America - The Official Thread

[Keef]

AMERICA,WTF R U DOIN????

Capitalism, baby! Finna git that money dawg.

 

[Dotini]

Capitalism, baby! Finna git that money dawg.

We are beholding the zenith of American culture, the fulfillment of our highest desires and aspirations, the envy of an admiring world.

 

[FoolKiller]

The truth of the matter is that we have 800+ channels now. We have to fill it with something. The secondary issue is that with that many channels viewership will never be what it was 30 years ago, so it must also be cheap to produce, which means it must appeal to the lowest common denominator to get the most audience.

And thus was born reality TV. Now we are turning people we laugh at into celebrities. Our celebrity mindset cannot allow us to enjoy watching these people and think of them in the same way we did before. So, no matter how unappealing the idea might seem, a celebrity sex tape featuring someone like this will make money.

The even more disturbing thing is that if she is no longer seeing Chester the Molester, or the studio doesn't want him involved, they will not have trouble finding her male partner for this film.

 

[Liquid]

Take a random Dean Martin Roast and look at the guestlist.

"Bob Newhart... George Burns... Govenor Ronald Reagan... Truman Capote... Senator Barry Goldwater... Jack Benny... Neil Armstrong... Zsa Zsa Gabor... Phyllis Diller... and your Man Of The Week... Johnny Carson"

Some random people there? Yes. But it's a different world to what passes for a celebrity these days. Granted most of those were comedians tailored for the event but even Zsa Zsa Gabor was an actress.

 

[Badasp5.0]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/w...p-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

WASHINGTON — The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday.

 

[Liquid]

Still not lifting the embargo though. Might lead to more productive negotiations in future if this embassy works out well.

 

[Joel]

As if Obama couldn't get any worse, now he's going to ruin Cuba for everyone else

 

[FoolKiller]

It is useless without me being able to buy their cigars. Sadly, the best reason to want to lift the embargo isn't cool anymore.

 

[Omnis]

He was right.

 

[Badasp5.0]

I am happy about it. Hopefully the travel ban will be lifted so my stepdad can see his family (he is a Cuban Expat)

 

[Liquid]

It is useless without me being able to buy their cigars. Sadly, the best reason to want to lift the embargo isn't cool anymore.

Is it true that JFK bought like, a thousand Cuban cigars just before he issued the embargo?

 

[FoolKiller]

Is it true that JFK bought like, a thousand Cuban cigars just before he issued the embargo?

I don't know about that, but I always heard rumors that he had a box of them on his desk that he would offer one from to important guests, even after the embargo.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

As if Obama couldn't get any worse, now he's going to ruin Cuba for everyone else

Cuba was already ruined. The embargo stunted their economic growth, and they were forgotten by Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

 

[Joel]

Cuba was already ruined. The embargo stunted their economic growth, and they were forgotten by Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

I was making a silly joke about Cuba being a fun vacation spot for Canadians because Americans aren't allowed to go there.

 

[Omnis]

Habana would be nothing without Habs

Thanks for ****ing up our embargo, Canada.

I have to move north before we take on any more guajiros.

 

[FoolKiller]

I hate my state.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/12/17/puma-killed-in-kentucky/20536509/

A Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife officer killed a mountain lion on a Bourbon County farm on Monday, marking the first confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in Kentucky since before the Civil War, said Mark Marraccini, a spokesman for the agency.
Marraccini said a farmer spotted the cat and alerted the department. When the officer responded, he found the animal trapped up a tree by a barking dog and decided it was best to "dispatch it."
Mountain lions were once native to Kentucky but they were killed off here more than a century ago, Marraccini said.
Mountain lions are the largest cats found in North America and can measure up to 8 feet from nose to tail and weigh up to 180 pounds. Also known as cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts, the cats are considered top-line predators because no other species feed on them.
Marraccini said the wildlife officer shot the cat because it was about 5:30 p.m. and getting dark and he feared that it would slip away in darkness and threaten people in the nearby city of Paris.
"If that cat had left that tree, it would have disappeared into the brush and it was a fairly populated area," said Marraccini. He said it would have taken several hours before a state veterinarian could retrieve a tranquilizer from her safe and get it to the scene had officials pursued that option.
Marraccini said the officer who shot the cat made the right call. "That's the way the officers deemed to handle it and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be handled that way."
He said a state veterinarian was scheduled to conduct a necropsy on the cat Tuesday to determine if it was a wild cat or a former pet that was either released or escaped.
According to the Cougar Network, the species is mostly confined to the western United States but is advancing east. For years, the Mississippi River has been thought to be a barrier to the mountain lion's eastern expansion. But its clear they have been getting close to Kentucky.
They have colonized in South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri, said Amy Rodrigues, a staff biologist for the Mountain Lion Foundation, and there have been sightings in recent years in Indiana and even downtown Chicago.
Rodrigues said that mountain lions each need more than 100 square miles to survive and many of the animals being killed as they expand east are young males under the age of 2 that have been kicked out by their mothers. They often travel east looking for deer, water and female cougars.
But Rodrigues criticized states that kill stray cougars and said the animals shouldn't cause fear. "If you're a deer, they're a little dangerous. If you're a human, not so much," she said. "Attacks on people are not that common. There have only been 22 deaths in the last 120 years."
She said people are at greater risk of dying from bee stings and lightning strikes than they are from cougar attacks.
They get a bad rap because "they are large animals with sharp teeth," Rodrigues said.
She added the presence of mountain lions in an ecosystem adds to biological diversity, which she said helps the environment recover from natural disaster and diseases that affect the fauna in a region.
Mark Dowling, a director of the Cougar Network, which advocates for the use of science to understand the animals, said the population was being pushed further and further west until the 1960s when a number of western and midwestern states began to classify them as game animals rather than vermin, and limiting people's right to kill them.
Since then, he said, the cats have been slowly reclaiming their old turf.
Marraccini said there is no official protocol about how to handle more mountain lions if they are found in Kentucky but he doubts that they will be allowed to colonize here like they have in many western states.
"Every one of them is handled on its own," said Marraccini.
Marraccini said that people and legislators probably would be opposed to allowing the cats to stay in the state. "When you have a population essentially that has had generations and generations and generations that have not had top-line predators, you think about it. You going to let your kids wait for the school bus in the dark? ...
"From a wildlife diversity perspective, it would be a neat thing but from a social aspect, probably not."

I'm probably biased because I love watching big cats, and making them a game animal would give me a chance to eat some lion meat (conflicting desires, I know).

It creates another issue, though. We have a deer population that is getting overpopulated to the point that they are having disease epidemics. Hunters have to beware of the deer they kill before eating the meat. Adding in an alpha predator to the local ecology would help this issue. There is just pure fear and negative reactions despite the facts.

I think the most galling part is that we ran these things off, nearly made them extinct, and now that they are beginning to reappear in their original habitat our government is killing them all as they appear.


Also, why doesn't a Fish and Wildlife officer have a tranquilizer gun on hand? These guys are expected to run across this kind of stuff regularly. He was worried about this lion killing a person when a dog had it trapped in a tree. I'm now beginning to understand why there are cases where they kill coyotes without regard if it makes the mistake of wandering into a populated area and there have even been cases of family dogs being mistaken for a coyote and treated as such. Scary animal. Kill it!

If Fish and Wildlife want to kill things, go get the cottonmouths/water moccasin, timber rattler, and copperhead snakes. Those are the real freaking menace. And if you can get the brown recluse and black widow spiders while you are at it, that would be great.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I was making a silly joke about Cuba being a fun vacation spot for Canadians because Americans aren't allowed to go there.

What I said still holds true. The embargo may have been justified at the time, but the longer it went on, the more unjust it became. Especially when the current policy is to target individuals with sanctions, as is the case in Russia, rather than throw a blanket embargo over the entire country.

 

[Carbonox]

@FoolKiller, while I know I'm an outsider, I think the largest menace of all in America right now is the Africanized honey bee, basically a hybrid of African and European bees, which apparently are worryingly aggressive in defending their turf.

 

[FoolKiller]

@FoolKiller, while I know I'm an outsider, I think the largest menace of all in America right now is the Africanized honey bee, basically a hybrid of African and European bees, which apparently are worryingly aggressive in defending their turf.

