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South Carolina doesn't have enough drugs to kill people so they'll shoot them instead.
America - The Official Thread
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Joey D
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Hey, they'll join Utah then. We allow death by firing squad here because, weirdly, the Mormon Church says to fully atone for your sins you need to spill your blood upon the Earth.
It probably makes more sense to go the fire squad route too if a state is going to allow the death penalty. Lethal injection is often not administered by a professional and the dosing can easily be screwed up. The electric chair should be considered cruel and unusual punishment since it rarely kills the person with the first shock.
I'm always so conflicted with the death penalty too. I think we use it way too much, but at the same time, I think it should be an option for the most heinous of crimes. I'm not sure where you draw the line though. I mean I think Timothy McVey was justified in getting the death penalty for the Oklahoma City bombing, so probably something along the lines of proven mass murder should have the death penalty as an option.
Danoff
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I'm on board with firing squad as well. Cheap, quick, effective. Probably more humane than any of the alternatives. Also should be rarely used, like you say. Especially given that plea bargains would be the main purpose of having a death penalty. I'm of the opinion that a plea bargain for a death penalty case should basically never be refused, possibly even according to official procedure. Judges can be compelled to offer a plea bargain to life in prison without parole in every death penalty case, and I struggle to see why that would be a bad policy.
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I think I read that South Carolina hasn't actually executed anybody since 2001. A strange time to add a method of execution, during a 20 year execution famine.
On whether firing squad is a good method, it's quite militaristic given the most common occurances of death by firing squad. It seems unusual for it to apply to civilians but I'm not sure if it's cruel and unusual.
I wonder if they'll do the classic trick of giving four out of five gunmen blanks, at random, so nobody knows who does the fatal shot.
On whether firing squad is a good method, it's quite militaristic given the most common occurances of death by firing squad. It seems unusual for it to apply to civilians but I'm not sure if it's cruel and unusual.
I wonder if they'll do the classic trick of giving four out of five gunmen blanks, at random, so nobody knows who does the fatal shot.
Keef
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The only reason their vaccine saved any lives is because the public's insurance plan - the entire government - negotiated a price and then provided the vaccines to the people who need them. And I thank the government for that, because I can't afford health insurance right now and haven't been able to for nearly two years. Yeah yeah, taxes taxes taxes, whatever, we all have to pay taxes anyway, but those tax dollars are a lot more effective when the collective bargaining group is 300,000,000 people rather than a few dozen on a small business's crappy insurance plan, or a single person who would have to pay out of pocket. I person like me already has multiple medical bills in collections because they're unaffordable, because somebody's profits are more important than me being healthy enough to actually pay them lol.
So no, I don't think I will take a break. I do not respect the medical industry and their tremendous profit machine that feeds on ill people.
Joey D
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The government royally screwed up the distribution of the vaccines though. We went weeks without knowing how many we were going to get and the federal government did a pick-and-choose among the states that they felt like sending the vaccine to. The government also was woefully slow getting the vaccines distributed too, they should've not played the middle man and let the health systems purchase them directly from the company. Health systems couldn't really choose what vaccine they wanted either, you just got what you got.
I'll give you that the government negotiated the price, but they most certainly did not get the vaccines to the people who needed them until March.
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Happy 1000th page, America!
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- TexRex72
And what better way to commemorate it than with the Liberian flag.
Edit:
I'm conflicted with the mandate that kills be removed on foot. I get that the aim is likely to minimize environmental impact, but my concern is that it disincentivizes utilizing more of the animal and it prioritizes the sport hunting aspect, with participants simply trophy stripping the animals.
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That's the joke
There's where I'm at with it. I applaud the attempt to do-the-right-thing but it seems that it incentivises the wrong thing. And from that I wondered if there were Native American populations in the locale who should be offered the chance to handle this. Or perhaps they're already part of the specification process?
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Yeah, I assumed as much and was acknowledging it in a manner that I thought to be somewhat humorous. I don't imagine you'd legitimately confuse the two.That's the joke
So I had a look at into the program, even nearly applying for it myself, and my concern has been mostly mitigated. It's a small "hunt," with twelve animals to be killed, and it looks like an emphasis is being placed on removal of the animal rather than just a trophy. If participants are to remove the animal, I'd hope they'd be more inclined to make use of it.
As far as participation by indigenous peoples is concerned, I simply don't know and haven't been able to find more information on involvement.
