The cute! It's overwhelming! ::shocked::

Right?? They look like baby falcors from Neverending Story.

They do look like the baby falkor from neverending story. Boxem' up! ::love::

I love Falcor! The cutest dragon that doesn't look anything like a dragon I've ever seen in my life!

Eyes

There's Beauty in this world can't you see?
From the bottomless oceans to the endless Skies
All is seen, all is free
Just open your eyes

The meaning of life has become clear to me
We are meant to breed and spread our seed
We are stewards to Mother Earth forever more
To protect, preserve and carefully restore

The spiral of life will never end
Despite all the twists, turns and joyous bends
We are one with the universe and spin as a whole
Waiting for something whilst we grow old
There is a balance amongst all that you know
Where one can learn to live, love and grow
The spirit world Waits For You with open arms
It wants to guide you and prevent harm

Let Yourself Go and open your eyes
Open your mind and see beyond the lies
You have a voice, defend your prize
The answers are there if you choose to see
What truly is and what can never be

Very nice, Morning. Did you write this?

Yeah I did. Thank you! I haven't really wrote much in a long time but lately I've been writing a little more as far as poetry goes. There's certain fires I used to have burning bright and hot that have been pretty tame over the years. Perhaps it's time to ignite a spark?

Could someone please explain to me why the term neckbeard is an insult? Was this made up by gay men or very feminine men that can't grow a beard thus they need their own security blanket by insulting people who are more masculine than they are? Yeah I have a full beard and I just got called a neckbeard by a guy with long frizzy pink hair wearing very gay looking fingerless gloves. So that's why I wonder if this is just something that jealous fruity cartoonies use to insult guys who actually are men. I'm not bashing gay people, I just find it kind of funny.

I have been working on this off and on ever since my psychedelic experience. This is what I saw before I was pulled in.

Can I ask you guys a question and get some feedback?

Let's say you have a grandfather who was born and raised in the mountains of Southwest Virginia where I grew up at, and then you have me who came from St Louis and the point being we both came from different worlds, me the city and him the country.

Now let's say out of relative obligation, he has helped me financially but other than that never attempted to develop an emotional bond with me and anytime I would try to talk to him about my feelings I would immediately be silenced and ridiculed and made to feel like I am a pussy for displaying my emotions or feeling sorry for myself.

Growing up I made so many attempts to bond with him and the rest of my family to no avail. When I was a teenager my mother abandoned me and my grandparents took me in for three years because I wouldn't have had anywhere else to go. My grandmother was very compassionate and of all of her grandkids I do think I was her favorite but my grandfather never really saw it that way. I moved to Virginia right after my father killed himself and was a mess, a shell which for a nine-year-old child is not normal or healthy but instead of trying to get me help or find out what was wrong with me, they just sent me to school everyday where the new kid who talked funny got the hell beat out of them just for being fat with glasses and talking funny. I would go home sometimes crying which I know sounds weird for a boy but still, it got to me that much, and my grandmother's excuse was, you only have five years of school left, for years 3 years 2 years and so on as if that's going to make it better. I had so many opportunities to go out with friends and have a social life but they both held me back, why I don't know but because of this I never made any friends and I was a loner and being a loner I never had anyone to talk to about my feelings so I kept everything bottled up inside my entire life only letting things drip from time to time to once again be told by my grandfather to stop feeling sorry for myself. He never offered anything else other than don't feel sorry for yourself. Nothing on how to try to teach myself to get over feeling that way but don't feel sorry for myself.

Now that I have gotten all of that out of the way, my question here is, despite all he has done for me financially, helping me move to Vegas, letting me stay in my mom's house when I had nowhere else to go, and even a few years ago when I had to go to court with my ex, he drove me 4 hours to where I had to go. With all of that said, does it make me a bad guy to cut him out of my life? He is the most positive influence on my life that still living. He's only been one of two major positive influences, the other being my grandmother. I know he feels something because he's helping me but it feels more like obligation than because he truly wants to help me. Money doesn't mean love though and the fact that anytime I try to talk to him about my problems or issues or about anything deep he immediately Cuts me off.