Was that an Adam Carolla reference?
Yes, when I was a kid the "killer bees" were going to have swept across the US in 5-10 years and be a giant menace.

Africanized honey bees and fresh water shortages were the giant fear of the 1980s. Now no one ever talks about them. In fact, bee colonies are inexplicably dying off (although I know three farms with hives that have not had an issue yet). This giant killer bee epidemic will apparently be the saving grace of the US honey market. Unfortunately, they are running about 15 years behind schedule.

 

[Carbonox]

Was that an Adam Carolla reference?
Yes, when I was a kid the "killer bees" were going to have swept across the US in 5-10 years and be a giant menace.

Africanized honey bees and fresh water shortages were the giant fear of the 1980s. Now no one ever talks about them. In fact, bee colonies are inexplicably dying off (although I know three farms with hives that have not had an issue yet). This giant killer bee epidemic will apparently be the saving grace of the US honey market. Unfortunately, they are running about 15 years behind schedule.

Just saying, destruction of wild swarms at the very least could be preferable. No one wants to even imagine what it'd feel like to be stung to death by an especially hyper-defensive species.

(Perhaps there's not such a major difference compared to European bees. Still, I'd minimize the danger.)

 

[Liquid]

Question:

I assume that Obama can't just open an embassy because he wants to. Will this sort of thing be passed in Republican houses?

 

[Keef]

Not sure about the embassy. I think that's a State Department issue. What Congress does have control over is the embargo, however, which the administration and Congress don't plan on lifting yet. That is a law and Obama mentioned specifically that it will be Congress's job to deal with that one.

Personally, I think it should definitely be lifted. Cuba is too close to the US to not have them as a friend. Of course, we can benefit them much more than they can benefit us but having another person on your side is always a good thing.

 

[FoolKiller]

Just saying, destruction of wild swarms at the very least could be preferable. No one wants to even imagine what it'd feel like to be stung to death by an especially hyper-defensive species.

(Perhaps there's not such a major difference compared to European bees. Still, I'd minimize the danger.)

If they were any kind of viable threat, sure. But in the case of a cougar I think drinks would be better 22 people in 120 years isn't exactly a threat.

I'm not so sure Africanized bees are much worse.

And while over the past decades several deaths in North America can be directly attributed to Africanized bee attacks (as differentiated from deaths caused by an allergic reaction to a single or few bee stings), a person is still far more likely to be killed by lightning, or even a pet dog, than an attack by Africanized bees.

However the bees have a string argument in favor of their being killed that cougars do not: The bees are an invasive, non-native species.

 

[Liquid]

What Congress does have control over is the embargo, however, which the administration and Congress don't plan on lifting yet. That is a law and Obama mentioned specifically that it will be Congress's job to deal with that one.

That sounds like the President deferring executive power to the Congress, and therefore the representation of the people. That sounds like the President of the United States doing his job.

Wash your mouth out with soap immediately.

 

[Keef]

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the properness of this situation. But I can tell you that the whole "executive order" thing people always talk about isn't as scary as it sounds. Executive orders are a legitimate process which allow the President to dictate how existing laws are enforced. He can't actually create new law with them.

 

[Omnis]

America already has a cuban embassy. It's called Versailles on Calle Ocho.

Man, people are pissed down here. I wouldn't travel anywhere as an American as long as the Democrats are in office. Everyone now knows that you can be kidnapped and traded for political prisoners.

 

[Keef]

I'm hoping to go to Cuba next summer, for reasons and by methods undisclosed. Gonna drink rum and rent mopeds and go hard. I saw the Rum Diaries, I know how this works.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It could be worse. The entire country could be held as an economic hostage for half a century.

 

[Tornado]

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the properness of this situation. But I can tell you that the whole "executive order" thing people always talk about isn't as scary as it sounds. Executive orders are a legitimate process which allow the President to dictate how existing laws are enforced. He can't actually create new law with them.

Obama did announce that his plans are to, essentially, ruin the plot of a golden age Seinfeld episode. That should be heinous enough.

 

[Keef]

golden age Seinfeld episode

Oh, you're one of those people.