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A perceptive post. At the risk of incurring the ire of other posters, I return to a topic aired before - freedom of speech. It does sometimes seem to me that far too many people assume there are only two options here. You either have freedom of speech or you have the opposite: the restricted freedoms of communist and other totalitarian regimes. I am sure there are people in China, Russia etc who are fearful of what they say in public or sometimes even in private. Equally I know people in both countries who say virtually what they want, although within obvious limits - calling Xi or Putin a total moron would be unwise to say the least! Yet these friends are constantly amazed that the President of the United States, members of Congress and other ordinary Americans routinely lie egregiously and routinely and few seem to care. They see Trump as a total liar. They see McConnell and Graham put hands on heart and swear they would never do something. Yet when RBG died, they did precisely the opposite. They outright lied. As kids most of us will have had it drummed into us that we should not lie. If we do there can be consequences. Yet elected politicians and many ordinary folk get away with outrageous lying. How is this permitted under Freedom of Speech? Where are the responsibilities that all freedoms require? Why were the liars McConnell and Graham reelected? What is the difference between not being able to shout Fire in a crowded theater and yet being able to lie, libel and slander elsewhere virtually at will? I am all for quite severe restrictions being placed on the new media. Yet the freedom of speechers instantly shout "foul". We know that leaders in other countries have latched on to Trumps playbook and are using the new media to consolidate their power and policies. I have no idea how or if it can be done. But the start of restoring faith in democracy is surely the need to increase the responsibilities that come with freedom of what people can say.

Sadly, I have to agree with that. These things play out over much longer periods than just one election cycle. The orange monster hasn't called it quits, either, but rather as it looks will continue to pester the world with his twitter sewage and then run again in 2024. As for people like Duterte and Hun Sen and others, don't forget those get support from China and Russia, which don't give a shit about our democratic worries. That influence is only going to strengthen. US global influence has been diminishing long before Trump, but that was accelerated first by Trump (America first, yes, first down the drain), then by Covid and Trumps fucked up handling of it and rejection of international coopoeration. Biden can do only so much to restore confidence in the US. THAT genie is also out of the bottle, that an utterly untrustworthy president can come to power there (enabled by euqualy untrustworthy and spineless Republicans). Oh well, enough doom & gloom for today lol. Maybe we're lucky and Americans see that a "normal" and effective government (Senate permitting) as demonstrated by Biden is better than the crap of the last 4 years. (hope dies last)

