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FlyingSquid , in In stunner, House GOP bid to impeach Mayorkas fails
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar
SinningStromgald ,

What else can be said that would actually to add to the conversation after this? I can think of nothing. Good day sir.

Godric ,

What else can be said that would actually to add to the conversation after this? I can think of nothing.

Yet you still commented.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/183b8cbd-29ea-41ef-bd10-a8e98ae85404.jpeg

dudinax ,

He said good day.

SkybreakerEngineer ,

I think it’s important to point out that this vote only failed because they basically pulled a guy out of a hospital bed to vote no

The failure came about because of the surprise appearance in the chamber of Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who showed up unexpectedly — having recently had surgery and wearing hospital scrubs and no socks, according to NBC — to vote against the bill.

So not exactly a stunning rebuke of the wackos.

Ranvier ,

Somewhat ironically Republicans will likely be pulling a different guy out of a hospital bed (Steve Scalise, getting chemo) to counter this one and vote on it again.

ShepherdPie ,

And they’re hoping another vote will pass once another rep gets out of his hospital bed. There seems to be a common theme here.

mosiacmango ,

You really did need to bookmark that link.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I know, right?

EdibleFriend , (edited ) in Bayer ordered to pay $2.25 billion in latest Roundup trial
@EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

These are the kind of financial hits these companies should be taking. Which means, as usual, this’ll get knocked down due a few hundred million tops in appeals.

SuperSpruce ,

That’s still crazy high for a single person. Imagine what this kind of penalty would to do an oil or tobacco company.

Patches ,

Almost like human life should be priceless. Huh…

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Unless you are being sarcastic it is a pretty shitty take on the situation.

SuperSpruce ,

If ExxonMobil has this kind of penalty per person, they would have to pay $450 trillion dollars. Yes, they should go bankrupt, but this is literally 1000x their market cap.

If Boeing has this kind of penalty per person, they would have to pay $600 billion for just one of the 737 Max crashes. Which would completely bankrupt the company, giving Airbus a monopoly.

Yes, we do need larger penalties on corporations 99% of the time. It’s laughable how tech companies keep getting away with slaps on the wrist for grotesque privacy violations. But $2.25 billion for a single cancer case is a bridge too far. It should be somewhere around $2-15 million depending on the severity of the case, plus the people involved in the scandal should be fired.

However, the penalty should double with each appeal. Maybe that’s how they got to $2.25 billion.

A_Random_Idiot ,

If Boeing has this kind of penalty per person, they would have to pay $600 billion for just one of the 737 Max crashes. Which would completely bankrupt the company, giving Airbus a monopoly.

if boeing cant be fucked to tighten bolts and have basic safety shit.

Or worse, they make necessary safety shit a expensive optional extra (ala the boeing crashes a couple years ago where the planes would nose dive randomly)

Then they deserve to go bankrupt.

They don’t deserve to exist as an entity if they are killing people with carelessness and greed.

Let some other group pick up the pieces in bankruptcy auctions.

Illuminostro ,

Good. Fuck them.

squiblet ,
@squiblet@kbin.social avatar

The legal system routinely attaches prices to human lives and illnesses and it is almost never anything like two billion.

kusuriya ,
@kusuriya@infosec.pub avatar

well this is appeal 4 I think and its been swinging back and forth between Bayer owes shit and Bayer owes billions. Let’s not count any dollars until this guy starts collecting.

Full transparency, Bayer is my employer, these thoughts and opinions are my own and do not reflect my employer, My bonus would look a lot better without this news, but the dude totally deserves to win because boy did Monsanto fuck him over.

Hotdogman , in Chicago area CEO killed in freak accident at party for Vistex employees

Somebody needs to make an “unnatural billionaire death” bingo card. So far we got submarine implosion and death cage.

Bonesince1997 ,

Idk about billionaire, but the Bed Bath Beyond CEO threw himself out a window just before the company failed, maybe a couple years ago now.

Hotdogman ,

I’ll accept single pane glass in a high rise.

themeatbridge ,

What’s the movie where they have an executive get onto a conference table and run through a window, and then later another exec does exactly the same thing but they’ve replaced the glass and he just bounces off, and the people in the meeting juat continue with work?

CodexArcanum , (edited )

The Hudsucker Proxy! Great movie in general, very funny.

Here’s the initial “jumper” scene (trigger warning for self-ending via jump) youtu.be/-FPuyMHo2N8?si=xCqAaS8mF0u1XP9U

And here’s the failed follow: youtu.be/Jqe6tBKmFJA?si=zntGnFBNSIidQzAA

themeatbridge ,

I thought that might be it! Fantastic movie.

“You know, for kids!”

ChunkMcHorkle , (edited )
@ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

deleted by creator

Chainweasel ,

But a normal person could die that way easily, what we need is ways in which people died that wouldn’t have been possible without a fuckton of money.
A normal person couldn’t afford a $250,000 trip to the bottom of the ocean or a party with a stage elevated by a crane.

june ,

Oh what about the Segway owner driving a Segway off a cliff? I don’t think he was a billionaire but there were quite a few less 13 years ago, and he was worth $438 million USD, so maybe he can count too?

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Something something Undertaker.

tacosanonymous , in Chicago banned unannounced migrant drop-offs. Now this Texas charter bus company is suing over the restrictions

Regardless, Texas should be held liable for trafficking.

AnneBonny , (edited )

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking

How can this be prosecuted as trafficking?

edit: Thank you everyone for all the responses. I appreciate it.

