No this is all Republican division. It’s their only playbook to rally their base. The take home message for everyone is VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. Before the election started up we had a nice quiet 2-1/2 years. This kind of shit only appeals to those that love the chaos that Trump will bring back.
It’s very tiresome. This also feels a lot more agro than interrogating a president about getting a BJ.
Why are your lunatics so energetic, crazy and numerous? They seem to be getting worse. Some BJ obsessions in the 90s. Then tea parties in the 00s. Now it’s full-blown inssurection with Texas wanting to secede.
Now that all the crazies have joined their “god army” and trundled down to the border would it be a good time to nuke them? Just wipe out all the lunatics in one go. Problem solved.
Why are your lunatics so energetic, crazy and numerous?
Simple, Russian and Chinese bots on social media designed to foment division, anger, and the destruction of western democracy. It’s the exact same thing that led to Brexit and the election of Trump. And it will get worse until we get a handle on blocking bad actors on social media.
Cartels gone overnight. Handle addiction as a medical problem. With legal MDMA, mushrooms, weed and acid, the hard stuff isn’t going to be anywhere near as big an issue as it is currently.
That doesn’t stop the cartels, not by a long shot. Ending prohibition in the US didn’t eliminate the organized crime families in the US, it just moved them to different areas of corruption. If it’s not alcohol, it’s drugs. If it’s not drugs, then it’s gambling, tax evasion, prostitution, loan sharking, organized theft, and so on and so forth. And without correcting the underlying issues driving alcoholism and drug addiction in the US–particularly poverty–complete decriminalization would lead to huge problems. Has led to huge problems in some cities.
While decriminalizing drugs would help to a degree, you need to correct the underlying problems that have allowed cartels to amass so much power in the first place, like weak governments, lack of opportunities, and high rates of poverty.
All I can do is point to how much power the mob amassed in the US during prohibition, and how long they held that power after prohibition ended. Sure, their revenue took a hit, but they moved fairly smoothly into other areas, and corrupted other power structures in order to build and maintain illicit revenue streams. It wasn’t until the 80s and 90s that the mob families in NYC really saw significant consequences.
As an example? Mozarella cheese on pizza. That was fully controlled by the mob for a long time.
Gambling should never be considered a legit business. IMO casinos et al. should be shut down, for the same reason that payday lenders should be beaten to death in the streets: they’re fundamentally predatory businesses.
The problem with prostitution and organized crime is that it’s not victimless once the mob gets involved. “Bitch better have my money” is a threat; you pay the pimp, or you get beaten, and possibly killed. You want to hire an independent escort? I’m fine with that. But significant amounts of prostitution involve sex trafficking, esp. “agencies” that constantly advertise “new girls”.
All of the businesses that the mob–or any organized criminal gang–is in end up increasing costs due to corruption, and involve the threat of violence if anyone disrupts their money. People that try to compete in sectors controlled by criminal groups tend to end up dead very, very quickly, regardless of what the nature of the business is.
“Prohibition…goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes.” - Abraham Lincoln
I get that you personally might have moral issues with gambling etc. but making something illegal doesn’t stop it, it just pushes control into the hands of criminals. Want to give me a single instance where prohibition has ever worked?
If you want to stop cartels legalisation is literally the only path.
That’s… Not a good argument. Child pornography and prostitution is illegal because it’s morally reprehensible, and incredibly, profoundly harmful to children. Same with murder, robbery, theft, etc. By definition, anything that is illegal is going to be done–or controlled–only by people that are criminals.
Does prohibition stop those things entirely? No, of course it doesn’t. But it gives society tools to fight against them in a way that decriminalizing does not.
Prohibition doesn’t give society tools, it removes them.
Take prostitution. Legalisation immediately leads to registration of hookers (blocking most human trafficking), gives oversight to inspectors, forces safety standards, allows for checks on welfare etc… It also removes criminals from the chain, pimps, violence, drugs etc… If you do a little research on this you’ll see it’s the better option. If you are a moral person your imperative should be on keeping all parties safe. And you have to realise prohibition never stops it.
Legalization of prostitution is a problem by itself, because the regulatory costs end up being borne by the sex workers (more on that in a tic). For prostitutes that are working at a subsistence level or only doing sex work occasionally as a stop-gap–which is the majority of voluntary prostitution–that’s not going to work. And what do you do, for instance, when a registered sex worker suddenly tests positive for HIV, or hepatitis C? Revoke their license, and then…? Legalizing doesn’t eliminate trafficking, it just pushes the prices for trafficked prostitutes down, because trafficked prostitutes are slaves.
