asklemmy

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badbytes, in So, who or what ruined Christmas this year?

Israel

pastermil, (edited )

Downvotes from Zion apologist in… 3… 2… 1…

xantoxis, in US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years?

i’m sure the federal government could’ve stood in the way had they chosen to.

In fact, they’re still trying to, for all three of these things.

But, uh, yeah, it’s pretty much those three. The only other big one I can even think of is the crime bill, which is a net evil by a huge margin.

partial_accumen, in US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years?

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) - which among other things created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and put in place the Volcker Rule which forbids banks from making certain risky investments with depositors money. To give you an idea of the power of the Volcker Rule, when it went in place banks begged (and got) a 5 year delay to divest for investments that violate the rule. Yeah, banks were playing fast-and-loose with with the money you deposited in your checking and savings accounts for their own gain. The Volcker Rule stopped (most) of that.

PatFussy,

This is such a cope, we had glass steagall… we had everything from this dodd frank already but decided only parts of it were worthwhile. It only took the fucking 2008 crash to decide we need ‘some’ oversight of banking speculation. We STILL dont have something to replace glass steagall. To say that dodd frank is good is like having diharhea in your bed wiped off and calling it clean.

reddig33, in US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years?

Consumer solar and EV rebates.

Son_of_dad, in How would you feel/react if your home address was announced & published very publicly the same way celebrities experience?

Celebrities could retire into obscurity, go away and be forgotten, nobody would bother them. But they want and NEED to be hounded, stalked, chased and be the center of attention.

ani, in How would you feel/react if your home address was announced & published very publicly the same way celebrities experience?

The phone book is a thing, you know?

LemmyKnowsBest,

You are the fifth person to make the same comment and we’ve already discussed this.

DrBob, (edited )
@DrBob@lemmy.ca avatar

And this is the 3rd or 4th dickish comment you’ve made about it.

ani, (edited ) in US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years?

The border wall. But it should be further reinforced. People can’t just enter the country illegally.

Hegar, (edited )

They don't though. It's not illegal to seek asylum.

Melkath, (edited )

I actually want to be educated here, because my stance is that there should be a road to cheap and speedy citizenship, and that immigrants should assimilate into the system.

My gut says that seeking asylum isn't paying for someone to smuggle you over the boarder. It would require you going through an actual boarder checkpoint where you would do the paperwork to enter the country as a refugee.

I know Republicans are assholes who have been obstructing that, but my gut tells me there is the legal way of entering the country and the illegal one.

Hiding in the back of a pickup truck and buying a fake Juan Martinez social security card doesn't feel like asylum seeking, it feels illegal.

For context, I invoke the fake Juan Martinez social security card because when I worked at the Arizona Department of Education, there were at least 3000 Juan Martinezes with the same social security number attending Arizona public education, which I thought was HORRIBLE and extremely dehumanizing to those children, and it wasn't the US government that did that. It was the coyotes and parents illegally immigrating that did that.

Hegar,

I would say that the legitimate process of seeking opportunities has been intentionally made to look illegal by waves of xenophobic policy from both Rs and Ds who have created an immigration system that's designed to generate workers without a legal foothold. If there was a functional way for people to seek the life they want, they wouldn't need to resort to fake IDs and hiding in trucks to get a job. But then industries would have to pay them legal wages.

A lot of people want to create a distinction between someone who's fleeing full-blown war or starvation vs someone who's fleeing poverty. I can't see how it is a crime to flee either. It is just a reality that humans will try to escape suffering, monumental suffering and everyday suffering - legislation and bureaucracy can accomodate or ignore that but it won't change it. So when we ignore it, we know that the black market will step in.

More broadly it suits the needs of capital to restrict the flow of labour as much as possible. Labour free to seek the best conditions means upward pressure on wages, lower margins and less leverage for capital.

resin85,

A large part of this is being driven by illegal trafficking operations that recruit desperate families looking to give their families a safer life. Republicans have chosen to demonize both the families as well as the traffickers. It must suck living a life incapable of empathy for others less fortunate.

Anyways, this is actually a pretty good read on it, despite it coming from CNN:

www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/us/…/index.html

No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston,

Was this congress?

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

What believing in imaginary lines in the dirt does to a MFer

Melkath, (edited )

Johnny Depp did a great scene that covers this in Blow.

Go on thinking rules don't apply to you.

It has really been working out for countries south of the U.S.