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I missed it as well. I went back to the piece from the Beeb and it does mention the number, but it doesn't jump right out. They do indicate twelve people are to be chosen from 45,000 applicants, and they even say that the application is to kill a bison, but it's somehow still unclear. I don't think there was any effort to conceal that fact, it's just sort of ambiguous as written and doesn't outright specify twelve aninals.
Dotini
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Hacked Pipeline May Stay Shut for Days, Raising Concerns About Fuel Supply
While the impact has been limited so far, some energy analysts warned of possible shortages and higher prices as the suspension continues.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/...ment/colonial-pipeline-shutdown-gasoline.html
While the impact has been limited so far, some energy analysts warned of possible shortages and higher prices as the suspension continues.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/...ment/colonial-pipeline-shutdown-gasoline.html
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UKMikey
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I thought so too but they named it because the states the pipe runs through were mostly former colonies of Europe.What a poor choice of name for the pipeline. "Colonial"? Really?
Am I missing something with why it was named that way?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline#History_and_timeline
[EDIT] Tree'd
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Dotini
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According to Wikipedia (sometimes a dubious source),What a poor choice of name for the pipeline. "Colonial"? Really?
Am I missing something with why it was named that way?
In retrospect from today's more awakened civilization, the name symbolizes the hideous and unacceptable past of injustice, slavery and exploitation that was and (in part) still is the United States. Before rendering federal assistance to such an incorrect entity, the Biden administration might want to nationalize the pipeline and rename it in honor of the native populations and slaves who were exploited (to say the least) along its tortuous path. Or it could let the pipeline wither away and die, going all-in for alternate clean energy. Thanks to the pandemic, we are in a low-demand mode for gas and oil, with plenty in reserve and tanker trucks ready to roll to take up any needed transportation of petroleum products.
The disruption may be the ideal opportunity to score political/cultural points, take political advantage, and only later address any lingering economic problems. Especially where votes are at stake.
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Danoff
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Wow... "feeds on ill people". You're talking about, at least, Pfizer, and many other organizations that have brought you the vaccine. Maybe your government bought it for you, but it was made, invented, by an industry that is trying to save your life and make you comfortable.
Jesus tapdancing...
Of all the times to get off the class warfare high horse, this would be it. It is as though you think that the doctors and researchers that have been saving lives non-stop over the last year are "the problem". They should get paid. And they've been literally killing themselves saving the public.
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Oh, man. I'm sorry I've only just happened upon this treatise because it is so unbelievably good.
Amusing things I saw in Josh Hawley's latest WSJ piece, a thread . . .
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2/ The first thing you must do, as a good populist, is define your narrow faction as "us," or "we," or "Americans." Then you need a "they" who is screwing all of "us," preferably for some totally made up ad hominem reason like "because they're *bored*!"
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3/ Trump has not been "silenced." He's got a website and everything. Nor has the book in question been "banned." Google the title, and you'll immediately see like five outlets where you can buy it. For goodness sake. As for the "threat" to be the nation's "censor" . . . huh?
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4/ I mean, yeah, if you're saying insane racist or paranoid stuff here, you might get the boot. But here's Hawley himself, *on this site*, promoting *this op-ed*, as well as his new book.
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5/ It's pretty late in the damn day for the GOP to be talking about the limits of colonial corporate charters. Ahem, Citizens United? And actually, all the Founders opposed was literal, born-to-rule, fifth duke of wherever aristocracy. By modern standards, they were "an elite."
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6/ Holy cow, did Josh freakin Hawley just say we need to "protect our democracy"?
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7/ FWIW, *local* concentration has been *dropping*. The prime culprit, when it comes to bank and airline consolidation, is the government. (And the riskiness of banking.) Google and FB innovated their way to success. More broadly, Hawley does not know what "monopoly" means.
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8/ What Hawley fails to get here is that bigger firms aren't *screwing* small businesses. They're just *outperforming* them. Bigger firms are more productive, they pay more, they donate more, they're more diverse, etc. That's a good thing. Hurray for big business.
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9/ Yes, corporations have free speech rights. (See, e.g., the GOP-celebrated Citizens United.) Hawley is just hopping mad that they're using that right to say things *he* doesn't like. Also, internet speech is so much more than FB and Twitter. Also, how can Nike "cancel" me?
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10/ Josh [*clap*] Hawley [*clap*] does [*clap*] not [*clap*] know [*clap*] what [*clap*] "monopoly" [*clap*] means [*clap*] .
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11/ Hawley can "propose" anything he wants. Dems won't work with him, bc of his conduct before and on January 6. BTW, does he think citizens have no agency whatsoever? If they can't read, think, and speak for themselves, we've got bigger problems than big tech.