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

there's no way that texas would lie to these people or force them onto the buses. they're the model state of integrity and human rights.

ryathal ,

That’s not enough to qualify for trafficking, you need the second part about labor/sex. Just sending a bunch of people to another state doesn’t qualify.

MechanicalJester ,

You’re late for your bus to Disney!

Bus dumps you in Dallas

Gonna cry?

towerful ,
ryathal ,

Again you need to show the second half. Just moving people under false pretenses isn’t trafficking. You need to show the intent to exploit them for some sort of gain, and it generally has to be of the forced labor/sex variety. That isn’t happening here.

AnneBonny ,

Putting people onto a bus by use of force, fraud, or coercion, by itself, doesn’t seem to meet the definition of trafficking.

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

Am I wrong? What am I missing?

CADmonkey ,

So, just to be clear, you’re OK with someone telling you to get on the bus? A bus headed to a location they aren’t telling you about?

What if they took you to the train station and loaded you on a box car with a bunch of other people, is that OK?

AnneBonny ,

I’m not defending Abbott’s operation.

AtariDump ,

But you are.

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

I agree, not trafficking. It’s just run of the mill false imprisonment and kidnapping.

AnneBonny ,

I think it might qualify as human smuggling, but I’m not a lawyer.

towerful ,

Human trafficking is defined in the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation”.

www.unodc.org/unodc/en/…/faqs.html#h1

I don’t think Texas’ intent here is benevolent, and I don’t think they are doing it without getting what they want.
Pretty sure it fits the definition.
However, it’s not a clear cut case. Legally, the exploitation would have to be proven. IE who & how the people behind it are exploiting vulnerable immigrants.

Don’t get fooled into “it’s only human trafficking if it’s transporting for sex/profit”. It’s a much broader definition

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

purpose of exploitation

they're being politically 'exploited'. and the republicants and their 'transportation partners' are profiting from it...

does that count?

AnneBonny ,

Don’t get fooled into “it’s only human trafficking if it’s transporting for sex/profit”. It’s a much broader definition

I’ll have to think about this. Thanks for responding.

Illuminostro ,
AnneBonny ,

I think “smuggling of persons” is the most appropriate charge, but I’m not a lawyer.

Sec. 20.05. SMUGGLING OF PERSONS.

statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.20.htm

Mystic_Vampire ,
@Mystic_Vampire@lemmy.world avatar

Driving someone to chicago and dropping them off isn’t trafficking, but there is most definitely a slew of child-labor happening in this country, and the majority of the children involved are migrants who illegally crossed the border. There’s a lot of coverage about this if you look for it. I imagine that Texas might be involved in some part of that process if they’re the ones handling these people.

Edit: www.npr.org/2023/…/immigrant-child-labor-crisis

Illuminostro ,

Oh, you mean literal slavery.

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

They are lying to the people. It’s literal coercion.

AnneBonny ,

What are they telling the people?

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

That they are bringing them to shelters in states where they will be taken care of, they’ll be given jobs, they’re going to go be processed for asylum, some said they were given money.

Dagwood222 , in The 'old American Dream died,' Realtor details salary needed to buy a home, afford a middle class life in 2024

Here’s what happened in a nutshell.

Lyndon Johnson had great plans for the US, but wanted to win the Vietnam War with one huge push. That quickly turned into a giant quagmire. LBJ and later Nixon, ordered bombing of the North. That meant the US factories were working 24/7. Nice for factory owners and union workers, but LBJ was paying for it with paper money because he didn’t want to raise taxes. Ironically, Nixon ran for President as an anti inflation and pro peace candidate.

Nixon and Kissinger doubled down on the bombing and inflation started to spiral. Also, those factories were getting a bit worn down. Unable to met the deamnd for the bombing and supply foreign markets the US ceded local steel making to Germany and Japan. This is going to bite the US in the ass when the Arab Oil boycott hits. US steel is much more oil dependant than the newer factories, so suddenly Toyotas and VWs are the hot cars, and US manufacturing takes a huge hit.

Carter tried to control inflation and cut oil use, but got kicked out over the Iran hostage mess. Reagan came in and cut taxes for the rich. This increased the debt, but gave the economy an unrealistic jolt.

tl dr. In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour. The average house was $11,000.00 and $1 million was considered a vast fortune.* Middle class meant a High School graduate with a Union job supporting a family of four.

By the time Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr were done, ‘middle class’ was two college degrees supporting the house and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.

  • In case anyone tells you that $1 million is 1960 would be $10 million today, tell them that in 1960, $100,000 would buy a mansion in Beverly Hills.
Aceticon ,

The massive difference in the purchasing power of what the Official Inflation Figures tell us - when we used them to adjust an amount of money at a past date for inflation over the years and get a supposedly equivalent present day amount - is the same salary now as in 1960, shows just how fake Official Inflation Figures are.

The reason for Official Inflation Figures being so much bullshit and always on the understating inflation side, is because the lower the Inflation used in calculating the Official GDP figures, the higher that latter figure gets.

All that talk of GDP Growth in the last few decades is the product of some very consistent (and hence likely purposeful) understating of the Inflation so that the Maths used to produce the Real (i.e. Official) GDP output a higher number hence politician can proudly declare GDP is growing strongly.

