DevDave

The use of the word “possession” with fentanyl should be an alarm bell for anyone.

Those few well intentioned people behind Prohibition, the War on Drugs, and everything of that theme doesn’t want to or is unable to understand that substance abuse is the symptom of a problem and not the problem unto itself.

Life sucks and can be suffocatingly cruel. Targeting those in possession without the modifier of “intent to distribute” or similar is just viciousness. Some prisons do have the facilities and capability to assist those with substance abuse problems but now these people have a felony burying them further and practically forcing them to use.

Going back to the subject of symptom vs problem. I smoked cigarettes for over a decade and despite acknowledging they were killing me I couldn’t quit. The thing is it isn’t an issue of lack of will. I was one of the most disciplined and stubborn people I have ever met. Reality is that cigarettes and “refactor” or the tobacco/nicotine infused paper & leaf are the cheapest and fasting anti-anxiety, mild antidepressant, appetite suppressant, and the most potent accelerant psychoactive that you can legally buy in the USA. I addressed my root causes for smoking and that made it possible to quit, but not “easy”.

People intentionally possessing fent are dealing with shit that most people can’t even comprehend. Sometimes it’s unrelenting physical pain and additionally, or just on its own, psychological afflictions. There are few or no drugs that take away what has been called the “hum” or shadow of schizophrenia and some forms of bipolar disorder. I don’t really understand that but I do understand those people aren’t chain smoking for fun.

One last attempt to try and explain this to the ignorant. Imagine walking up to a cripple on the street who is just hobbling along, trying to get by, proceeding to kicking their feet out from under them, taking their crappy walking stick or cane away, and telling them god doesn’t love them because they’re a fucking cripple. Translation: Arrested and detained for possession, likely enduring physical abuse by the cops and other prisoners, slapped with a felony that ensures they are trapped in the gutter, and then after attending Alcohol or Narcotics anonymous and stumbling being shunned by their peers for being damned by God for being weak.

Step 2 and 3 of the 12 steps

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

“ It requires the greatest kind of wisdom . . . to know when to apply injustice. ” - Philip K. Dick

We haven’t actually done anything yet. We have picked people we believe will do the exact opposite of what the last batch we picked are doing.

The big question is if the new batch waiver or foolishly think they will survive the decade if they follow the standard Democrat Party playbook of empty promises, appeasement, and spinelessness.

The bulk of the other politicians in 1930s Germany didn’t have a good time after letting a psychotic minority party seize control.

MAGA is a violent but relatively tiny party inside of a smaller political faction that survives through gerrymandering and exploiting our anachronic election system. The Nazis gained control because no one opposed them. The question is if the existing politicians will get out of the way and accept the mandate of the people.

Marjy skipped taking the next batch of Kool aid and realized that they were driving full speed to a cliff. Warning the others only upset the flock.

My bet is in a few years she’ll slink on back to office claiming to be one of the “good” Republicans.

One child policy has done a number on China. Even more sinister example is Ethyl gas or gasoline with lead. that went for almost a century. Was also just wondering what ancient cities were like when they dumped their waste out on the street.

It is absolutely astounding our species has survived as long as it has.

It just means mask has slipped.

White phosphorus and cluster bombs are still used by the US.

Meanwhile the list of fuckery is so long it’s hard to pick a starting point.

Nixon died an old man in his bed.

Practically everyone in government involved with the Iran Contra affair are free citizens or lived most of their lives in freedom.

The Jan6 crowd battered and tortured multiple police officers protecting the capital. I believe on committed suicide later and another died of health conditions strongly correlated to their abuse.

Imprisonment was really effective as a means for punishing those responsible \s

Now depending on how things go, if the false flag national emergency is not stopped prior to the midterms, all of the people raping women and children in the ICE detention facilities in Florida & New Orleans, murdering people for the crime of existing at the wrong time & place, and who knows what else will go unpunished.

Imprisonment as a means to an end doesn’t work.

I believe the “give peace a chance” is naive at best. The true irony is that the intellectuals and academics, who are usually advocates for non-violence, are historically the first to go.

Get it over quickly, publicly, and don’t leave anyone alive as Antony demonstrated with Julius Caesar’s assassination.

An example from our relatives - https://www.raffriff.com/blog/2022/12/alpha-male-baboons/

The American revolution actually included a lot of what would be considered “crimes against humanity” with the more “benign” being tar and feathering targets.

