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This is what is both interesting and painful to me.  Painful in the sense that I love and deeply respect the nephew I mentioned.  And very smart people can deeply disagree about strategy.  But he emailed me last night on a business trip just about fun stuff.  And now I have the idea in my mind:  Really?  He's okay with this shit?  We have nukes so we don't need allies?  Sorry.  But it doesn't make me respect him more. I can tell you this.  For at least many MAGA folk, or maybe I should say MAGA adjacent conservatives, it is NOT racism or homophobia.  Recently I was in this nephew's house in a red state with about a dozen family members, all of whom are avid Trump supporters.  They know I am Gay and welcomed it.  Several Black neighbors were coming in and out of the house.  My nephew's Black nephew, his sister's son, was staying over.  My funny joke was, "I'm Gay, I'm a liberal, and I'm a Democrat.  And I'm even from California.  I am truly fucked!"  Everybody laughed.  They are kind, loving people with strong families. Every poll I see shows Gen X as the heart of the Trump/MAGA coalition.  The political theory I referred to is that Gen X (born 1965 to 1980) grew up under sunny and prosperous Reagan conservatism.  So that is what they think works.  My Dad was a proud Reagan conservative.  He would be the first to say this is not Ronald Reagan's Republican Party.  Reagan did immigration reform.  Reagan loved NATO and made it stronger.  Reagan famously allied with the UK, Germany, and other nations against the Soviet Union.  He would not have been Vlad's pal and crony. Gen X has never had a President in their age cohort.  Clinton, W, Obama, and Trump are all Boomers.  Biden was Silent Generation.  I decided a while ago that Trump is the Gen X President.  Even if he is a Boomer.  You can make a good case that W was a Gen X President.  He won two pretty close races.  At the time, young Gen X'ers were on his side. The real question now is where do the Zoomers go.  The "demography is destiny" crowd would have said that by 2024 the 2020 Biden win, by 7 million votes, would maybe turn into almost a landslide, with more Zoomers on his side.  They in fact went the other way.  Inflation, home prices, rent, immigration, "toxic masculinity."  Those are the issues I think we lost tons of Male Zoomers over.  But Trump has now lost them, too.  They trust no political party.  And they will decide who the next President is. Maybe Trump will say, "Sorry, Zoomers.  You voted for me.  But now I am your King.  You never get to vote again."  If Trump wants Zoomers to hate him, that's a great way to do it. On that note, even many conservatives agree.  This whole thing about taking over Iraq, or Afghanistan, or VietNam, or Libya, or [name many other countries on the planet] just never ends well.  So what the fuck do the so-called "America First" people think they are doing?  They will just inspire more people to eventually hate us.  Including Venezuela, if all we do is cozy up to a different dictator to extract oil.

A browser similar to Chrome....  https://brave.com/

Same

I've been a number of years ago when it was more dangerous...3 friends that I used to visit that got deported were all killed during that time, so I haven't been back. But there were only 2 gay bars in the capital, across the street from each other... only the "open" gays went to. Salvador is so small, everyone knows whos' going where so if you were closeted, you went to regular bars. They all told me, go to any bar/cantina and after a 6-pack, everyone is gay. Plus there are the apps, always gay for pay too not just gay. Supposedly with the president there now, that killed everyone that was dangerous or perceived dangerous.... things are safer 🤷‍♂️

Years ago some board members did a lot of movie theaters, parks, and video arcades. I only ever cruised República Park in São Paulo. Nighttime can be dangerous, but I did have a couple of regulars back then.... $50 brl good memories, and photos 😉 These days, with how easy saunas are, it’s just not worth it for me. I’m even cautious with apps in Brazil. Add my “nothing after midnight” rule,  pretty much leaves saunas and regulars only, and less risk of drama or any other problems....