Dagwood222 ,

As Mark Twain once said,

There are lies and there are big damned lies, and then there are statistics!

grue ,

Lyndon Johnson had great plans for the US

I recently learned that Johnson’s “Great Society” plan was partially a continuation of Kennedy’s “New Frontiers” plan (which he wasn’t very successful in pushing through Congress before he was assassinated).

Dagwood222 ,

LBJ is probably the most WTF President of the 20th Century. He pushed the Civil Rights Act, and created the Vietnam fiasco.

I like this story. Someone who worked for Kennedy and Johnson put it this way; if JFK came into your office and saw you reading he’d assume you were working. If LBJ saw you reading a book he’d think you were goofing off.

AngryCommieKender ,

If we hadn’t had Wilson we wouldn’t have had Hitler, or Stalin. We may not have had Nixon and Reagan…

laverabe ,

$1 million today is still a vast fortune to most people tbh

Dagwood222 ,

I think most people would see the gulf between owning one moderately nice house and a small business [$1 million in 2024] and owning an estate with several acres and some horses, a half dozen cars, and enough in the savings account to keep a few families going. [$1 million in 1960]

Snapz , in Republican secretary of state threatens to kick Biden off the ballot as Trump payback

They’ll sacrifice their lives for a person who is demonstrably the actual biggest loser in history, and he just gets more loser-y, folks, okay… If any of you are starting to have your memories fade, here’s a quick refresher to read this morning and then copy and send to your aunt karen in Missouri.

  • 0 re-elections won
  • 1 term president
  • 2 times impeached
  • 3 marriages
  • 4 inch lifts in his shoes
  • 5 kids, from 3 different mothers
  • 6 bankruptcies
  • 7 US Capitol police suing him for Jan 6 terrorist insurrection and murder of police
  • 8 trillion + dollars added to the US debt in a single term
  • 9 trump lawyers sanctioned by federal judge for lying in frivolous election fraud lawsuits and ordered to pay defendant’s legal fees
  • 10 years that trump paid $0 in income taxes between 2000 and 2015. ($0 to cops, teachers, roads, prisons, disaster relief, etc)
  • 11 trump associates charged with serious crimes over the past 5 years
  • 12 million votes (the big lie) - trump claims he won the 2020 election by 12 million votes when in reality, he lost by about 7 million votes.
  • 13 of August, 2021 - one of multiple days that trump was supposed to magically become president again according to Qanon and a crack addicted pillow salesman (the two most respected information sources in the gop)
  • 14 year old girl in a youth choir that trump approached in 1992 to say, "Wow! Just think - in a couple years I’ll be dating you."
  • 15 originally confirmed cases of COVID in the US trump said would soon be, “down to close to zero.” followed by, “like a miracle, it will disappear.” - over 1,000,000 Americans have since died of COVID and it continues to kill 4 years later.
  • 16 years old - age of daughter ivanka when she hosted “miss teen” pageant and, according to long time trump associate Noel Casler, "trump called her over in the middle of a rehearsal and had her give him a lap dance while he leered at the crew."
  • 17 known trump and russia investigations from local, state and federal prosecutors
  • 18 gop senators that ignored trump threats / warnings and supported Biden admin’s infrastructure bill.
  • 19 as in COVID19 - trump was verified as the single largest source of disinformation on the virus, with a Cornell study claiming that 38% of the “misinformation conversation” originated with trump
  • 20 the day in January, 2021, when Biden was sworn in despite trump inciting a violent insurrection to stop election verification at the US Capitol.
  • 21 gun salute that trump ordered for himself when he left office after a humiliating defeat, even though he never served in the military, famously called military members “losers” and “suckers” and actively avoided the draft with a cowardly “bone spurs” excuse.
  • 22 date in August, 2021, when Alabama hate rally crowd booed trump for finally saying people should get vaccinated, only after 700,000 Americans have died due mostly to his failure as president
  • 23 as in wrestlemania 23 in 2007 where trump, a cartoon level failure with no other prospects, participated in a fake bet that a proxy wrestler would win a fake fight on his behalf or he would shave his wig and hair plugs off.
  • 24 day in August, 2021, when trump actually filed a lawsuit in Florida court against YouTube, a private company, demanding that they reinstate his YouTube channel like a desperate, irrelevant embarrassment with no platforms left to abuse.
  • 25 plus credible sexual assault allegations against trump, spanning decades and with accusers starting as young as 13 years old at time of assault.
ITypeWithMyDick ,

And a partridge in a pear tree!

CaptainSpaceman , in Spirit Airlines put six-year-old boy on the wrong flight alone

Kevin!!!

Stupidmanager , in U.S. government spent more on health care in 2022 than six countries with universal health care combined

I feel vindicated. Not 15 days ago I complained about paying more in taxes AND health insurance. And I’ve been saying it for over a decade. Fuck private healthcare, it serves no purpose for the people.

lemmy.world/comment/5808789

SupraMario ,

Yep, this is why I argue with people who say, we should raise taxes to fund it…no fuck that, we can afford it now already without having to raise taxes even a penny.

Synthead ,

We would save a significant amount of money. And private insurance almost always doesn’t provide good healthcare. Imagine no copays or deductables.

whatwhatwutyut ,

I have to say, being on Medicaid through college showed just how true this is. Being able to put my health first, rather than worry about if I could afford a doctor visit (or an ER visit), was great. The peace of mind of knowing that I would pay $0 for ANYTHING medical lead to me putting my health first.