Am I wrong for closing that chapter of my life? Since moving here eight months ago I have progressed so much internally. It's not just from the drugs, it's just getting a loan and having to rely on myself 100%. I was scared to be alone at first but now I treasure this time because I have grown so much in such a short amount of time that it is so astonishing that the human brain can do this. I have a long way to go before I would consider myself fully 100% comfortable with who I am but I am well on my way there. I guess I just felt guilt for telling my grandpa how I feel like he has treated me or along with the rest of the family and I told him that I just can't do this anymore because they make me feel like I should be ashamed of who I am, or what I like even. Hell, there was one time my ex and I went to this place called WonderWorks when we were in Orlando and if you have ever been to one, it's this huge interactive arcade and they even had this one exhibit where you could lay on a bed of nails. You late on this big table with a bunch of holes in it and push the button and the nails all come up at once and lift you up and it didn't hurt or anything and even kids could do it but when I told my grandmother I did it, being all excited about it, she told me I am a disgrace to the family.

I'm still trying to figure out how I never blew my brains out.

Yes, I can address the neckbeard thing. I first ran into it when a couple of online forum Bears fans derogatorily called the QB Kyle Orton 'neckbeard'. Personally, I don't think it's something dudes would bother talking about each other. There's evidently a customary way to cut the beard which ends at the bottom or underneath the jaw line and no hair on the neck. In this, hair on the neck would be considered unkempt, disheveled... something unintended and disregarded. It's not that hair on the neck can't be a grooming choice, it wouldn't be a common one, but there you go.

What did you do that with? It's really good. I like it.

Morning, I feel that you're grandfather was raised in a different time and a different way. No surprise there. But somehow from what you said, i feel he loves you because he "does right" by you. Thats his way of showing love. But if you feel you want to move on then go for it. Be cordial if they do contact you but dont initiate any contact.

Are the grandparents you're referring to your dad or mom's parents?

Yes, you would be wrong to cut your grandfather off. No question. He's family, and it doesn't sound like you have a ton of family. You know one person can't be everything for you. Everybody has their deficits. It's not unusual that a grandfather doesn't want to talk about feelings, or in particular doesn't want to engage you when he thinks you're complaining. He likely finds a personal rock in family duty, that's motivating and precious to him, and he'd like to instill that in you. He might not have much 'feelings' talk in him, it's hard to know what people have and what's really difficult for them, just believe he does what he can, he's shown you he loves you, he's helped you out, don't allow yourself to see him as not good enough, that would be hypocritical of you, something you've accused him and your grandma doing to you. Were all just people.

And actually, you're forgetting something, it's their job to be 'parental/disciplinary/critical' to you, especially since they know your parents aren't there for you. You on the other hand don't have an obligation to be 'parental' to them. Your family duty to them is upcoming, when they are going to need family to watch out for them in their old age.

If your grandpa doesn't want to talk about feelings, or about you talking about hardship, that's fine, that's not his area. Instead, talk to him about the positive things, the positive changes, things you've achieved and are thinking about achieving. This might be his area, he might have a lot to share with you in that area. Great time to try it out.

Photoshop haha. I wish I could paint stuff like that but I've never been good at it. I've always been decent with Photoshop though. I worked on that off and on little by little because I didn't want to get in a rush and mess it up. Now that I'm done with it I still see more that I could do but for the most part that's what took me Beyond. I've been doing some research and I think that might actually be my spirit animal. Dragons represent balance and are very wise, Brave, and nurturing but can also fight with everything in them for what they believe in.

My grandparents I'm talking about are my mother's parents and yes, I don't have much family. My father's family has nothing to do with me and my mother's brother and his whole family have nothing to do with me either. I understand completely or everyone is coming from about how he was raised and how he shows emotions but at the same time I feel like he is showing so much favoritism towards these people who used to make fun of my mother for being an alcoholic, for the fact that my cousin, who is in her 30s, still buys alcohol for high school kids she has no connection with simply so she can stay popular amongst teenagers in a town she grew up in that she doesn't even live in anymore because she moved a whole state away but her popularity is still something she needs to keep for some reason. It's shit like that, they act like they're so fucking great and every little thing I do is held against me and anytime I try to defend myself or speak out against them for it my grandfather makes me feel like I should be completely ashamed of myself. I am so sick of living in a fucking world where people can do and say what they want to me but the minute I try to defend myself I get shut down for it.