From Bangkok Post / Opinion Is this the end for reckless populism? By Gwynne Dyer There is nothing wrong to participate in a sex party of any kind," said a source in the European Parliament. "However, such kinds of meetings with many people are illegal under the coronavirus laws." To be specific, 25 naked men attending a loud party above a gay bar in central Brussels is clearly against Belgium's coronavirus laws, which allow no more than four people to meet indoors, so somebody called the police. At least three of those arrested were Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It was particularly unfortunate for Jozsef Szajer. He's a senior founding member of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party, an ultra-nationalist, populist, authoritarian grouping that defends "family values" and condemns homosexuality, but he was arrested while fleeing that orgy (with ecstasy pills in his backpack). Yet it's hard to feel much sympathy for him. Mr Szajer was a leading anti-gay agitator in Fidesz, and boasts that he personally drafted the changes to the Hungarian constitution that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. He has now resigned as the leader of the Hungarian delegation to the European Parliament, and will doubtless have to quit Fidesz too. There was another scandal in Hungary last week, in which Szilard Demeter, a senior cultural official linked to Fidesz, wrote an opinion piece for a pro-government outlet comparing Budapest-born American billionaire George Soros, a Jew who fled the Holocaust, to Adolf Hitler. Mr Demeter also called the European Union "George Soros's gas chamber", and claimed that Hungary and Poland, the two Eastern European EU members with extreme right populist governments, are "the new Jews" of Europe. It's utterly unhinged -- and yet it sounds vaguely familiar. The unbridled arrogance, the self-pity, the shameless, hysterical exaggeration are all hallmarks of the new breed of "illiberal" populists -- and when they think they are losing, they always up the ante. I'm thinking, of course, of Donald Trump's recent electoral defeat and his subsequent behaviour. Could that extraordinary recklessness be a communicable disease? Could it somehow be spreading to Mr Trump's acolytes overseas as well? Well, consider Poland. The Catholic, ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been in power in Poland since 2015, elected by the same older, less well educated, non-urban, deeply religious coalition that backs populist take-overs elsewhere. And as in other populist-ruled countries, there has been a steady erosion both in human rights and in respect for democratic norms. The PiS was re-elected just last year, and its leader, 71-year-old Jarosław Kaczynski, was widely supposed to have his finger on Poland's pulse. But it all fell apart when a PiS-appointed court declared in late October that abortions would not be permitted even in cases of severe foetal abnormality where the child would die immediately after birth. Poland already had tight restrictions on abortion rights, but this turned out to be the last straw. Millions of young people, and especially young women, filled the streets of Poland's cities in the biggest anti-government demonstrations since the fall of Communism in 1989. The demos continued every day until a new lockdown was declared, and the PiS has now backed down, postponing the publication of the court's decision indefinitely. But something has definitely changed in Poland: support for Mr Kaczynski has now plunged. Then there's President Jair Bolsonaro, or "Tropical Trump", whose favoured candidates were thrashed in all Brazil's big cities in local elections last month, and the United Kingdom's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is now trailing the opposition leader in the polls for the first time. It's just straws in the wind at this stage, but the defeat of Mr Trump, the populist standard-bearer, is creating a sense in other populist-ruled countries that the juggernaut has stalled. The effect hasn't reached Asia yet -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines are still riding very high in the polls -- but the main thing the populists had going for them was momentum, and in Western countries it seems to be dropping off. Was there really a "coat-tail effect"? Hard to say. After all, both the PiS in Poland and Fidesz in Hungary came to power before Mr Trump was elected in late 2016. But populist leaders across the West seem to believe that somehow or other their fates are tied to Mr Trump's. It shows in the growing recklessness of their behaviour, and in the frequency of their failures. Does this mean they are all destined to vanish in his wake? Probably not, but that would be nice.

I have decided to try wring everyday then what i usually do and write just a couple of times about a trip and forget 1/2 the participants! (notice i said try!) this was written Friday morning i arrived today after a long flight from SNA to IAH to GRU to GIG! i think i am getting to old for this long ardourous flights it is much better to do a overnight in Miami if you are flying from the west coast! I got to the apartment in Ipanema then the ATM and was back by 3:00pm to welcome my first visitor! he is a very handsome bodybuilder that i have known for 9 years. He is planning on coming over every afternoon when he gets off of work He left about 5:30 and i headed over to Pointe202 sauna not expecting much since thursday is a weak night for all the saunas...and i was 1/2 right! i was the only client and there were 12 guys working! i thrive in that kind of environment! But the surprising thing was quality of the guys!!6 out of the 12 were good looking by almost anyones standards and 3,of the remaining ones like were very decent looking(s as bu as we would say “you wouldn’t kick them out of bed) usually the slow nights have guys that find it difficult with the better looking or better body types letting them have the slow nights! i ordered a drink and within 2 minutes had 5 guys around me with the rest of the guys sitting within or standing 10’ away! I met a really personable 22yr olld there was one guy in particular who had a amazing personality, great body, big dick so he said i am active so i said let’s find a passive! i saw a muscular guy i had been with about a year ago but he was also a top but he came up to me and said “i will be passive for you” so the three of us went up to a room, and had a great time! I had to get back to the apartment by 9:00 because i had a overnight guest coming then to go to dinner and then spend the night. He was right on time! We went to Rayz for dinner on Farme de Amoedo, which used to be the center of gay nightlife but now 7 of the 10 restaurants in that block are permanently closed and shades of NYC and Weho buildings are being torn down to make way for condos! next ...Friday

Hi guys! I’m so happy to join this forum and I would like to report you about the hot spots in Milan, my city! There are two nice bars that offer very hot shows, one it’s called G- Street and it’s located near the railway Central station, the other one is called “Inferus club” and it’s in the center of the city in a basement. Both clubs are private so you need a membership card that you can make inside paying 10 ore 25 €. They host full naked Strip shows and sometimes it’s possible to interact with the strippers, mostly Italians from the hinterland.