The one potential charge you could get was for going to the ER for something deemed a “non-emergency.” Even then I didn’t worry about whether I could go to the ER after whiffing it off my longboard and smacking my head into the pavement because… well, the non-emergency charge was $8.

aphlamingphoenix ,

Imagine not having to argue with a massive corporation about whether you should be able to take the medication your doctor told you to take.

jasondj ,

Imagine not having to choose between taking your kid to the doctor for $300 and a sick note for sniffles or letting him tough it out and get marked truant.

General_Effort ,

This may not be a popular question, but: Would Americans be willing to pay less?

No really. This would mean a lot of good jobs being cut. Yes, they are jobs that provide no benefit to the public (rather the opposite), but thinking about the big picture isn’t very American. Americans like to side with the little guy.

It gets worse. It would mean a huge pay cut for doctors. They are way overpaid compared to doctors anywhere else. Would Americans side with themselves the people the government or those nice family doctors?

Yamainwitch ,

First of all what? Typically the highest paid members of hospital staff of “Administrators” who have completely shifted health care into a for-profit business. If the government regulated them out of their jobs and there were price caps set in place instead of wasting hundreds of hours decoding billing and fighting insurance companies doctors would very likely make more. They would also be more likely to actually try to help you versus hit unrealistic patient exam quotas to try and extract as much money from insurance to benefit the administration staff. Hell new doctors in medical school are pretty much unpaid and forced to work hours that somehow circumvent labor laws. The whole medical industry needs to be overhauled. Getting rid of middle management would free up capital that could be properly reinvested into the hospital for better equipment, wages etc.

General_Effort ,

doctors would very likely make more

I expect that’s politically the way to go; not that I know anything about that. You get rid of a few inefficiencies and pay off other stakeholders with most of the gains.

The fact remains, if you want to lower health care costs to levels comparable to other countries, you have to lower all the costs to comparable levels, including doctor’s pay.

Yamainwitch ,

I don’t think you understand just how much bloated administrative costs and bureaucracy account for the U.S.‘s healthcare spending. It’s absolutely NOT doctors’ salaries accounting for the literally billions we are spending and no doctor’s shouldn’t be paid less to do the same job. Remove the middle men and ghoulish profiteering from healthcare.

General_Effort ,

The US can pay doctors as much as it wants. If Americans think that doctors deserve more than they get in other countries, that’s not for me to judge. Mind, that it does imply that the US is more unequal than other countries, because Americans want it to be.

True, merely lowering the administrative overhead will also go some ways to lower costs. But here, too, I wonder if Americans are really willing to do that. Sure, everyone wants to get rid of the useless middle men, but that’s not anyone’s job description.

Yamainwitch ,

Education costs in the US are also astronomically higher than other countries, which when you’re indebted 250-500k as soon as you graduate medical school, you are going to command a higher wage to make payments. The Education system in the US suffers from the same “we should run this like a business” greed that the medical industry does and should absolutely be reformed. Cause freedom isn’t free but it can be financed 🙄

Chriswild ,

Are you calling for profit insurance the little guy? I don’t know why people think doctors would be the ones taking the hit and not the for profit corporations.

General_Effort ,

No. I am asking if Americans would actually be willing to see cuts happen.

To answer your implied question: Because corporations don’t consume. They don’t go on holidays, live in mansions, … There is nothing there which can take the hit.

Chriswild ,

Corporations do consume, go on holiday, live in mansions… The executives wouldn’t lower their standards or travel on their own dime.

If you think for profit corporations don’t have excess then you must not live in the same reality.

General_Effort ,

Executives are employees, not corporations.

Chriswild ,

Corporations give things to their executives. Company retreats? Company jets? Company cars? Do none of these exist in your reality?

General_Effort ,

Employees receive pay. What you describe is called “fringe benefits”. It’s not unusual.

If you want to know something about these things, health care statistics, executive pay, or whatever, just ask. I am patient with you, because it is obvious that you are a minor. However, if you want to know more, then I expect you to keep the childishness out of “my reality”. Ok?

Chriswild ,

You’re so close

TokenBoomer ,
LrdThndr ,

This would mean a lot of good jobs being cut

Oh, no! We eliminated useless positions that accomplish nothing but sucking the life out of the system. However will we go on?

RBWells ,

BUT, small businesses would benefit, and entrepreneurs, if they didn’t have to worry about health insurance. Doctors offices costs would come down without a lot of complicated billing stuff to do. Billing specialists would lose their jobs. Of my circle of people - husband would lose his job unless it was a Germany style system, and two other people I know.

If you want some sort of employment program, the medical system here is a shit way to go about it. Why not pay people to do something with a good impact on the land or the people?

And again - universal, tax-paid coverage would favor small business, it’s easier to take a risk when it doesn’t mean you might go bankrupt from a medical issue.

General_Effort ,

small businesses would benefit, and entrepreneurs,

Quite possible. Rates of self-employment are higher in France and Germany (2022 OECD stats). I’m not sure if that figure should be taken at face value, though.

unless it was a Germany style system

You mean a system with mandatory insurance? Administrative costs are substantially higher in US health care. Anything to bring quality and costs more in line with peer countries would mean a substantial hit, regardless of the system adopted.

Why not pay people to do something with a good impact on the land or the people?

Good question. Just a cursory glance into the statistics will tell anyone that the US system is dysfunctional. It’s been that way for decades or longer. I don’t even know when it became obvious that it wasn’t doing as well as its peers. And yet, there hasn’t been a lot of effort to improve it (Kudos to Obama, though). Maybe Americans just don’t want to do what it takes. Maybe they just want a better outcome, without all the small, necessary steps to get there.