Any way, I understand everything both of you said and I love my grandpa, I really do but you have to understand that they held me back so much it totally fuck me up. They had me believing the world was this one certain way when it wasn't. I was young and damaged and basically anybody that wanted to take a hold of me and manipulate me in any way they wanted could. I was way too naive and gullible and too afraid to think for myself and stand up for myself until all the damage was done and now in the last eight months I have been working on 37 years of damage that was all done because people like my grandparents made me feel like I was a freak, the music I listen to was bad and dangerous and not allowed in their house and the clothing I wore was highly offencive for Christians or to be seen by Christian eyes. But yet being in your thirties and supplying children you don't even really know with alcohol just to stay popular with high school kids it's not only illegal as fuck but apparently a good thing if my grandpa is going to get pissed off at me for bringing that up. I guess that he probably just doesn't want us fighting with each other but like I said, they are the perfect family and I'm the fucking Whipping Boy. I have always been but not anymore. I had blocked him on Facebook but I unblocked him and apologized and explained to him how I feel exactly like I have done so many times before so I'm just waiting for him to get back online and bitched me out or block me or do one of the few other generic things he does as long as he doesn't have to tell me how he actually feels.

I guess yesterday I didn't get things out of the clear as I should have. I don't want to cut my grandpa out of my life but he has done a lot of damage to me. For example, my grandmother was dead for two days before he even told me despite the fact that she was more of a mother to me than my own was and since I didn't know she was dead, my girlfriend at the time and I had went about 7 hours away to the beach and had just got there that night, the night before the funeral, we were both exhausted and had a very tired and very agitated baby with us and because I couldn't make it back to the funeral in time, most of the family despises me because of it. And another thing, when I was a child, my mother was with this crazy ass redneck who beat the holy fuck out of both of us almost every day and my grandparents knew what was going on but they never stepped in until the proof stare them right in the face and they couldn't ignore anymore, my blood all over the floor and walls in my mom's house from when he damn near killed me, and the proof all over my face which they could no longer ignore because it had gotten out what had happened so they had to actually take action. I guess I forgot to leave those things out yesterday as to why I hold so much hatred and anger and built-up negative energy about this. It's like I'm the one they all focused their bad feelings on, not just my grandpa but my entire family who won't even tell me why they don't like me and leave me to believe it's because I wasn't as popular as my cousins. I know that sounds ridiculous but in a town like Grundy Virginia, that's actually religion. Last night I sent my grandpa a pretty lengthy message on Facebook explaining to him why I felt why I did and since nobody seems to care about throwing shit in my face and trying to make me feel bad I reminded him that they just let me get beaten almost to death and then didn't even tell me about my grandmother dying until I messaged him two days later and asked him how she was doing before I even found out anyting. I even told him that I hope he does feel like shit for once because somebody other than me deserves to. And you know what? I actually feel great about it. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. And I am not sorry in the least bit for what I said either.

Edit: I don't want anyone to think I'm depressed or on the verge of a breakdown or anything because I kind of realized that's how this sounds. I am fine as far as that goes while I will admit I am a bit frustrated though. I have done a lot of internal evolving since I got out of Virginia in such a short time that it is quite astonishing actually. I know the psychedelics have a lot to do with how I'm able to start putting things into perspective and work towards finding an internal balance between my fiercely aggressive passion or the fact that I can be a straight-up hothead sometimes and my overly sensitive side that has let so many people take advantage of me for so long and find a way where I can make the good work with the bad in a way that makes me able to empathize but also protect and defend without fear that was there before but doesn't seem to be now.

Well I was going to wait until somebody else posted in this damn thread before I posted anything else, but I'm too fucking excited about this one. This time seven years ago I weighed 350 lb. 8 months ago I weighed 220 lb. 3 months ago I weighed 200 lb. And today...

Congratulations!

Thank you! I was so damn excited yesterday! This is the first time I have been under 200 lb in like 25 years so this was an emotional and very exciting and rewarding moment for me.

Props, man.

Thanks cheebs! I have been so damn proud of myself lately. I mean since I have moved out here my life has completely started turning around in such a positive way. I'm physically healthier, I have reached a point of subconscious understanding where I am able to deal with and let go of things from my past.

I've been stressed a little lately though because every time I get on Facebook all I see are Donald Trump supporters and haters blowing up on each other just for saying hello and me being extremely empathic as is, it breaks my heart to see the way our own people are treating each other when our government is purposely trying to destroy us.