There are definitely harm-reduction models that can, and do, work for sex work, but legalization and regulation–when that regulatory costs are paid by either the sex worker or the customer–will not work the way you think for harm reduction. For the system to work as intended, you would also need things like national single-payer healthcare (…that isn’t constantly getting funding slashed by conservatives), and licensing that was both on-demand and free to the licensee, and you would need something to deal with the loss of income if they contracted an incurable STI. (Otherwise they would continue working, which would be a public health risk.) Inspections, compliance measures, et al. could not be a cost borne by the sew worker/clients or else you’d see non-compliance with regulatory measures. Most sex-worker advocates call for decriminalization rather than legalization/regulation because that’s the model that moves the most risk away from the sex worker, but you do need to also balance the needs of the worker against the the needs of society to a degree.
You seem to be using the cost of regulation as an excuse against decriminalisation or legalisation of prostitution which i find wild.
Firstly a slightly higher cost to cover overhead would be fine for most johns if they didn’t have to risk jail I’d imagine. I’m also sceptical that would even be needed. My understanding is currently in the US pimps take the majority of what sex workers earn.
Remember theres also tax revenue generated here so that would easily cover any government oversight…or does in other countries.
Also take into account that cost of not regulating is far far far higher. It’s like the cost of homelessness - it costs massive amounts to a community oddly! The medical, policing, social services etc etc not to mention cost in terms of violence from criminal behaviour, drug addiction etc etc… At the end of the day it bringing people into society is a far better option for all.
I think a lot of the issue with your interpretation of this is that you feel like Prostitution and Gambling are morally wrong. But that will never stop people from doing those things. You regulate and control it to get the criminals out like they did with gaming commisions to cut the mob out of the gambling. If a woman is getting paid fairly and chooses to be a hooker (which is how it would be if regulated, no pimps probably just a pre pay at the counter kind of thing) and they are tested regularly how is that not a net positive for society? Less STDs, less rapes, no human trafficking because it turns out that a lot of women would absolutely choose to do that work without a pimp that can and probably will hurt you breathing down your neck. Same with gambling we regulated it and people who choose to do it should be allowed to make that choice. Also, did you know that Cocaine and Methamphetamine are not schedule 1 drugs? This is because the US government manufactures controlled amounts of them for legitimate pharmacutical uses. Google it if you dont believe me. Its funny becuase, the cartel has zero control over that and never will. What makes you think that can’t be scaled up and adopted to a wider market? The US government literally manufactures lab grade cocaine and methamphetamine and all kinds of other shit too Ketamine and Opiates and the drug cartels make zero dollars and zero cents off of that process. So to say it can’t be done is ignoring facts.
I don’t take a stance on either from a morality basis.
In regards to gambling, I see it as a fundamentally predatory business model that preys on the people that are least able to afford it. If a rich guy wants to blow a million dollars on blackjack, I don’t fucking care, that’s not my problem. If a poor person is buying $500 in scratchers because that’s they’re only hope for excaping poverty, that’s a problem. Or a retired person that pushes a button as fast as they can on a slot machine, burning through their retirement savings, because that’s the only thing that lights up their dopamine receptors anymore. And there’s a lot more of the latter two than the former. There are also a whoooooole lot of people with gambling problems, and a person that’s blowing all their money on gambling ends up becoming a problem for the people around them, as they are no longer able to take care of their own needs.
The only issue I see with prostitution–aside from the fact that a not insignificant amount is from trafficked victims–is the public health risks. Given that healthcare in the US is outrageously expensive, there’s not a great way for people that are usually working at a near subsistence level to treat STIs. And, for certain STIs (HIV, hepatitis C), they are strongly disincentivized in regards to informing customers, as there’s not cure and long-term treatment is deeply burdensome.