A recent example is an attributed source of annual “Pride fest” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

Last thing is a double point. As a child after an altercation with three bullies vs me where I fractured the leader’s skull, broke the nose of another, and injured the spleen of the third I was both never bullied again and actually had a really good life at school. Further, given that experience versus non-evidence based arguments to the contrary, I will never believe “talking things out” can work.

Humans are animals, violent ones at that, and submission doesn’t have a good history of with a good outcome.

Hearing that “I am not racist…” opener is usually a signal that someone is about to share some absolutely unhinged point of view.

You are telling your computer you want to reboot your computer and then boot into Windows unattended (you can walk away and unless Windows crashes itself, it might be running).

i went back and rewatched the video. It sounds like Grey implied everyone voted White tiger as 1st pick and the other tiger as 2nd. No explanation of how that would work tho.

That voting system is indeed too idealistic. The ideal is that if 65% of a voting population votes for the more popular candidate of Party A, everything above the cut off would go to the next highest candidate that belongs to Party. That way 65% of the voting population is ideally represented by the same political Party.

There are a bunch of problems with this of course. What if the 2nd candidate is under investigation for eating babies? Or who is to guarantee Candidate 2 will make the same policy decisions? No one would ever vote opposite of their party’s position! \s

I believe Australia had an incident were almost no one voted for a politician but they still won. Vaguely remember that was ~20 years ago and a lot of people were not happy with that.

Yes the Electoral college sucks but popular vote isn’t a utopia either without some adjustments.

CGP Grey’s “The Voting System That’s Actually Too Good for Politicians to Allow” -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

Just give Trump time to get it and I am sure he will improve chip foundry access just like how petrol and LNG logistics have been improved.

I think most have heard this, Vought’s daughter received effective medical treatment from a drug that was NIH financed - https://www.rawstory.com/russell-vought/

Initially I didn’t know too much about Newsom except some people somewhat passionately disliked the guy. After he shoved the age verification law (a national login system wearing sheep’s clothing) through I started getting an idea why.

Disclaimer! Take everything below with a grain of salt as I haven’t spent time to completely verify it all.

Newsom has also held a series of partially questionable stances on issues that paints a very stark picture.

Newsom came out against the billionaire tax arguing it should be a national issue. Sure but keep in mind we haven’t raised the minimum wage since 2009 ($7.20/hour) and even when Democrats held everything, they didn’t pass a single payer healthcare, raise wages, or protect women’s rights.

The excuse of Paramount threatening to leave is kinda crap. The studio sound stages and the industry built up around them is difficult to just uproot. But that said there are a few mini “holly woods” starting to really mature around the world that are a lot cheaper than LA.

Another more subtle point is that one of the easier take away from Reagan and now Trump is that people vote for candidates who confidently promise to do something. By the time people figure out they’ve been duped, with both of these presidents we somehow ended up entangled with Iran. With Newsom he could do the “right” thing and stop a third of the US media industry being owned by an antidemocratic billionaire but then he would be blamed when the billionaires gang up to punish him by using him as a scapegoat for fuckery they were going to do anyway. Please remember to factor in that a big chunk of the USA voted for Trump, even if it can be proven that he did in fact steal votes in the swing states, he still got most of his victims to vote for him.

I have noticed a few people are a bit slow on the uptake and or struggling with critical thinking.

Though perhaps it’s best not. For example so many people feel Pearl Jam’s song Alive uplifting or inspiring. Ignorance is bliss.

I guess it would have been harder to accomplish commercially a similar feeling that I believe Mass Effect 2 elicited.

Mass Effect 2 major plot point

Starship troopers unfortunately had a perfect straw man villain with the bugs. It would have been interesting to see something like James Cameron’s tall smurf people as the antagonist in the story instead.

Halfway to that and Starship troopers is the game Hell Divers 2 which has you being a literal suicide commando. If you die in the game, you’re character is replaced by a new recruit waiting in stasis. If you look and listen, the writers give you horrifying hints of the truth. One example is the intelligent bug species are fighting back because Super Earth had been using them as fuel for their star ships.

That is unfortunately PVH’s mistake with Starship Troopers. There is no contrast to show how fucked up things are.

So what’s the deal? Sun tan lotion, all the antioxidants we were/are all huffing with various teas, and of course the avocado toast? (disclaimer, sounds interesting but have never eaten that)

It has been a long time but I remember feeling sad for Rico in the book. I don’t know if Heinlein intended it to be seen like this but by the end it felt like there was nothing left of the human being.

Wow, it did an AMAZING job recreating the face of the actual human actress they modeled Jesse Faden after, it’s uncanny! /s https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1890824/