RBWells ,

On Unless it was a Germany style system (sorry I don’t know how to do the inline quotes yet)

I mean that Germany uses highly regulated private insurance plans to get to universal coverage. That would probably be an easier sell here, than a one plan to rule them all NHS. Not saying it’s a better idea. I have argued for YEARS that single payer would be a good idea here because we already have Medicare, just expand it to everyone and audit the fuck out of the providers would be cheapest and most efficient.

gamermanh ,
@gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I don’t know how to do inline quotes yet

Use the “greater than” symbol: “> teehee I’m a quote”

RBWells ,

Use the “greater than” symbol: “> teehee I’m a quote”

Thanks!

eskimofry ,

Americans like to side with the little guy

As you americans tell it: That’s bullsh*t. I see you guys getting fucked everyday by corporate. It’s hard to believe this is the U.S that holds international power… it looks like a Circus on fire looking inside from the outside.

odelik ,

As somebody trapped in this circus, lemme tell you, I want the fuck out of this clown car.

chitak166 ,

This was very eye-opening for me as an American into the world of public healthcare.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1TaL7OhveM

shasta ,

Yeah that’s pretty informative. I am not sure how well the recommendation for implementing it in the US would work though. It’s probably the best chance anyone in the US has for government funded healthcare, but it would mean people in the poorest states would get the worst healthcare. It would probably still be a step up and we could give solutions to that problem later.

Chakravanti ,

Private health care is literal vampirism.

JonEFive ,

Benefiting from the ill health and suffering of others? Yeah that sounds right

andrew ,
@andrew@radiation.party avatar

Year over year my insurance at huge companies would get both worse and costlier. It was to the point that the insurance that was costing me $200/mo was literally just acting as a safeguard against something costing me $10,000- which would have financially ruined anybody at those jobs anyway

Son_of_dad , in Yes, a Lot of People Are Getting Sick Right Now

Saw a guy on the subway having a cough the whole ride, two weeks later I have COVID again. I find myself wearing a mask this month cause I don’t want a flu or anything, and not a single person has a mask on and is looking at me like I’m a psycho for wearing a mask.

I have seen so many sniffly and sick people out and about recently and not a single one had a mask. It’s like everyone just said fuck it, forgot about the pandemic and just went back to no masks and looking at masked people like they’re crazy

Drusas ,

I'm so glad I live in the Seattle area. Plenty of people still wear masks.

Alwaysfallingupyup ,

for robberies doesn’t count. lol

Zaderade ,

Why are you being down voted I had a chuckle. C’mon

blazeknave ,

Bc laughing at and enabling this shit is how we have an open Nazi on the doorstep of the White House. What you do matters.

Electromechanical_Supergiant ,

deleted_by_author

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  • blazeknave ,

    You fuck with Voltaire?

    Tikiporch ,

    Fret not. Votes don’t matter, this is not reddit!

    Zink ,

    In the fediverse, votes are much like life itself. Any meaning or value comes from within, lol.

    Krauerking ,

    Yeah, I developed a cough and decided it was time for masks again but because I know it will definitely work to help me avoid spreading whatever I got further.

    I wish that was what most people used them for too since that makes pretty good sense to me but… Nope. One nice guy in a wave of people who would lick my eyeball if they thought it would give them 5 seconds of happiness.

    hansl ,

    The good news is that it’s likely you didn’t get COVID from that guy. Gestation period is on average 5 days.

    Coreidan ,

    Key word is average

    SeaJ ,

    This reminds me that I have to get more N95 masks. People don’t give a shit here in Seattle. Most grocery store workers wear one and about 10% of the public still does.

    Son_of_dad ,

    My local grocery store took down the plastic shields between The customer and the cashier this month, after they’ve been up for years why take them down during flu season? It’s just so foolish how everyone is letting their guard down

    SoleInvictus ,
    @SoleInvictus@lemmy.world avatar

    A significant portion of the population still believes masks don’t work because their favorite talking heads told them they don’t.

    I made the mistake of going back to Reddit ONCE and got in an argument with an alleged “MPH” (master of public health) who was adamant masks don’t work, despite the overwhelming evidence they do. He ended up threatening to stab me with an icepick. Multiple times across various, unrelated threads. Reddit actually banned him.

    These motherfuckers are out there and they’re some combination of stupid and crazy.

    BigBenis ,

    I moved to Portland over a year ago and I’d say about 25% of people at the grocery stores here are still wearing masks to this day and nobody makes a fuss about it. It’s been great.

    NocturnalMorning , in Colorado Supreme Court kicks Donald Trump off the state's 2024 ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

    Good, this shouldn’t even have been a debate. It is clear that Trump attempted a coordinated effort to stay in office. If that’s not disqualifying from president, then nothing is.

    reddig33 , in U.S. government spent more on health care in 2022 than six countries with universal health care combined

    But if we had universal healthcare, how would all the useless middlemen make their money?

    Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
    @Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

    Won't anyone think of the shareholders?!

    GiddyGap ,

    Corporations are people. Didn’t you know?

    YeetPics ,
    @YeetPics@mander.xyz avatar

    They would move on to other amoral enterprises like cars/insurance/real estate/televangelism/etc

    ReallyActuallyFrankenstein ,

    I get the sentiment, but it actually would be a positive thing. Most people in these industries are there because the jobs were available and paid well, even if those jobs only existed to produce more unjustifiable profits for the bloated system.