did you know that Cocaine and Methamphetamine are not schedule 1 drugs
Yes. Cocaine and meth are both schedule II, which is used for drugs with a high probability of abuse, but still have recognized medical uses. (Marijuana is currently schedule I, but I believe that the FDA has been asked to re-evaluate it an move it to schedule III, which would make decriminalization much easier, and would mean that it would no longer be a prohibiting factor for buying a firearm.) Cocaine is–or was–used for surgery in highly vascular areas (esp. nose and sinus surgery) because it acts as a vasoconstrictor. Amphetamines used to be issued to soldiers, esp. pilots, that needed to be alert and focused for long periods of time. See also: Aimo Koivunen. The fact that certain drugs do have legitimate medical uses doesn’t mean that the abuse/addiction is not a material problem. Try chatting with anyone that has been prescribed anxiolytic medication, and has tried to titrate their dose down, or discontinue their use entirely (same goes for certain SSRIs, TBH). Yes, drugs are a personal choice, right up until they’re functionally not a choice any more because you’ll suffer serious physiological effects from cessation. And it’s not like the US has a great track record of providing effective assistance for people that want to get cleaned up. Full legalization or all recreational drugs, without also building the necessary social supports, would create far more problems than it would solve.
I do see how the poor person with the scratchers can be a negative for society as a whole, but if you take that freedom of the choice from people many will still choose to do it and then criminals are the only ones controlling it. I think for the prostitution to work (like it does with many tight restrictions in certain counties in Nevada) you would have to enforce safe sex practices and mandatory sti testing for ALL of the possible different ones and this can be achieved with the assloads (lol) of money legalized prostitution would be raking in. As far as the drug conversation goes I pointed that out to show you that drugs can be produced and manufactured and distributed without any criminality involved if you do it correctly. Yes, drug use can affect society negatively and that is why you would use some of the absolute mega fuckton amount of money that industry would be making and require that thr manufacturers themselves (and taxes only on the sales of those goods) are paying for increased treatment and homeless prevention and rehabilitation. I dont think you are considering the obscene amount of money these industries would make if legalized. You use a portion of that money to fix the problems behind it, much like they make tobacco companies do that right now in the us. They did that and slowly but surely tobacco smoking has gone down. Vapes are a bit different but thats another good example of how outlawing something and not regulating it correctly (pods) made the problem significantly worse now we have disposable batteries poisoning the earth because they just can not choose to regulate the things people will do no matter what. It truly dpesnt make any sense to me except from a viewpoint of absolute boot crushing control. Thats the only reason
Gambling: Legal gambling doesn’t stop illegal gambling. Like dog fights, cock fights (which–disappointingly–involve chickens), or people that are out of money and credit; they’re still going exist. It would be healthier for society to make gambling unpopular, rather than squeezing every last bit of revenue out people that usually can’t afford it.
Prostitution: Legalizing under the Nevada model does nothing to illegal prostitution, because the Nevada model puts it out of financial reach for most of the clientele and restricts the locations to places that the clientele usually aren’t (e.g., they’re a long way out of the city, and you have to drive several hours from Vegas to get to the closest one). An (illegal) independent escort in Las Vegas will typically cost $350-500 per hour, and quite possibly far, far more. A sex worker at a legal brothel will easily cost more than $1000 for the same time period. A sex worker controlled by a pimp is going to be $200 or less, and have less ability–or no ability–to refuse acts that s/he doesn’t want to do. The cost of compliance with regulations is on the sex worker, who passes it on to the clientele; that regulatory model means that legal avenues will end up being less affordable to people than illicit avenues. (And, given that you can pretty easily find escorts working in Vegas despite legal options being available in the state, I think it’s pretty clear that people will be price sensitive.
Drugs: Same issue. Regulatory oversight–which is necessary for recreational drugs to not kill people unintentionally–increases costs, and those costs get passed to the consumer. For a very real-world example, a single 10mL vial of 200mg/mL testosterone cypionate costs about $60 at Costco, and over $100 at Walgreens, et al.. (Testosterone cypionate is a schedule III drug.) You can buy a 20mL vial of 300mg/mL testosterone cypionate on the black market for anywhere from $30-60. You can buy raw hormone powder for under $2/gram (e.g., the raw hormone used in the black market 20mL vial costs the producer $12 or less). A therapeutic dose will be perhaps 150-200mg/week, depending on your own physiology, and what you’re target blood values are. An IFBB pro bodybuilder is going to go through a minimum of 3,000 mg/week during a bulk. If an IFBB pro were to buy their testosterone cypionate legally–if they didn’t need a prescription–it would cost $90/week, versus $15-30. (This ignores all the other shit they take, too.) IFBB guys have been using their black market suppliers for years, maybe decades; what’s their incentive to pay 3-6x as much for something they aren’t going to see a difference in? Legal marijuana has depressed prices for illegal marijuana, but it’s still cheaper to buy a quarter from my local guy than it is to buy in a dispensary.
much like they make tobacco companies do that right now in the us.
