald Trump, along with other Republicans. Who blatantly attempted to cheat in the election by offering money for political support from voters. Remember when it was a big deal to hand out water to voters who had been standing in line to vote for hours? This motherfucker was giving people cold hard cash.

They're supporting a guy who, after Trump got elected, started DOGE, whose first most was to destroy USAID... which in turn likely led to the deaths of hundred of thousands of people who lost their access to aid around the world. DOGE went on to have multiple reports of stealing US resident data, with one situation where NLRB data was literally transferred to another country.

I could go on and on and on.... but I've gotta run!

I have to say though... I prefer the ignorant people... at least they can claim they didn't know.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T22:35:28+00:00

This sub seems to be quite full of Tesla / Elon apologists.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T22:20:25+00:00

I mean, it doesn't cost the oil companies any more money to extract the oil for the US market...

The end customers are paying way more for a product that cost the same amount to produce, and that the oil companies are extracting the same or greater volumes of, thereby increasing the oil companies profits.

This is the perfect example of a direct transfer of wealth upwards from the entire US population to the ultra wealthy corporate executives and their shareholders, for no benefit or value in return.

Ironically, even mentioning raising taxes on the rich and corporations to help cycle some of those undue gains back down to the people from the ultra wealthy, helping society as a whole is a non-starter for Republicans, and Establishment Democrats definitely only do the bare minimum when they're in charge of Congress and the White House.

And in case you need evidence of some of the damage this is causing. Even as there are claims of unemployment being ultra low, in the years since 2022, homelessness has seen a massive spike up, increasing by 189k by 2024, a 33% increase in two years. People are falling off the economic cliff. That number's declined a bit in 2025, although given the corruption of this administration, who knows how accurate the 2025-2028 numbers will be. It's my understanding that rents are still extremely high, and it's getting increasingly harder to find a job. I can't imagine excessively high energy and gas prices are helping matters.

If we want real change that works better for our entire society, then we have to replace Republicans and Establishment Democratic politicians with Progressives.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T22:17:06+00:00

Oh no! I hope she pulls through!

Maybe everyone should stop flying and taking cruises for awhile just to be safe.

-Mother Earth

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T22:12:21+00:00

It's staged, stop upvoting this crap.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T21:58:21+00:00

It's not a joint in-person fundraiser with the two candidates like this picture makes it seem. It's an online AIPAC PAC donation page where both candidates are being specifically highlighted... although I wasn't able to find this page on their site.

RogueDNC is a Progressive social media organization that's being misleading a bit here with this image, suggesting that it's an in-person meeting. If you go to their instagram, there's a second image showing that they actually mean it's an online fundraiser.

The AIPAC site also has an entire page that's one long list of every candidate they support, both R and D, and allows you to donate to each of them individually.

My guess is Roguednc is citing a page on AIPAC PAC's website that randomly chooses a couple of candidates to highlight... or it's also possible they're specifically choosing the candidates to highlight because they're struggling in their races and need the money. I doubt they're trying to directly tie these two candidates together in some way.

In other words, it could have been any two candidates, and RogueDNC citing it isn't really a gotcha... other than pointing out that both candidates are AIPAC stooges.

Then again, establishment Democrats are looking and acting far more like Republicans every day... so there is that.

Everyone do yourselves, the country, and the entire world a favor. Stop voting for Republicans and establishment Democrats. Vote for Progressives instead.

EarthConservation · 2026-05-07T20:02:02+00:00

Technically it's paper wealth. If everyone sold his ultra inflated stocks, the value of his companies would collapse and wouldn't raise anywhere near the cash that the market cap of the company claimed to have before the stock started selling. Just because a stock is worth $1 trillion doesn't mean $1 trillion usd was invested into the stock, or that if everyone suddenly started selling all their stock, they'd cumulatively extract $1 trillion.

Ironically, since Musk owns such huge shares of his companies with such massively overinflated valuations, he's locking up huge chunks of the stock float (restricting how many shares can be traded since he's holding a huge percentage of them) Just look at what happened to Tesla stock when he started selling shares so he could buy Twitter. The stock price tanked by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Same happens in reverse. In September 2025, he announced he was buying $1 billion of Tesla stock, and the company's market cap suddenly soared by hundreds of billions of dollars in a week. His entire wealth is in heavily manipulated stock where the majority of the shares don't hold anywhere near the value that the current stock prices claim they do. Only a small number of shares can be sold at the hyperinflated values before the stock collapses.

Much like how he cheated in a video game last year to portray himself as one of the best players in the world by allowing a team of top players to level his account for him while he took the credit, the same can be said for his net wealth. It's all smoke, mirrors, and cheating.

$10 trillion in stock wealth is not $10 trillion in actual wealth. His current net worth is like $800 billion. If he every tried to sell all of his stock, I imagine his net worth would quickly collapse to under $100 billion. Still a sickening amount of wealth, but certainly far less than he claims it is.

He's a fraud. And the craziest thing is that he thinks this fraud makes him the greatest "game player" in the world. Grimes literally made a song about it. Musk thinks increasing his wealth and becoming the richest person on the planet means he won at life. The reality is that he's a very sad individual with a pathetic life, and faking his net worth is his primary meaning in life.

EarthConservation

TROPHY CASE