    Remove the jobs, and those people might actually go on to play productive rather than parasitic roles in society.

    Cowbee ,

    By contributing to the building up of the productive forces. Fuck this stagnation bullshit, invest in infrastructure and urbanization, invest in clean energy, and automation. Cut out meaningless jobs.

    kromem , (edited ) in Uproar as after-school Satan club forms at Tennessee elementary school

    The number of adults in the US that think Satan is a literal being is way too fucking high.

    It started as an editor using ‘adversary’ in the place of what was probably the goddess Anat appealing the head of the pantheon to kill the son of the protagonist like in the earlier Canaanite A Tale of Aqhat as an intro into what was an adaptation of the also earlier Babylonian Theodicy in Job.

    But we couldn’t have a polytheistic holdover, so suddenly there was a supernatural ‘adversary’ (‘Satan’) in a story.

    Which in turn spawned fanfiction during the prophet ages where they referred to the supernatural adversary of Job.

    Then Hellenistic ideas around Hades (both the place and figure) get added into the mix, and we get the Enochian literature about fallen angels, where the guided katabasis influenced Virgil which later informs Dante’s Inferno.

    Then King James messes up translating Isaiah and the Latin for the morning star (Lucifer) gets mistaken for a proper name, further tying the supernatural adversary to being one of the Enochian fallen angels. And we get Milton’s Paradise Lost.

    It’s all just mistranslations and fanfiction.

    And yet millions of people believe it’s actually a thing so much so that they freak out at the idea of any references to it as literally being dangerous.

    In 2022.

    An age filled with things beyond the wildest imagination of those in antiquity dreaming up miracles and wonders.

    We’re so beyond fucked as a species.

    cultsuperstar ,

    Well you can’t believe Satan is real without believing God is real, and that number is too high too.

    DragonTypeWyvern ,

    Observe:

    I just did it.

    All I did was was choose to believe a different version of the fairy tale.

    For what’s it worth, it was a take on the “The Throne Is Empty” mythos, fucking Metatron, always lyin’

    CoolMatt ,

    I understood some of these words.

    But that was fun to read

    militaryintelligence ,

    It is 2023

    BoastfulDaedra ,

    STOP MAKING IT WORSE.

    Pat_Riot ,
    @Pat_Riot@lemmy.today avatar

    It’ll be 2024 in like a couple of weeks

    kromem ,

    💀

    m4xie ,

    It’ll be 2024 in a couple of weeks…

    phx ,

    To those people, if there’s no Devil then it means all the bad stuff in their heads and hearts is just them. All the temptations are them. All the hatred, including self-hatred is them. There’s no Devil that made them do it or think it, no external tempter or defiler to resist. They can’t take that.

    Lionel ,

    There is no way you expect the average person to know this.

    kromem ,

    I expect the average person to know that there isn’t a supernatural evil being controlling the bad things that happen in the world.

    perviouslyiner ,

    deleted_by_author

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  • kromem ,

    Thx. Phone autocorrect is a pita.

    banneryear1868 ,

    Could say similar things about the monotheistic Christian God who seems to have originated in Cannanite polytheism. At some level everything is “made up” though and that doesn’t prevent it from having power. Just look at race for instance.

    joeyv120 , in Trump's campaign is distancing him from allies who have sketched out plans for a second term

    HE LED AN INSURRECTION! How the hell are we falling for it a second time?

    Zeppo ,
    @Zeppo@sh.itjust.works avatar

    “We’re” not falling for anything. The people supporting him now approve of what he did.

    0110010001100010 ,
    @0110010001100010@lemmy.world avatar

    Because WAY too many brainwashed, uneducated, cult members have literally plugged their ears and gone “LALALALALA” if anything that doesn’t support their world-view hits their “news” feed. And I use the term “news” lightly as it’s a lot of just garbage memes on social media or propoganda “news” networks like NewsMax and OAN are their sources of information.

    lennybird , (edited )
    @lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

    We all know the type of bottom-of-barrel dredge that fills his rallies: alcoholic deadbeats, meth heads, pridefully illiterate let alone uneducated. Racists, bigots… Someone who ate one too many lead paint chips or sniffed that leaded gasoline.

    Interestingly, studies by neuroscientists see remarkable distinguishing factors between liberals and conservstives. Conservatives have a larger amygdala, having a heightened sensitivity to disgust. They have a smaller cingulate cortex compared to liberals, reducing pattern recognition and maybe more importantly pattern dissonance.

    Nikelui ,
    @Nikelui@kbin.social avatar

    Interestingly, studies by neuroscientists see remarkable distinguishing factors between liberals and conservstives.

    Do you have a source for that? I would like to read about it.

    be_excellent_to_each_other , (edited )
    @be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social avatar

    https://amarkfoundation.org/reports/how-are-the-brains-of-liberals-and-conservatives-different/

    Edit:

    @WoahWoah points this out from the article, which I missed.

    “Editor’s note: In 2020, researchers from universities in the Netherlands and the United States replicated Oxley’s and his team’s study and concluded that: “Our analyses do not support the conclusions of the original study, nor do we find evidence for broader claims regarding the effect of disgust and the existence of a physiological trait.”

    WoahWoah ,

    “Editor’s note: In 2020, researchers from universities in the Netherlands and the United States replicated Oxley’s and his team’s study and concluded that: “Our analyses do not support the conclusions of the original study, nor do we find evidence for broader claims regarding the effect of disgust and the existence of a physiological trait.”