Anyway, back on point, I have noticed myself gaining so much more confidence as of late like my psychedelic experience at the beginning of the month has put my brain in this beautiful overdrive and has begun reconstructing my ego to make me stronger, more confident and far less passive than I have ever been. I love this new me! I can still get worked up and be a hothead at times but I'm working on finding a balance between my aggressive side and my sensitive side.

I kind of wish now I had never asked on here the other day about the whole thing with my grandpa because I realized that if I had to ask here, without being able to make the decision on my own, then the answer was no, I shouldn't cut my grandfather out of my life. However, a lot from my past I buried away in my subconscious has been coming back to me lately of things my grandfather did to me in the past or things he neglected to do that he could have and I just realized that he really doesn't give a shit about me beyond his self interpreted obligations as my grandfather, which I believe is a promise he was making to either my mother or my grandmother to not let anything happen to me. For example, when I was still in high school, I went with my mom and her husband out to Bristol, Tennessee, which is about two and a half hours from where I used to live. They got arrested for being drunk in public and my grandparents had to come get me. The entire way home my grandfather yelled and screamed at like everything was my fault which he had never done, and scared the hell out of my grandmother, which I had never seen him do. Then, when I was younger than that, my mother was with a guy who beat the fuck out of both of us on a regular basis and my grandparents knew it but they never stepped in until there was a night when her boyfriend busted my face up really bad. It was horribly bruised, both of my eyes were blackened, and I had a huge gash on my chin. My blood was all over the place in my mother's house and would you know it, since there was physical evidence of the abuse, my grandparents decided to step in and save face. Then as if that's not enough, when my grandmother died, it was on a Friday, and everybody knew that my girlfriend at the time and I were driving down to Myrtle Beach on that Sunday. No one called or messaged me on Facebook or emailed me to tell me that my grandmother had died. I didn't know anything happened at all until we got to the beach late Sunday night and I sent my grandfather a message on Facebook and asked him how she was doing and he told me she died Friday and her funeral was that next morning. There was no way in hell we would have had enough time to get back and we were exhausted on top of that so I didn't get to go to the funeral and now everyone hates me for it. Even my mother, who actually died six months later from drinking herself to death, threatened to kill me if she ever saw me again.

So I tried talking to my grandfather about this and telling him how I felt and how I feel like he has treated me and not only would he never let me even get anything out, all he could ever tell me is that everything was in my head which I am not stupid and it insults my intelligence so much that he would not only refuse to own up to all the shit he has done to me, but to say that I'm making it up? Hell, I've even been talking to my best friend since the fourth grade about this and even he had seen the things that were going on but he just never wanted to tell me because he knew I probably wouldn't believe him and would end up despising him for it, and he's right. I always held my grandfather on this pedestal like he was the greatest thing ever. I looked at him as my real father because he has done more for me then my real father or mother ever
did for me. It is true he has helped me out so much but giving someone money and helping them out financially, and loving them and showing them you care are two completely different things. So needless to say, after I told him how I felt he blocked me on Facebook. They never accepted me. They all hated my father and my father's family because of the way my father treated my mother. He put her in the hospital so many times and he even raped my babysitter which is what led to his suicide basically. My dad's family are pieces of shit. They turn their backs on me years and years ago. They always denied my dad ever laid a hand on her even though I saw so much. Since I came out of that marriage though, I feel like my mother's family despised me because I came from my father. They all knew how much I hurt over the years. I was really close with my cousins before high school. My older cousin, Amy, was a senior when I was a freshman and at school would completely avoid me. Then once I was a senior, my cousin Gregory was a freshman and he avoided me at school. After all of us graduated, they never had anything else to do with me. I mean they would talk to me if I talked to them but that was it and then after my grandmother died the entire family went ghost on me. No matter how many times I tried to talk to them and ask them what they had against me they ignored me. They didn't even acknowledge me. Then when I would talk to my grandfather to try to find something out, like clockwork, it's all in my head and I'm feeling sorry for myself despite the fact that phrase has nothing to do with anything, that was always one of his go to phrases for whatever it was I was trying to talk to him about.