I’m heading to Belgrade Serbia now. I set my planetromeo location there two weeks and and I got a flood of messages. Guys are not all cute but two traits are very noticeable and amazing: all very tall, many 190 cm +; and all very hung, many 20 cm +. They are not shy. Most of them send pics of their impressive tools with the first message. I have saved two dozens of gays’ contacts and I don’t know how many I will managed to meet during my 5 days stay. Will report back. Btw, what are the new rules of posting nude pics here?

This might be of interest. The US used to have a good process that mandated alternative points of view on controversial issues. It died during the Reagan administration. A serious error in my view. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fairness-Doctrine

From wapo.com: In Rio de Janeiro, where the virus has already killed tens of thousands, upturned the economy and sent rates of homelessness soaring, moments that recall the darkest days of the pandemic are once more appearing in the news. Sick people, unable to get help in the medical system, are again being found dead at home. Lines stretching into the hundreds are forming for intensive care beds. Hospital officials are warning of supply shortages and an imminent collapse in medical services. Even the vaunted private heath-care system reached 98 percent capacity in its intensive care units this past week, officials said. In states across the country, the situation wasn’t much better. People crowd a beach in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 29, even as coronavirus cases continue to increase. (Bruna Prado/Getty Images) “Brazil has to be very, very serious,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, told reporters this past week. The situation is “very, very worrisome.” But public health experts in Rio de Janeiro are expressing alarm over what they are seeing — both from officials and also from ordinary people. In May, during the worst weeks of the first wave, city life was vastly constrained. Even if Rio never fully locked down, shops and restaurants closed, people worked from home and several field hospitals were opened. This time is different. There is neither talk of field hospitals, nor restrictions on businesses. The streets and beaches remain full of unmasked people who are either unaware or unbothered by the alarming health warnings. As coronavirus kills indigenous people in the Amazon, Brazil’s government goes missing “We are not going to take a step backward,” acting Rio de Janeiro governor Claúdio Castro said Thursday, conceding the difficulty of reinstating restrictions. “It’s no use to pass measures that the population won’t follow.” On Friday, Castro and Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella announced the opening of more hospital beds and that city schools would halt classes. But health officials across the country are warning that such minor restrictions almost certainly won’t be enough. The most powerful weapon against the coronavirus — fear — has dulled. Many people either simply don’t care or no longer believe in the dangers posed by the virus. “We’re facing a campaign of disinformation and denial,” said Suzana Lobo, president of the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine. “The impact in January will be very, very large. Our fear is that in January and February, the health system won’t be able to bear it.” In a fiercely individualistic society, where people have little trust in either government or each other, the pandemic has, from the beginning, been a mass social experiment in the limits of scientific persuasion. But now, public health officials are increasingly worried that their warnings don’t matter. “It’s this story: ‘My life for a dip in the ocean,’ ” said Ligia Bahia, a public health professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “It’s as if we haven’t learned any lessons. For us, it’s very sad. “We’re completely defeated,” she added. “I don’t even want to talk about a vaccine.” Now, many Brazilians who have been victimized by the disease only see a year filled with mistakes, errors in judgment and confusion. Latin America had time to prepare for the coronavirus. It couldn’t stop the inevitable. Santos de Lima, the teacher, said everyone in her family, who live in the impoverished and crime-plagued area of Pavuna, had been petrified of the disease. But as cases began to diminish, the city relaxed almost all of its containment measures. “Very, very, very irresponsible,” Santos de Lima now says of the decision. But at the time, she, along with much of the city, was loosening up. Allowing herself to believe the worst had passed, she went back to the classroom. And her family started to get together once more, even though her 65-year-old father, Carlos Alberto Correia de Lima, was in poor health. Much of the family soon had the coronavirus. Now, many of them can’t look past the guilt. “You ask whether we are responsible for what happened,” she said. “We keep asking if things could have been different, if our contact could have been avoided.” But she can’t come up with any good answers. “The guideline is to avoid contact, but are we supposed to stay in complete isolation for nine months?”