    Nice of them to bury this editor’s note 4/5ths of the way into the article lol

    lennybird ,
    @lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

    I wish I could see their full study — Paywalls hiding publicly-funded research… I just love it.

    The next sentence further says, “Rather than studying unconscious responses as the ‘real’ predispositions, alignment between conscious and unconscious responses promise deeper insights in the emotional roots of ideology.”

    I’d need to see the study but it might suggest that there is indeed a subconscious difference in response but how that’s mediated by other parts of the brain either remains the same or differs?

    be_excellent_to_each_other ,
    @be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social avatar

    I apologize for missing that! I got really excited when I found that article because it seemed to cover it all so succinctly.

    WoahWoah ,

    They’re basically just saying they didn’t find the same results and that using exclusively physiological responses to indicate “real” feelings is a dubious assumption. They’re essentially calling for better studies that also involve reported cognition and sentiment (“conscious” responses).

    That seems reasonable. It’s weird that the article buried that so far into the summary though!

    be_excellent_to_each_other ,
    @be_excellent_to_each_other@kbin.social avatar

    Understood, and I appreciate the clarification, but it does damage, or at least work against, the credibility of most of the body of the article, so I would likely not have used it if I'd noticed that as I went through.

    lennybird ,
    @lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

    Why would it damage most of the article? That was only a clarification on one study or subpoint.

    lennybird ,
    @lennybird@lemmy.world avatar
    boomzilla ,

    You can watch video after video from those rallies and the ignorance of their attendees never fails to terrify.

    In the linked video some older guy speaks about how Biden was replaced by a body double by the still sitting president 45 and he’s secretly preparing the military to intervene next election. Another one thinks Biden will be executed on Trumps coming inauguration.

    One attendee is confronted with Trumps ramblings on Truth Social about how he wants to terminate all rules, regulations and articles, even in the constitution and the guy is seriously baffled and promised to look into that. Hard to believe he was honest, considering everyone saw what happened on january the 6th 2021.

    I recommend everyone to watch some of the work of Walter Masterson and Luke Beasly.

    USAONE ,
    @USAONE@lemmy.world avatar

    He is the Antichrist, people just love people like him.

    anon_8675309 ,

    The people supporting him can’t spell history much less understand it.

    yesman , in Chinese celebrity chef vows to never cook egg fried rice again after nationalist backlash

    There is a rumor that Mao Anying was cooking fried rice when he was killed in an airstrike and that the smoke from his cook fire betrayed his position. This is why it’s a sensitive subject.

    HikingVet ,

    Which is a bitch move by Winnie the pooh.

    ZapBeebz_ ,

    The really funny part of this whole thing is that I never knew about the rumor you mentioned until this whole thing happened. Streisand effect much?

    atzanteol ,

    “Streisand effect” implies they don’t want people to know about it?

    narp ,

    Well, they probably didn’t want me to have egg fried rice every 25. of November from now on!

    KISSmyOS , (edited )

    They probably do want people to remember November 25th for the rice thing and not for what happened on that date last year.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    Is this for real? Why is this dude’s death so important to people?

    This whole article left me like “wat?”

    TheAlbatross ,

    Its a weird thing to publish to non-Chinese audiences in general.

    To a Chinese audience, there’s cultural understanding for why this would be taboo. Someone else made the analogy of uploading a video of, say, destroying two towers around the 11th of September. It’s a culturally sensitive thing.

    Why non-Chinese audiences should care what Chef Wang Gang cooks is beyond me. I’m not sure why multiple outlets are running this story.

    Anyway, Wang Gang’s videos are great, check em out.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    So is egg fried rice (great). Staple food at my house. Thanks for the run down.

    Rakonat ,

    You just like saying Wang Gang, don’t you?

    Cannacheques ,

    No Wong gong

    deegeese ,

    The story got traction with non-Chinese audiences precisely because it sounds silly to an outsider.

    Goronmon ,

    I would argue it is silly, regardless of the explanation. Every culture has silly things, but that doesn’t make them somehow not silly.

    ArumiOrnaught ,

    I find this much more interesting than the big story in USA right now where a con artist is in legal trouble for being a con artist.

    prole ,

    Do you really not know who Mao Zedong is?

    ivanafterall ,
    @ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

    Fyi, if not, it's pronounced similar to "Mousy Dong," which was also his wife's nickname for him.

    JustZ ,
    @JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

    The issue is about his son. Why does anyone care about his son?

    prole ,

    Because it is/was a cult of personality. He was essentially as close to “god” as you can get in a society that’s officially atheist. You don’t make fun of god’s kid I guess.

    It’s fucking dumb. People do crazy shit for crazy reasons.

    ivanafterall ,
    @ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

    I heard he choked on the fried rice before the air strike even hit.

    PrinceWith999Enemies ,

    I suspect that it is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

    I also suspect that they’d rather have people getting upset over fried rice than the current disease outbreak they’re having.

    RememberTheApollo_ , in 10-Year-Old Shot Dead on Thanksgiving—Allegedly by Dad

    “But we have to determine if he [Will McDonald] was justified in doing what he did"

    Really. Are we relieving shooters of the burden of making sure of what they’re shooting at or do we just give people a pass?

    jordanlund ,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    Forget making sure, even if it WERE a car prowler, that’s still not a justified use of force.

    giffords.org/…/stand-your-ground-in-nebraska

    “Nebraska does not have a stand your ground law. State law explicitly imposes a duty to retreat before resorting to deadly force outside the home.2”

    nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute…

    “The use of deadly force is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is necessary to protect himself or herself against death or serious bodily harm unless the actor knows that he or she can avoid the necessity of using such force with complete safety by retreating. Newton v. Huffman, 10 Neb. App. 390, 632 N.W.2d 344 (2001).”

