That’s a good idea. I can’t say I’ve prayed much attention to the CBD content. Maybe I’ll give that a try, although being nauseous for four hours is almost not worth experimenting with.

How did you get your invite?

I wish, I wish… I wish I was a fish.

I wish there was an instrument other than the stock market whereby private individuals could combine their funds to perform hostile take-overs, and then manage them by pre-agreed conditions.

Like: we’re going to buy Twitter, build an AP interface on it, federate it, and operate it like a non-profit. We’re going to have a set of these S core values, with yearly votes on changes proportional to investment. No single investor can own more than T percent of shares Investors can sell their shares, or buy shares. Stock will never spilt. Management salaries, combined, can never exceed more than M% of non-management combined salaries, and run it as a Holocracy. Or, maybe, shares can only be sold to employees, who have to sell to other employees when they leave.

You know; try to design a good operating model that avoids the pitfalls of other companies, and can adapt when the model demonstrates perverse incentives. Put more thought into it than my ramblings above.

But ten billion dollars is a lot of money to put together, and the rules I’d like to see necessarily exclude the sort of profit-only driven capitalists who’d be able to contribute heavy loads, and would limit the amount that could contribute.

I may as well wish I were a fish.

It has worth. It doesn’t have value.

In TFA

candy asses

Cowards. Fucking incompetent cowards.

Well, in this case, it’s Vance, not Trump. So, yeah: different lies, same modus operandi.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s not CHS. From what I’ve read, CHS is similar to overdosing, and is mostly associated with habitual users. The very first time I got stoned, decades ago, I spent the entire night in my car parked outside of a friend’s house trying to not be violently ill. Since then, after legalization, I’ve gotten mildly stoned on edibles a couple of times to no ill effect, but the third time the nausea was back.

I’ve found no reference about it online. I’ve asked about it, online. I don’t know of it’s allergies in my case; if I mini-dose - amounts small enough that I can’t notice any effect, but more than homeopathic doses - I’m fine. But as soon as I take enough to geta even a mild high, bang: nausea.

It’s really frustrating, because I suffer from chronic lower back pain (thanks, Army!) and I’d even gotten a prescription (before it was recreationally legal in my state) in an attempt to achieve the pain relief associated with cannabis.

I’ve now chalked it up to a paradoxical effect. I suspect the anti-nause mechanism in THC is behaving differently in my biome and instead triggers nausea. Maybe that can be classified as an allergy? Although I expect if it were a traditional allergy, any amount would trigger nausea. And a little cannabis doesn’t make me a little sick; it’s either all or nothing.

My other theory is that it’s zero-G sickness. When I get high, I get a head-spinning effect, and that sort of thing over a long term induces nausea in me.

I don’t know what the fuck it is, but it’s gods-damned annoying.

This.

I think people tend to think about doing things while they’re in control that fuck the other party, often forgetting that - at some point - power is going to flip and they’ll be the underdogs. That said, Republicans tend to abuse these procedural instruments more.

But you have the right answer: the filibuster can be useful, if it’s not easy to use and requires true dedication. Right now, it’s just a spike strip (mostly) conservatives throw down whenever they want to throw a tantrum.

$70 isn’t going to get you much of an espresso machine, unless you’re talking about a moka pot, and I’d challenge you on that one. You can make very fine espresso with a moka pot.

And Aeropress aren’t known for making espresso; there’s not enough pressure from proper espresso extraction, and I’d expect espresso from an Aeropress to be under extracted and pretty horrible, Aeropress advertising notwithstanding. Most people use their Aeropress to make coffee; it’s apples to oranges.

Oh. But, the glass isn’t for longevity. It’s to provide insulation and prevent the plastic from (imperceptively) breaking down and leaking microplastics into your coffee. I didn’t mean the plastic would fail. In fact, I’d expect the plastic to last longer than the glass, just by the sheer probability of accidents over the lifetime of the device.

Ah, yes, but that’s just packaging. Did you ever stop to consider how they are harvested and processed to give them that crunch?

I can’t speak for other Americans (USA, in particular, which is who I assume you meant), but for me it’s the nature of the oligarchical regime and their views on individualism. I’ve read the Chinese CSL, and spent a couple of days in a session presented by international lawyers and security professionals explaining what it meant for our business, how we needed to navigate it, and how it was being implemented. It’s scary.

Information is power; specific information about you is power over you. It’s control.

As for the government, I think it’s more a matter of the fact that China is far more well positioned and equipped to surveil US assets. Russia is bumbling, pre-occupied, and doesn’t make any computer components we use. Chinese chips, on the other hand, are in everything. The US is worried that, in a conflict, we could discover that China is able to simply… turn off all of the F35s. Or shut down or coopt firing systems on our war ships. Or disable coms or NV gear of ground troops. All of our modern equipment is computerized to more or lesser degree, and the failure of even seemingly simple resisters, sourced from China, could result in misoperation of gear, at best. If the espionage is more sophisticated, with more important components, it’s conceivable China could locate and monitor assets; missiles which ignore counter measures and always hit because the target is broadcasting a homing signal.

Most off these hypotheticals are probably not within the realm of current technology, and that what access China is able to embed in computer components is far more limited. But we don’t really know, and it’s far more dangerous to underestimate than to overestimate capabilities.

Agreed. By @FundMECFSResearch’s distinction, you (well, Americans) could choose to not pay taxes. You literally are able to not do it. Of course, you then have to deal with the consequences, but it falls in the same category of “optional.”

Gender-affirming surgery is “optional.” Eating food other than cat food is optional. Simply having the ability to make a choice between two options is not sufficient to justify saying both options are satisfactory.

This thing is exactly my exit strategy. My living will gives my wife absolute authority to decide to terminate my life if she sees fit; whether or not the state would allow it is another matter, but at least my wishes are known. These include conditions of cognitive decline; my step-father recently passed after a protracted decade of horrific decline, and no fucking way all I going through that.

While you’ve got a more pragmatic solution, to be frank, if I’m going I’d like to do so with some guarantees and comfort. I’m not comfortable with the risk of accidentally half-assing the attempt with something I jury-rigged and end up with brain damage and the inability to complete the job. I’m hoping that some state will have the balls to jump into suicide tourism and open clinics full of these specific devices, so if things get bad and I’m still able to travel, I can go in some comfort.

I’m fucked if I’m comatose, because most options are simply removing support and letting the patient starve to death, and I fear being conscious (enough) through that protracted process.

We have such shit laws in this country (USA) about giving people autonomy over their end-of-life process.

Where did you think they came from?

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Despite that, I’m surprised so little has changed. “Terrorism” wasn’t the big bad until 9/11.

"Dear Mr. Speaker,

Demonstrate as much opposition to Russian money and influence in your politics, and I will happily consider your request.

Sincerely,

Volodymyr"

Nice to see Trudeau weighing in. For better or worse, he always seems at his best when there’s an absurd war on.

Not that not all wars are absurd; just that some are more horrific in some dimensions than others.