Organized crime makes a fuckton of money by forging tax stamps on cigarettes to evade taxes. Before prices started going up dramatically on cigarettes (which I think was a good thing, since smoking doesn’t end up costing just the smoker), that kind of fraud and tax evasion was chump change. Now it’s millions.
That myth is still pushed by many TV shows to this day, unfortunately. I believe that most public emergency defibrillators work automatically, so that is nice.
BF players: yeah, they are good for gunshots, knife stabs, if blown up by mines, run over by a jeep or pulverized by a sabot round. And agains lethal falls.
Bionics. In the show, The Expanse there’s a scene where a guy who had his arm cut off in a space accident is trying to get his company to not cheap out and to pay for a bionic arm replacement instead of regrowing him a new arm. The bionic arm being greatly more superior than a normal arm.
Lately, robotics and prostheses are becoming so advanced I can see this as happening to where people will eventually want artificial designer parts over their own.
We had quite the discussion at work about this very scene (I am loosely related to OSHA stuff), at some point people might think of deliberately having work “accidents” so the employer has to pay for superior replacement parts. And then have an advantage on the job market because of this. Same could go for sports.
I guess technologically, we are very close, but might need to work on the whole ethics part a bit more?
Having said that, I would not mind some advanced Kiroshis to replace my screwed up eyeballs.
This assumption is made based off of current prosthetics. What if future prosthetics are near-nonidentifiable from real ones? Maybe we’re even about to get our real skin to grow over the outside.
Surely it would work like a car warranty, where a certain level is free and you would have to pay extra for the good stuff. For example, you lose your arm in a work accident, company replaces your lost arm with arm-replacelement-mk1-TM which is equivalent-ish to a regular human arm. However, if you want top of the line arm it will cost extra and company will just pay for surgery and base arm replacement, you must cover the difference. You want anything other than the Honda civic of arms? Gotta pay that premium baby! Otherwise embrace the beige mediocraty life.
So, here is a story I like to share about learning kindness and empathy.
A little background. I grew up in a poor city right outside Birmingham, Al. All the kids I grew up with including myself had racist, homophobic parents. In return all the kids I grew up with including me were also racist and homophobic. When you grow up where I did with a silent generation dad and greatest generation grandparents from rural Alabama. You aren’t taught “hate”. You’re taught the way it’s always been.
I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. I got my GED and graduated college, but while I was working on all that I worked at Walmart when I was 16. I dated a girl that worked there and when we broke up I started dating a different girl that worked there a few days later.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and this loud and flamboyant twink named Joe that was our age tells my ex and current girlfriends that I dated them both at the same time. Then proceeded to drive both of them to my house where both chicks came in my house and yelled at me for a bit. When I walked outside I saw Joe in the driver seat of one of the girls car.
I figured that they probably met up at Walmart and I was going to beat the shit out of Joe. So, I jumped in my car and raced to Walmart. When they pulled up for Joe to get his car. I was sitting on the trunk of Joe’s car waiting. Fortunately, they left, and what follows is not great, but was necessary for me to learn a lesson.
After they left I was so angry that I used my key to carve the F slur so big that it took up Joes entire trunk lid. Nothing came of it for a few days. Then my phone rang. I can remember it like yesterday. A grown man asked for my name. I said I was he. He said that his name was Ronnie. (If you’ve read my other stuff this isn’t the same Ronnie that killed people.)
Anyway, Ronnie explained that he was Joe’s boyfriend. He told me that what I had done didn’t hurt Joe. He explained that he (Ronnie) was going to have to pay to have the trunk fixed. He appealed to my empathy, but he also treated me like a man. Could/should he have called the cops? Absolutely, but instead he decided to approach me like a man and explain the situation.
After he was done. I told him that I’d have to make payments, but that I’d pay to fix Joes car. Ronnie said that was fine. He invited me over for dinner and said that we’d discuss the terms. I agreed.
I don’t remember how much he said it would be, but I know that I paid him installments until it was paid for. During that time I got to know Ronnie really well. He had a monster truck and collected muscle cars. He had 2 Shih Tzus. He was much older than Joe and I. His previous partner had been someone important with State Farm insurance, but had died back in the 80s (this was mid 90s) and left Ronnie money and a house.