Right now I am very hurt and I am very angry. I guess I always had it in my head because my grandfather was my grandfather, he could do no wrong. I think he counted on me basically staying dumb and with all of my repressed feelings locked away until he was long gone but luckily for me, I am evolving and since I finally stood up to him and tried to get some sort of closure or answer or anyting, it's all in my head. So yeah, fuck him and fuck that family. They are all dead to me and I just need to accept that the only people who ever truly did love me are gone and I will never get them back.

Something to be very proud of. ::cool::

Oh believe me darling, I am very proud! There's not a whole lot nowadays that brings me joy but this makes me feel like my hard work and determination, even if it did take 7 years, is really paying off. I mean this move to Vegas has helped me in so many damn ways. I'm getting physically healthier, mentally healthy or, getting the balls to start standing up for myself and trying to see things from a philosophical approach both inside and outside the box. Man I can't wait to start to college this fall.

Also, if anyone uses popcorn time or any other movie streaming or downloading services and doesn't use a proxy, watch out! I didn't think I would honestly need a proxy but I got an email this morning and apparently because I watched split the other day, I got a copyright warning and they said if it continues to happen my account will be suspended. I either need to get rid of that fucking program or figure out how to use a proxy. Just be careful guys.

Wow! Good job! How did you lose that first 100lbs from 350? Was that the most difficult part? How'd you lose this last 30lbs?

Thanks bro!


I had gastric bypass back in 2012. I got down to around 215 pounds at one point but then during my breakup, being stressed as fuck, I started eating a lot more than I should have and it started stretching my stomach so I went back up to around 240 lb. Over long. Of just eating a lot less is how I got back down to 220 lb and then when I moved out here I continue my diet and I walk a lot. I was lifting weights but the gym has been closed since October because they are supposed to be completely remodeling the laundry room which is in the same building but yet still it's it's barely touched. It's really annoying because I was starting to build up muscle mass that was noticeable but now I'm just all saggy again hahaha

This truly disgusts me and really breaks my heart. For those of you who have seen the video of the Native American being harassed, all we saw was a very small portion and the kid who was in the natives face, was nothing compared to some Christians who were yelling and screaming at natives and telling them they had to give up their beliefs and had to become Christians and saying shit like their land was taken from them because they believe in everything but the one true God. How can such disgrace exist in this country when people are getting murdered left and right for nothing? I honestly couldn't watch much of this because that guy at the beginning really enraged me.

Meh. Anyone that starts bangin' on about religion hits my auto-ignore button.

It's not necessarily about religion, it's about how a hateful racist group of people is systemically doing all they can to eradicate the poor and lower class citizens. That shit completely rubs me the wrong way and just downright sickens me, but duly noted.

Oh I didn't mean you, I meant them and the God stuff they were on about.

Tomorrow is "Australia Day", our 26th of January anyway.
It's become the funniest thing to see online kerfuffle about...There's a movement to cancel it and start referring to it as "Invasion Day".
The best part is?
It's mainly a total white person thing.
It's like, if you're that cut up about it, sign over everything you own to the Aboriginal community and you'd best be on your way back to the UK?
Just make sure to let everyone know on social media ::roll eyes::

Didn't you already see all the 'news sources' having to admit they got it wrong? Another video shows (what you see partly the in the vid you posted) the Native American dude walked a straight 20 yards right up into the faces of these high school kids, who are standing on those steps a long time before, beating his drum a literally two inches from the kid's face. The kid wasn't in the Native American's face, it was the exactly the opposite. How'd you like a stranger to walk up to you and keep beating his drum right in your face? Those kids didn't know what to do. Not much respect on anyone's part. The black dudes yelling on the soupbox are the Black Hebrew Israelites. But sure, just call them christians, they're all the same ::roll eyes::, we'll let god sort em out.

Nathan Phillips, the Native American's name, a Vietnam War veteran, was doing what he did as a sign that they were not backing down. They were trying to say that the natives were protecting the black radicals when all they were trying to do was prevent violence on all fronts. They weren't on any one side and they won't show the part of the video where the radicals were doing the exact same thing to them earlier so they can have a means to make the natives look bad in all of this. This is what media propaganda does, they deliberately turn people into the enemy so they can generate ratings, because life is not precious to them, drama and money is their God.