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12/ Now's a good time to note that breaking up big tech wouldn't produce firms Hawley likes. The problem is not size. It's Hawley and his ilk. You'd just get smaller tech firms, all of whom still don't like bigotry, backwardness, or insurrection. Also, WF delivery is great.
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13/ Hawley is deliberately obfuscating here. He knows perfectly well that the consumer-welfare standard is about more than price.
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/14 Hawley closes by exhorting Republicans to take a principled stand against corporations. Sure. The day before his op-ed went up, the Fla. GOP inserted a carve-out for woke-ass Disney in their social-media bill. A Trumpist party will *always* be an unfocused, craven mess.
Keef
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Fortunately they chose to make a vaccine rather than simply treating symptoms to create a perpetual profit machine as they've done for so many other illnesses. And fortunately insurance companies didn't have the opportunity do decide whether or not they wanted to cover it. And fortunately doctors offices weren't upsold by big pharma's marketing team and pushed certain drugs on their patients like they did with opiates. Fortunately, this time, big pharma didn't dupe us for profits and spawn a crisis.
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Danoff
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What the actual...
Citation needed.
As you may or may not have realized, this has nothing to do with my point.
Ok, so opiates are (at least partly) what you're complaining about. First, opiates are fantastic. The whole industry of pain management is fantastic, and thank science for the fact that opiates exist, because they're quite effective. If you've had a testicular biopsy, you just might be a fan of pain management healthcare, and opiates in general. If you've given birth, probably up that by an order of magnitude. So let's just start out by giving a round of applause to everyone who has ever worked or developed a pain management drug.
So just to get your position straight... You think that because the risks associated with prescription of opiates were assessed at too low a level, resulting in overprescription and abuse of opiates within the healthcare system, that we cannot recognize the thousands of lives saved by a vaccine. And that it was "luck" that Pfizer and other companies opted not to try to treat the symptoms of COVID and instead raced to the development of a vaccine (although of course they did, and thank science for that too), because they're evil, and we should assume that they would murder us in our sleep if they could make an extra buck.
But the vaccine is safe everybody, go get vaccinated.
What a low opinion you have of people. It's just people working at pfizer and other "big pharma". They're just people, not demons, not hellspawn, not legions of the dark lord. They're people, and they want their products to help people. You must not know many people working in healthcare.
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Kentucky Derby winning horse Medina Spirit reportedly has failed a post race blood test for a banned substance. The trainer Bob Baffert has been banned from entering horses at Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs has also said that if a second blood test still shows evidence of the banned substance Medina Spirit's race will be invalidated and runner up Mandaloun will be declared the winner. Trainer Bob Baffert responded to Churchill Downs statement blaming "cancel culture" and added "we live in a different world now, this America is different".
Well Trump couldn't help but to stick his orange nose into it saying, “So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky. This is emblematic of what is happening to our Country. The whole world is laughing at us as we go to hell on our Borders, our fake Presidential Election, and everywhere else!” ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!
https://www.insider.com/kentucky-derby-winner-peds-trump-blames-election-2021-5
Well Trump couldn't help but to stick his orange nose into it saying, “So now even our Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, is a junky. This is emblematic of what is happening to our Country. The whole world is laughing at us as we go to hell on our Borders, our fake Presidential Election, and everywhere else!” ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!
https://www.insider.com/kentucky-derby-winner-peds-trump-blames-election-2021-5
UKMikey
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You have been tree'd, my friend.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/political-correctness.166413/page-88#post-13408231
Danoff
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What does everyone think the Venn diagram of "GOP voters" and "People who secretly or not-so-secretly wish Vladimir Putin was their leader" looks like? I'm starting to think that the overlap might be fairly significant. I know it might seem like I'm the very last of us coming to this conclusion, given Trump's Russia connections. I mean, I'll just leave these here for provoking thought:
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Authoritarian, bigoted, dodgy financial dealings, not a big fan of democracy. I can easily see how fans of one would be closeted fans of the other.
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Danoff
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Don't forget the machismo.
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Putin has a presence that Trump can only dream of. He's an actual iron man, able to unperson almost any obstructive citizen he wants with as little as a glance. And intelligent; wily and coy with fellow world leaders.
And I'm not saying that that's a good thing or something to aspire to emulate but Trump wishes he was that intimidating. Instead, he's a complete embarrassment, with the absolute stink of an unfunny comedian.
And I'm not saying that that's a good thing or something to aspire to emulate but Trump wishes he was that intimidating. Instead, he's a complete embarrassment, with the absolute stink of an unfunny comedian.
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