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    Thanks.

    I really don’t like the trend in some states that people seem to be able to kill over theft, or even arguing over a parking space. It’s nuts how little life is worth.

    jordanlund ,
    @jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

    “ABLE” and “ALLOWED” are two different things. ;)

    Anyone armed has the ability… they’re just going to get charged in most cases.

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    Lots of good that distinction does the dead person.

    Fondots ,

    I work in 911 dispatch, so I often get to spend a large portion of my night listening to the absolute dumbest reasons imaginable that people get into fights, and an amazing of them could be avoided by someone just walking the fuck away or closing a door.

    A couple of highlights

    I get a call from a very angry person. They wanted to park in a space that someone else was parked in. Other party was sitting in their car. This wasn’t reserved or permit parking or a private lot or anything of the sort, just public street parking in a fairly busy downtown area, and I don’t think it was even time restricted or metered or anything like that. Caller had asked them (and from their tone with me, I suspect they didn’t ask politely) to move so they could park there. Person sitting in the car told them to say please. They get into a bit of a shouting match, and I end up having to send a cop out to get 2 grown ass adults to say “please and thank you” to each other and explain what street parking is. I’m tempted to side with the person in the parked car because the caller was an asshole to me, but the truth is they both suck, either one of them could have just driven away at any time and not had to make it anyone else’s problem.

    Another one was a domestic. We got calls from both parties, my caller was inside the house, their ex was outside, and they were arguing through the open door. I get all the info I need, told them to close the door and stop arguing with their ex and just wait inside until the cops got there, and went on to answer my next call. Couple minutes later I see that we now have EMS going to the house. Apparently at some point after I ended my call, they opened the door to continue arguing and got pepper sprayed. Wouldn’t have happened if they just kept the damn door closed like I told them to.

    Another time my caller had just gotten off of a bus and was following a group of teenagers who had threatened him with a knife on the bus. I told him to stop following them because they have a fucking knife. This bonehead tells me it’s ok because he has a knife too. Motherfucker, I don’t want any of you idiots getting stabbed. They’re walking away, let them walk away. If you have the option to not get into a knife fight, take that option. Especially don’t get into a knife fight with a bunch of teenagers.

    Those are probably the most obviously insane ones, but I’m pretty hard-pressed to think of more than a handful of disturbances or domestics I’ve had where both parties were totally unable to separate from each other. Close your door, go to your separate rooms, roll up your windows, just fucking leave and go for a walk or a drive, whatever it takes, just stop escalating the situation.

    There are some times where standing your ground can be justified, but I think there’s far more cases where people should have a duty to retreat instead.

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    Then they don’t understand why whatever happened to them when they couldn’t leave the situation. Being right (in their mind) is more important than being alive, I guess.

    afraid_of_zombies ,

    I am in my apartment and hearing banging and yelling. Come out and my neighbor is in the hallway. Banging on his door demanding his gf let him in. Shows me his watch and said they had an argument and she smashed it. We talk for a bit and I suggest he spend the night with a relative even offering to drive him. He doesn’t want to, wants to continue to bang on the door and resume the fight. I get frustrated and tell him (this is as best as I can remember it) “you are a 19 year old black kid having a domestic with like 40 people who can hear you. How do you think this is going to go for you when someone gets angry enough to call 9-1-1? And lord fucking help you if one of those drug sniffing dogs barks one time. Now do you want to continue in this hallway until that happens or do you want to chill with me until your grandmother picks you up?”

    What is wrong with people? Take a walk and calm down before it gets out of hand.

    Hillock ,

    At this point in time, it doesn’t appear that he was justified in firing.”

    Maybe put the rest of the quote in there. And are you really mad at the police for doing their job of investigating what happened and following the principal of "Not Guilty Until Proven Guilty".

    RememberTheApollo_ , (edited )

    That doesn’t change the point of my opinion. Put the rest of it in there seeing as you prefer more information - the part where he shot a 10 year old. So he didn’t verify what or who he was shooting, and yet we have a public statement that that even considers it could have been justified? I’m all for presumed innocence, but when you whip out deadly force you’d better be damned sure what you’re planning on killing and the consequences for doing so, and I have little tolerance for failure to do so.

    /jordanlund has offered legal standards that would seem to make the shoot unjustifiable regardless of presumed innocence.

    E: words

    gamermanh , (edited )
    @gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    If there are 6 year olds shooting their teachers in cold blood then you bet your ass I’m firing on a 10 year old if they even look at me funn

    Y’all pretty stupid, it’s funny

    RememberTheApollo_ ,

    TF is wrong with you? What’s that got to do with anything here.

    StorminNorman ,

    Pretty sure you’re replying to an attempt at black humour.

    SuddenlyBlowGreen ,

    Do you think about shooting children a lot?

    SuddenlyBlowGreen ,

    “But we have to determine if he [Will McDonald] was justified in doing what he did"

    The kid was coming right at him! /s

    How could he be justified in doing what he did (which is shooting his child), he’s not a police officer. Usually only rhey get away with stuff like this.

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