All the natives were trying to do was have a peaceful celebration and because of these extremists ruining it, they couldn't. And then when the teenagers, who wasn't even there for that demonstration, but just happened to be nearby, came over to actually support the natives and while there were some assholes being racist, for the most part they were dancing around and enjoying themselves. This whole thing has been blown out of and the media is telling everyone who they should support and who they should hate in all of this. The natives weren't trying to protect the religious fanatics over the teenagers. They were just trying to keep peace on both fronts. I mean yes they are showing this video of Nathan Phillips in the kids face. He was making eye contact with him the entire time and didn't touch him. How do we know there wasn't someone else with a drum in one of the black people's face trying to keep them back and give them a visual warning to stay back?

Like I said people are blowing this completely out of proportion and making everyone look a lot worse than they were. The kid that stood his ground, was practically doing the same thing Nathan Phillips was doing only he was being kind of a smart ass in doing so while his friends closest to him started doing the tomahawk chop and other racist gestures.

But it's like you said though sculpt, Karma will sort everything out as it's supposed to.

Actually one more thing I wanted to add, how convenient is it that now, after all of this uproar, they are showing the portions of the video that makes a natives look bad and the black people look bad? At first it was white people being made to look bad and now they're making them look like the only ones who weren't doing the wrong thing. How convenient...

Excellent point.

The part that bugs me is our culture is looking at them as groups, and this made up thing called 'races', instead of looking at each of these people as the individuals that they are. That's not good at all. Each of those folks has to own their own behavior. We shouldn't think of 'that group' doing this or that, as that just causes inner biases against groups, tribalism, and judging people based on their 'cover' rather than the content of their character, to quote Dr. MLK Jr.

At the very least, I would have hoped those HS kids showed more respect for their elder, Mr Phillips, gave him the benefit of the doubt and listened to him -- because he's their elder, not because he's 'native american', and see what his character is.

I still really like the song "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil. ::big grin::

Yeah, it's a tough thing. I know a little bit about Australia's history regarding the Aboriginals. I think it's good for the nation to do what the can, but leaving the country is a bit extreme. Peoples have moved around the globe, sometimes displacing, sometimes joining, the people who were already there. We don't have the records to 'go back to the 'real' original', but we can still acknowledge and debate history. Calling it Invasion Day doesn't seem particularly helpful, but I think people should be open to discussing solutions, reconciliation, and even recompense if appropriate and feasible.

But I don't understand what it is you think the Native Americans need to own up to. All they were trying to do was basically be a shield between the religious Fanatics and the kids. I realize the school kids were just being dumb kids and may not have even realized some of the things they were doing came off as racist as they were. I feel like the media is trying to completely turn everyone away from the fact that it was black religious extremists that instigated the entire thing. It is true that they have shown footage of them provoking the students, but they still refuse to show footage of them also provoking the Native Americans, because they want you to believe that the natives were defending the extremists, when they were defending both groups from each other. which is on purpose so that the natives and the black people will look just as bad now since they are putting white Trump supporters under fire and this is what they need to turn the attention away from them and onto the minorities. This whole fabrication of information is simply their way to turn it around and make the white people look correct and all of this. The whole thing about the kid in the Hat and the native was basically just a stand your ground thing where neither would back off from the other and perhaps Nathan Phillips did get a little carried away, but he wasn't violent, he didn't touch the guy, he didn't yell anything or say anything to him and he kept eye contact with him and even after the entire incident, he went on one of these morning shows to do an interview and said he is completely at peace with the situation and that he has been praying on the matter and that he has no hatred or animosity towards him or any of the students, but I do think since the kid, who was also interviewed, apologize for any racial Nu Windows he might have suggested, he did not apologize for standing his ground, and I feel like Nathan Phillips perhaps should have apologized for the way he reacted, but unfortunately he didn't take any responsibility for it, which I will say is kind of a douchebag thing to do. Like

I think all they were doing was trying to keep peace but everything just got completely thrown out of proportion. I don't feel like the natives or the high school students were really that damaging to one another nearly as much as the extremists were. The fact that they will not play the part of the video where the guy says their land was taken from them because they don't worship the correct God. I mean doesn't anybody find that alone to be far more threatening than anything that happened in that crowd? It all comes down to the media showing what they want so they can manipulate the viewers into believing one certain group of people were wrong while the other were right. This was all spearheaded by the media to begin with in the first place. They are the ones who are breaking apart the country. They are just as responsible for messing with the system as the government currently is and I'm afraid between the two things are going to get to the point where everyone says fuck it and picks up arms and begins using them.