If you think self-censorship is excessively complicated, consider the alternative. Who would be the arbiter of another person's speech? You and I may not like what others say, but do we have to right to stifle them? That is truly crazy. Once you start down that road, the Thought Police and 1984 aren't far behind. China dismissed elected officials in Hong Kong because they were deemed "disloyal" based on their speech. You don't have to look far to find other nations doing the same thing. How could you possibly come up with a list of banned speech topics? Would hearing be held, votes taken to see what makes the cut? Your wish to eliminate what you consider falsehoods and undesirable speech is surely well intentioned. Creating a process, however, to produce the desired results is wholly unworkable in any democracy, anywhere.

That is precisely what I was implying. Freedom comes with responsibility and that also goes for the freedom of speech. I was not referring only to politics and politicians. I was talking of each individual. If your view is that anything goes and that censorship is a no go area, I reckon that means we face a pretty desperate future. Believing that each individual can decide everything for themselves in our crazy, excessively complicated, intertwined world no longer works, even if it ever did. Just look at the progress of the pandemic in the USA. Vast millions of individuals made decisions not to take the advice of scientists. "Im free to do as I please and I will not wear a mask" was a comment heard ad nauseam from interviewees on tv bulletins. "I have the freedom to infect you if I happen to be infected" was rarely if ever heard. Freedom in any society means there have to be rules and absolute freedoms cannot work. Self censorship of the type you suggest is now a thing of the past.

Second this recommendation. She is very real and extremely intelligent and talks to her listeners on an almost one to one basis. Trump knows he has lost, but he says he is raising money to fight the election. In truth the 207 million he has raised only 9 million has been spent on fighting the election results. The rest will be to pay his back taxes and debtors, to keep him out of jail. He is ripping off his own supporters, and you would think some of them might be smart enough to catch on. America's democracy is failing because somehow our educational system is really lacking. No longer "Ugly American", but dumb American.

The problem is that it's not possible to pose severe restrictions on the media without also restricting the speech of everyone. Once the internet replaced the mail, the telephone and radio as the way people learned about what was happening and communicated with one another, it marked a sea change from which there's no turning back. The same internet that allows us to share information about our favorite bars,restaurants and massage shops is the same vehicle that makes it possible for disinformation to flourish. Some voluntarily policing by Facebook and Twitter has had some limited effect around the edges but technology will always allow for restrictions to be circumnavigated. In the end it's the end user who'll decide what he or she chooses to believe. They are the ultimate censors. Attempts to deny them access to the both the good and bad is destined to failure. There's no magic bullet but those governments that provide all citizens equal access to a liberal education will produce information consumers prepared to make informed decisions.

Nobody could say it better

For those who want to dive deeper into this rabbit hole, I have two recommendations: 1. Google Heather Cox Richardson. She is an American History professor who offers two one hour lectures weekly. One on current politics and how it has evolved from the America past, and a second lecture that explores a particular theme in US history, usually focused on the 19th Century, her specialty. Who knew, for example, that, in 1892, having lost his reelection bid, Republican President Benjamin Harrison proceeded to do everything he could to wreck the economy so his successor, Grover Cleveland, would be blamed. And it worked! The Democrats didn’t win another election for twenty years. (I warned you: rabbit hole) 2. Podcast: The New Abnormal, with Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast. Fun profane banter about current politics by a Lincoln Project formerly highest level Republican operative now working for the Democrats, and a New York City left wing pundit. Lots of fun gossip about the Trump family crime syndicate, and interviews with interesting guests.

The purpose of this false accusation, that The Democrats have stolen the election, is not to overturn the results of this election. The idea is to establish a “stab in the back” theory, so that the next Fascist oriented politician, who will be smarter than DJT (Cotton, Cruz, Tucker Carlson), can use the conspiracy theory to win next time, or the time after that. They can then further unravel the democratic fabric and (re-)establish the (mostly White and very rich) oligarchy they think should run everything. Biden will have to be very strong to avoid leading an American Weimar Republic. I think he has been wildly underestimated and I have some hope he can pull it off. But there are, as we have seen, an enormous number of people who will believe this particular conspiracy theory, and, thanks to the NRA and the cowardly Republican Party, many of them have firearms. And of course they also have their very own sources of alternative reality news. Fox not crazy enough for ya? Welcome to Qanon, Newsmax, Parler. Not a great recipe for the future of my country of birth. Lucky me, having moved to Canada. But for the majority of my friends back home, American and world history does not provide much comfort just now.