@TimStone uhhhhh it should not be easy to make a mistake that kills people

that UX is horrendous

Indeed, though I also question the logic in Doing a Whole Murder in an attempt to cover for your robbery charge

@TimStone crimes are a helluva drug

We are currently in the process of confirming breaking reports.

It looks all I've got is reports of Americans at or across the Columbian border, but nothing particularly concrete

Aside from marco's absolutely buckwild post

I wonder uh, why any nation would want a nuke

Weird

Almost like it's an insurance policy of sorts

It's my understanding that there was an awards show and the outcome can best be summed up by this:

> “We are legally obligated to provide access to public spaces where individuals can exercise their freedom of speech and right to assemble,” Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert told the Daily News.

yep, that's going to be a peaceful and educated rally, said no one ever

@TimStone tl;dr the Academy loves movies about white males “learning” tolerance through no conflict and bonus points if the white male gets to teach the minority character something too

Spider-Man won Best Animated Picture though so the night wasn’t a total wash.

glad to see he had his priorities

just watching the SBS News and they were talking about the upcoming summit

@Memor-X And when it all goes wrong, in theory they'll arrest the perpetrators and not the victims. But I 100% agree that removing a group's freedom of speech is not something that the government should be able to do, no matter what the group is. I do, however, think that a rally should immediately be shut down if it's inciting violence, which they will probably do in the first sentence. But they can't be stopped from having a rally because they might

as someone who will probably be up in dayton that weekend now because these assholes are allowed to take the streets,,, thank u for your support.

these assholes [with a track record of violence](gestures broadly) too

Deny if you want, sure; but "absurd on its face"?? Nah, dog; not absurd at all.

Seems right in line with what we know about him.

Wish I could say "big if true", but not only is it almost certainly true, its definitely not sure to be a big deal

@SaintWacko Pretty sure the KKK by its very nature incites violence.

This is a group with a history of— checks notes —really? I need to check notes for this?

@Yuuki I mean, I agree with you

But the problem with saying that a group doesn't have a right to free speech because they're violent now means that you can take away free speech rights from any group by saying they're violent

Which means any minority group could be suppressed, not just ones that are actually dangerous

OMG, I hadn't seen this take on movies like Green Book:

I don't buy the slippery slope argument here because the KKK has a very significant history of inciting racial violence. We can point to that and say that the KKK shouldn't be allowed to organized and I don't think there are any other groups, let alone minority groups, with that kind of extensive and specific history of violence.

White Savior: The Movie Trailer

@BradC What, that it's a movie about racism made by white people, for white people, to let white people feel better about being white people?

@Yuuki You're right, but we've seen how much the current administration and their supporters care about the truth

@SaintWacko In that case, it's not like letting the KKK rally will mean that the current administration and its supporters will be okay with minority groups organizing.

Do you really want them to be able to take away free speech from whatever group Fox News can drum up hate against?

Do you think letting the KKK rally will stop them because 'well, they let us do it so we'll give them a freebie'?

@Yuuki No, but at least it's not giving them a free precedent to suppress whoever they want

Trust me, I'd be much happier if there were a way to stop hate groups from spreading their filth

But I don't want to hand the current administration any more power than they already have

If only there existed some variety of, say

permit mechanism

i dunno

Given how little this administration cares for precedent, I don't think it matters.

I guess there's really nothing the county could have done to prevent a violent group from organizing

(we had anticipated this permit going through)

I guess what I'm saying is that while I support keeping hate groups from organizing, I don't think right now is the time to implement something like that, because it will not be used how you want it to be used, and Trump doesn't need any more tools he can bend to an authoritarian purpose

And I am wholly uninterested in playing multi-dimensional chess with decisions that directly cause harm.

I think the point @Unionhawk is making is that the tool already exists. It's not like it's some policy that hasn't been implemented, it already exists and the administration can already exert pressure on local governments to use it.

That said, we knew the county was going to do this.

Ah, okay, so it's not that you're wishing that ability existed, it's that you're wishing it were being used properly

Yeah, that's fair

They were always going to do this.

They're not going to protect the community

they never do

@Yuuki yep, exactly. Loved the "restroom sign" scene, like "look how awesome I am for doing the absolute minimum"

@BradC I get that the Academy wants to look good in a year marked by racial injustice (which, honestly, describes literally every year in the US since time immemorial but enough about that), but even then there were better options to service that message like Beale Street (which wasn't even nominated).