Did anyone know that two children have both died from dehydration while under the custody of ice? Deliberate negligent is what led to their death but will anybody be held accountable for that? Probably not.

And even though the government shutdown just ended, it's coming back again in three weeks so that means more homeless people. Why doesn't anyone seem to care? Donald Trump's excuse for opening the government back up today was because of all the airports not running correctly to hide the fact that he knows his time is nearly up. This morning was also the arrest of one of his top guys, Rodger Stone. In order to distract everyone from that, which is only making him look worse and worse, he ended the shutdown. He is scared. He knows he will never get this racist Monument, not a wall, which he seems to think is going to be built out of invisible steel, his words not mine, and now he's going to do whatever he can to delay the process of him finally having to answer for all of his crimes of treason and with any luck he'll be put to death, if anything for what happened to those two children. If anyone can honestly say he doesn't deserve any less, then I think you should be considered hostile and dangerous and a threat to society just like him and the rest of his supporters. He is no longer a president, he is a dictator, a power-hungry dictator. Any leader with his kind of authority and power who puts his own selfish and personal wants before the safety and well-being of the a nation and the people he took an oath and swore to protect, that should speak volume.

Let's just change the subject guys. I'm sorry for bringing it up to begin with. I've been under a lot of stress the last couple of days and I actually completely deleted my Facebook account this morning because a lot of the stress has to do with logging on only to see people lashing out in such violent hate speech towards one another over issues just like this and I refuse to allow it to hurt me anymore and I refuse to contribute to a self-destructing genocidal zeitgeist. I am far too empathic for my own good.

I made my third and final attempt this morning to make some sort of peace or get closure with my grandfather and he yelled at the whole time and would speak over me when I was trying to ask him why he didn't tell me about my grandmother dying but told the other grandkids and his response was, "that's bullshit". He is my grandfather and rather than even trying to explain to me why he thinks I'm wrong or to put my mind at ease, which has been a fucking racehorse for the last few years, which him and the rest of the family know I have been extremely depressed and even suicidal at one time, but he doesn't even care. He really wasn't counting on me ever bringing that up I am sure but the mushrooms brought out all these repressed memories and feelings that I locked away because I couldn't deal with them at the time in knowing my grandfather was this perfect person I thought he was and since he refuses to even try to see things from my point of view and just wants the conversation over and done with, that to me proves that he knows I'm right. He told me this morning he doesn't want to talk to me ever again and that's fine. After my grandmother died the whole family showed their true colors and not one of them can even tell me what their problem is. I feel ashamed to come from a family of such pussies.

You've answered your own question. ::wink:: Really though, I didn't say Mr Phillips has to answer for anything, I just pointed out what he did. Let me just add, ask yourself, why was Phillips and his group there with drums at the monument? They were there to be seen and messages heard (same as BHI group). They got that beyond their wildest imagination. And that's fine; I fully support our Constitutional rights/principals of freedom of speech, assembly and petition/protest.

Nope, not really, you should have expected this (vid below). This media incident highlights not jumping to conclusions.



And so what? Let everybody there speak their opinions and converse if they want. It's not 'threatening' as in physical violence, it's mentally confrontational... people have ideas, grievances, needs, etc, no need to get pissed off about it... we're not even there, they handled it themselves.

Primarily media does this for money: viewership brings advertising dollars. At some point the individual interests of the individual media owners comes into play; and people can debate what those are. But I don't think anyone 'in the media' pre-planned this, it's possible, but I doubt it. Almost everyone with a cell phone is minorly 'in the media' now.

I'd just say people need to embrace listening, discussion, debate, respect for fellow human beings and finding common ground.

Sorry to hear that about your grandfather, Morn. People get pissed and say things in the heat of emotion. Still, getting away from non-beneficial negativity and bickering can be good, such as Facebook or family bickering.

I never said that you said Nathan Phillips needed to take responsibility. I was pointing out that you said all three GROUPS need to take responsibility. The Native Americans did absolutely nothing wrong. The reason they were there, in full ceremonial clothing, playing drums, chanting and dancing was because it was a Native American peace rally. It was a gathering where the natives could come together and celebrate. It just happened to be in the nation's capital. They weren't there to spread any kind of awareness or their beliefs or to heckle and harass people, unlike the extremists who were only there to protest the Native Americans and basically persecuting them for their beliefs and belittling them because they didn't believe as they do. It sounds to me like you are trying to make all parties seem equally responsible when that is not the case at all! I'm not sure how familiar you are with Native American culture but when they gather like that, it's ceremonial.