Edit: https://youtu.be/-yyXh9ybrEM?si=Lxyyye3HuxDiiGV1

Montagge,
@Montagge@kbin.social avatar

Nope, the border wall is expensive, ineffective, and it destroys ecosystems.

kiwifoxtrot,
@kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world avatar

Most illegal immigration occurs from visa over stayers, not crossing the southern border. A wall won’t help.

ani, (edited )

The worse problem is that they also sneak in illegal drugs like fetanyl through the border. A wall can definitely help here

Blackout,
@Blackout@kbin.social avatar

Why would they do that when China can ship it in large quantities in containers? Like I know some drugs come that way but it's not even the major source.

catbaba,

Smuggling is done with drones now not people

ani,

In that case we just need to build a wall that reaches the stratosphere. What do you think?

aesthelete,

It also should extend underground into the Earth’s core to prevent tunneling.

intensely_human,

Legalization would help more than anything. Full legalization of all drugs is the only drug war outcome compatible with conservative values such as personal responsibility and individual autonomy.

phillaholic,

Aside from Boats, Tunnels, Ladders, Airplanes, Ropes or any of the large gaps where it’s not feasible to build a wall on. It’s more useful as a grift to pay Republican donors in the form of bloated contracts than it is effective at stopping people from crossing the border.

Vaginal_blood_fart, in What's a food you love, that isn't worth making from scratch?

Puff pastry.

Lauchs, in US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years?

The inflation reduction act is probably the most significant piece of climate change policy in American history and is expected to bring emissions to a little under half 2005 levels.

Also, I think it capped insulin prices at $35 a month? That was the hope anyway.

murvillian,

I’ll be paying 380 ish bucks for insulin this coming month, only using my “good, professional job” type insurance to cover some of the cost. It’s around 200/mo. Cheaper to buy from Walmart directly without insurance than it is to process it through it at my required pharmacy. I don’t know if the insulin caps have taken effect, or if I don’t qualify, all I know is I’m getting screwed because I’m alive and want to stay that way.

The rest of the policy seems cool, but won’t be if it pans out like the insulin crap.

Toes,

Someone tried to explain this to me once. They said that the original formulas for insulin are really cheap, it’s just the manufacturers have all agreed to only make the expensive formulas to maximize profits since it’s not in their best interest otherwise.

intensely_human,

Collusion between a small number of players to control prices in a market is called a “cartel” and it’s a significant departure from the concept of a “free market”.

Cartels happen in markets that are not free, because in a free market that price fixing would lead to insulin sales being so profitable that new manufacturers would get into the game and the competition would bring prices back down to their normal levels.

One can argue whichever way they like for the overall benefit of the tight regulations we have on things like insulin production and distribution, but it is a fact that one effect of that tight regulation is extremely high barriers to entry, and hence the formation of price cartels such as we see now.

Dark_Arc, (edited )
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

It only applies to Medicare recipients … which is better than nothing I suppose.

Lauchs,

Goddamn, America you never cease to find new ways to disappoint me.

It seems to vary state by state, though also for anyone on medicaid/medicare. You might be screwed by that professional job insurance!

I dunno if it helps but some googling took me to this diabetes resource Which seemed pretty good. Might be worth checking as this seems like stuff you have to look into vs having it happen automatically because why not screw us one more time?

Daft_ish, (edited )

Americans just won’t help them goddamn selves. The same people who piss and moan about socialized medicine are chapping at the bit to install the orange shitbag as a dictator. These people are dead set on being rotten to the core.

gothic_lemons,

Not all of us! But yeah… idk what some of are thinking

partial_accumen,

Not all of us!

Not even MOST of us. Trump lost the popular vote in both Presidential elections he was in.

MightEnlightenYou,

Here in Sweden insulin is free. Although we have universal healthcare most medical things cost a little, up to about $230/year then any medication or procedure is free.

Insulin, and related equipment and so on, doesn’t even cost a little for the patient here and is completely free. It does of course cost our government and taxpayers money, our government pays about $0.09 per person per day for insulin.

mosiacmango, (edited )

The $35/month in the IRA goes into effect for Medicare part D jan 1st. So at the moment, it has not kicked in and you apprently do not qualify.

However, it spurred the biggest insulin producers to cap insulin prices to $35 for most everyone, including people on private insurance, starting Jan 1st.. This is undoubtedly to prevent regulation forcing them to reduce prices, but it will likely stick due to that threat.