All this happened when my dad and I weren’t getting along. I still remember the first time I called Ronnie and asked if I could stay the night. He said yes without hesitation. I got there and he told me the ground rules. He said that I was always allowed at his house, but personal items like toothbrush, razors, and stuff like that were off limits. He said DO NOT MESS WITH THEM.
I was young not stupid. I had seen the real world. I knew that he was probably HIV positive. It wasn’t long before he and Joe broke up. Ronnie started calling on me. Ronnie lived in the country. I lived between the country and big city. He would call and say hey a couple of my friends are sick and I need to take them some food. Would you ride with me.
Anyway, Ronnie was the first person that I had actually interacted with where I had been forced to face someone that I had been lead to believe was different to me. Ronnie gave me a safe place to be when I wasn’t getting along with my dad. I can remember my “friends” at the time making fun of me for hanging out with a gay dude. I didn’t care.
Ronnie taught me more about being a man than my own father did. When he should have just called the cops he took the time to turn hatred into a teachable moment.
If you’re wondering what happened to Ronnie. I hung out with him fairly regularly until I got on drugs really bad. After my family deserted me. I deserted my friends because I couldn’t live with them hating me for what I had become.
After I got clean I started trying to pick up where I left off. I called all of the good friends I could think of. So, I called Ronnie. A man answered and I asked if Ronnie was there. He quickly asked who I was, and I explained that I was a friend. He said that he was Ronnie’s brother and Ronnie had passed away a few years earlier due to complications from HIV. He said that he got some kind of dementia.
We talked about 2 hours. I told him about how Ronnie had taught me about empathy. He said Ronnie had done the same for him. Ronnie was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known.
When I had to move out (long, unpleasant story) I had the opportunity to get a nice, cozy appartement with low rent almost immediatly, but during the interview it turned out that they didn’t allow pets and wouldn’t budge, so it wasn’t an option for me and I politely declined.
They still tried to pressure me into signing the rental contract - calling me multiple times a day to ask whether I wanted to rethink my former decision again, eventually giving me a 24 hour deadline and demanding that I sign ASAP or they would pick someone else. That was the point I told them to go F- themselves as I was NOT going to leave my 13 year old tomcat behind or surrender him to a shelter. They didn’t take it well. (…and suddenly they claimed that noone else wanted the appartement and that they desperately needed someone to move in very soon yadda yadda … so much for “we’re going to pick someone else if you don’t sign today”.)
Best decision I’ve made that year. The landlord I have now is a super chill dude and I still have my spoiled furry little bastard with me. I’d rather have lived on the street than leaving a four-legged family member behind.
No idea what became of the other appartement but I pity the people who will have to put up with that passive-aggressive nonsense for lack of alternatives.
I ended up with my best friend (rip Pressers) Presley the Plott Hound because a couple divorced and the new apt didn’t let the one that took Presser have him. He never was subject to that kind of silly bs again and spent many happy years riding in my Jeep.
“Well hello there friends!” Chef Jean Pierre makes me so incredibly happy every time I put one of his videos on. His delivery, humorous self-awareness, and sheer passion for cooking never fail to put me in a good mood. Highly recommended!
If I can add to this list because you listed most people I would mention.
Calum (videos about interesting topics and crazy one off machines, giant land trains, Antarctic exploring vehicles etc).
Blondie Hacks (machining but focused on how to do everything and how to learn machining mostly with limited tooling, she is currently building a live stream model loco).
Aging Wheels (videos about quirky old cars and related projects).
Donut Media during the 350z hi car/low car thing was really good, but feels like they are just repeating the same content over and over now without getting much useful/interesting info now.
Scotty has the most clickbait titles. “If you have a car you will REGRET this ONE SIMPLE TRICK and DESTROY YOUR ENGINE” (video is about winter octane stabilizers or something completely mundane)
Yeah they sort of follow the same trajectory. I do like DeMuro still but it really depends on the car he’s reviewing for how interested I am. Leno is also decent and I prefer his car content to anything he did on late night or comedy-wise. He has that professionalism as a presenter and has so much money that he can just buy like a Merlin engine or have anything he wants to professionally restored. Really cool to see some of that stuff.
Check out Garbage Time. It’s a channel about an Aussie and his mechanic buddy repairing old, shitty cars. Many of the cars are Australian specific too.
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