If you would take the time to watch the video or at least skim through it, you could see things plain as day for yourself rather than taking what the media tells you as Church. The media realizes they fucked up when they put all the blame on the white people, who I have since came to the conclusion they did nothing wrong either other than just acted like teenagers, so they had to introduce this group of black radicals, whom despite all the terrible religious hate speech they were throwing at the natives at the very beginning of the video, were never even mentioned until it came time to take the blame away from the white people and put it on the minorities, but they knew putting sole blame on black people, whether if they were the only people at fault or not, would just cause a major backlash, so they only showed certain parts of the video to manipulate the people into believing what the media wanted them to and they did so in a way to make the Native Americans look just as bad as the extremists. The media played it off by saying they had new footage where they then show the extremists threatening the white kids and then they show the natives protecting the extremists. There is also footage where they were protecting the kids and when they were dancing and beating their drums and chanting, they were standing between the two groups. when it was a 2 hour long video. They had the footage the entire time, but saying we found new footage, is a blatant lie and their way of not having to admit they withheld this from you before to make one specific group of people look bad but since they are white and probably Trump supporters, blame these guys and while we're at it let's blame the natives as well so we can make the white people look even better,.They never showed the extremists persecuting the hell out of the natives at the very beginning of the video by telling them their land was taken from them because they don't believe in the Christian God. I consider that to be even worse than the very first initial clip of the kids and the natives or at the very least, important enough to show in their initial news reports, but rather than doing that and making the Native Americans look like the peacekeepers, which they were, which was why they were standing between the two groups, and Nathan Phillips did what he did, to keep the two groups separated. Then a day or two later they had Nathan Phillips on Good Morning America or one of those morning shows via satellite and was talking to him and they were only asking him about the students and never even mention the extremists. I wonder why... if people can seriously believe any of the media's bullshit, I genuinely pity them. There's no "all three are to blame" bullshit, responsibility needs to be taken instead of just trying to make all look equally responsible. That's what's wrong with this country, we are all a bunch of fat puffy pink pussies afraid to stand up for any Goddamn thing we believe in or to think for ourselves because being lazy and getting spoon-fed poison.

I'm so sick and tired of everyone believing everything the media tells them without doing their own research and developing their own opinions when all they are trying to do is keep the hate, violence, prejudice and all the other filth of the world swirling so they can have jobs. I feel like I have made my point and there is really nothing else to say. If you want to believe that all three groups were equally to blame, be my guest but unless you watch the video and made your own opinions, they are flawed because it sounds to me like you are strictly going by what the media is telling you that you should go by.

Now since considering yesterday after I made that post, you were on the message board several times and never felt the need to chime in then, but once I realize all I was doing was lighting a powder keg, I said let's change the subject, and I did. It's pretty convenient that you come and start this back up after I say that, isn't it? And before you say you just now saw it, I saw you viewing This Thread yesterday a few times after I made my post. If you want to keep on talking about it that's fine, but I'm done with it.

Now... Could somebody recommend a good free proxy program for me to download so I can use Popcorn Time safely?

I was only talking about it cause I wanted to conversate with you about it. It was interesting, but I'm spent on it too. Plus, look at the times of our posts: you posted 'let's change the subject' today at 11:27am, and my post today at 11:33am. If you think I could read, find/link that vid and write all that in less than 5 mins, than you give me too much credit. Na, I saw your post after I posted mine. But like you said, it doesn't deserve anymore of our attention.

Sorry, can't hep ya there.

You're right man, I'm sorry. I was thinking I posted the thing about changing the subject last night. I just wanted to prove to you that not all groups were to blame, just the extremists to provoke everything. The media wants World War 3 or a Civil War at the very least. This is a sick sad time in reality to live. I did however post the video yesterday and you said you were going to watch it so I guess I assumed you did, but given what I had already said, I don't understand why you would say what you did thinking you knew the facts when you didn't. I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but it's stuff like this why everyone believes the media, because they think because they say it's true when all you have to do is a little digging of your own to find out just what kind of monsters and internal terrorists they really are. Now since we are both in agreeance, let's just drop it.