So congrats, you should be saving $165/month starting in a few days.

Apytele,

One time my parents tried to tell me they shouldn’t have to pay for insulin for “fat people” and the nurse educator in me went on a fifteen minute rant about how insulin dependent diabetics are actually the ones who get it genetically in childhood and finished the rant by asking why they’re advocating for the deaths of impoverished children. Not that fat people deserve to die or be sick either but come ON if you’re not willing to do the research yourself then just listen to what the experts say? Everybody in America these days wants to do 0 research and just walk out into the world to convince people that lavender oil will cure their cancer.

DrRatso, (edited )

Not that you are wrong about the rest of your comment, but not only type 1 diabetics need insulin, type 2 diabetics often become insulin dependent too, especially with poor adherance to interventions (bad diet, no excercise).

Apytele, (edited )

Yeah but when you’re arguing with your conservative parents and you happen to have been dealt the “for the children” card, you play that one at every opportunity. I’ve had much more luck with the argument that punishing people they view as morally inferior often results in harming innocents which is absolutely true and the reason punitive justice is (imo) morally wrong. It’s the same reason I don’t believe in the death penalty; if you find out a guy is completely innocent of some terrible crime he’s in the middle of serving a life sentence for, you can give him his missing salary and let him go, but you can’t bring him back to life.

tiredofsametab, in What are some dark sides to cute super-powers ?

X-ray vision is horrible for cancer rates (though one could argue that, since it doesn't work like normal x-ray in many comics, that it's some other magic with the name x-ray for convenience).

ArbiterXero,

Well, I always figured that “x ray vision” was just eyes that were super sensitive to the natural background radiation everywhere, and not that they were actually transmitting x rays

otter,

I’m also not sure if transmitting x-rays would work

It’s not like radar, you’d need to also be on the other side to collect the data after it passed through the object

ArbiterXero,

That depends on whether the x-rays are absorbed by the bone/solid material or reflected.

I don’t know enough about x-rays to answer that.

Khrux,

As a counterpoint, combining Cyclops’s power with x-ray vision is a fun power combination, and it’s an interesting take to imagine his power as just cooking everything with radiation.

ArbiterXero,

I mean that’s kinda what lasers do…… but also interesting

x4740N,
@x4740N@lemmy.world avatar

Pretty sure xray vision can just see the xray band of the electromagnetic spectrum

I think superman can probably see the entire or a larger range than humans and can consciously filter it

SgtAStrawberry,

They touched on that a little bit in Superman Redson, Lex tried to make a Superman clone and its x-ray vision did all the horrible things of an actual x-ray. It was a super short bit, but I found it neat.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fea83757-f160-4e03-9406-ed834fee09f5.jpeg

ExtraMedicated, in What are some dark sides to cute super-powers ?

Turning living things into food is technically what most animals do every day just to live.

bionicjoey,

All living things are already food

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Including humans!

ryathal, in What are some dark sides to cute super-powers ?

Avatar covered water bending including blood. My hero academia does a really good job with covering pretty big disadvantages to powers.

Bread,

Blood bending sure is a creepy one.

Vaginal_blood_fart, in What's your automatic vacuum's name?

Leelu Dallas multivac

verity_kindle,

Noice

Drusas, (edited ) in Did any coal-in-your-stocking type of things happen to you on Christmas Day?

Disclaimer: I still enjoyed the time spent on this, but....

I spent 2 hours talking with my highly inebriated and closest friend because she decided to spend Christmas with her family. Her shitty, shitty family who has always been some combination of neglectful and passive aggressive. She's also very sensitive and it still hurts her after all these years/decades that they treat her this way.

some_guy, in Did any coal-in-your-stocking type of things happen to you on Christmas Day?

Got lucky. But one year my wonderful kitty got very sick and had to be put down on Xmas eve. That coal hurt for months and years. Happily, I’ve worked through it. My two kitties got tuna on Xmas day.

LemmyKnowsBest,

😸💗

soupspoon,

My kitty had to be put down on the 20th and we’d tried so hard with meds to get her better, but it got worse quickly. She was 17 1/2 years old and I’ve been having such a hard time with it, but also feeling bad for being so down right now. I think this will also take me months and years, but your story helped. We’ve definitely been trying to love and pamper our other twerps : )

some_guy,

My heart breaks for your family. Love on the remaining fur-people extra hard and think of all the good times your lost kitty got to have with you.

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