Computer, enhance

That…that is a panel

Heck, even Black Panther would've been a better nomination because at least it wasn't a film that dealt with racism from the perspective of a white male written by white males and directed by a white male.

Side note: I do not endorse Black Panther winning Best Picture over Roma or if-it-wasn't-snubbed If Beale Street Could Talk.

@TimStone reads the article That feeling when you're such a social animal that it's inhumane to keep you alone, but only in harems, apparently. Also, as weird as this would have been, if experts agree that euthanization is necessary, maybe euthanize one at a time to see if a new social hierarchy emerges?

@puzzlepiece87 Without knowing anything about zoology, my first guess is that size of territory is playing a big role here.

@Yuuki Indeed zoos. :/

Most animals require far more space than a zoo can reasonably provide. And for the most part, there's not much a zoo can do about it.

@Yuuki Agreed.

It's honestly not something I can reasonably lay blame on most zoos because they're, for the most part, honest conservation efforts that are doing the best they can with the limited resources they're provided.

At least, most zoos in the US in my experience.

@Yuuki I agree with that and they are the only thing between several species and extinction.

@Memor-X I really didn't think people could get any dumber until this past week. This is added to the list

ah yes, Betteridge's inverse law of headlines

@Unionhawk I should have remembered this...

Yep, seems like this one is a "yes, the FDA at least partially contributed to it"

> Tonight, Ed Thompson, a drug manufacturer who spent decades managing and producing opioids for Big Pharma, breaks ranks to denounce his industry and its federal regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, which he says opened the floodgates on the crisis with a few little changes to a label.

@BradC Hrmmmmmm

The interview doesn't address the question of what to do about people who suffer from chronic pain conditions, though. Is there any alternative for them, or are we just telling them to get stuffed? :/

It's definitely something we should question though

@TimStone Yep. "Opioids are not recommended for long-term treatment of chronic conditions" isn't a "use this instead", but it is at least something

@TimStone To be fair yes the bigger player here are the people who literally looked at the risks like "this actually potentially means more money"

Yeah, I think the issue is largely with the push to get doctors to prescribe these medications where they aren't needed more so than opening the door to them being prescribed for long-term pain management, even if that's also not ideal. But it's hard to measure the impact without questioning this, so it's fair to do so

@TimStone I'm not going to quote this correctly, but I've heard health professionals say that US doctors are all but obsessed with eliminating pain in their patients, and that instead they should be saying to their patients that they need to learn to live with some pain.

The Massachusetts filling in (state v purdue pharma?) is wild twitter.com/praddenkeefe/status/1085962202463514626?s=19

(yes, the case is Commonwealth of Massachusetts v Purdue Pharma et al)

@MBraedley Yeah, that's true in a general sense. At the same time there are people who just experience pain on such a level that we risk throwing them under the bus because we're trying knee-jerk our way to a solution for the problem at large

@MBraedley and I've heard just as many stories about how doctors frequently don't take reports of pain seriously, especially from women and minorities (black women, especially). So hard to say, I guess

@TimStone But those people can take other drugs that reduce the pain, even if it doesn't eliminate the pain.

As an example of the general case they gave me percocet when I got my wisdom teeth removed and a) that stuff is horrible, I took one and it made me feel like shit, never again b) I took a tylenol and went to class, so it was unnecessary

@BradC There's that too, although those cases seem more to be acute pain and not chronic pain.

@MBraedley I'm not sure that we have sufficient evidence to say that?

@TimStone I was given Tylenol 3 (codeine), and I'm apparently not a super metabolizer, so I didn't get high off it, like my brothers did.

I went to my university health center with severe cough one time expecting them to give me dm but no they gave me straight codeine lol

It just made me super nauseous and gave me a headache, I must be in the "responds adversely" group

Or I guess you get stoned off morphine, not high, but either way it didn't effect me like my brothers.

I suppose the real take here is actually let's blame the people who did the thing not the regulatory body that didn't stop them

The unmitigated greed of the pharmaceutical companies as revealed in some recent internal emails has been a big story; the complicity of the FDA seems to me to be a relevant part of the overall narrative

This also reveals a potential fix; can the regulatory change be rolled back? Clearly that doesn't fix the problem for people already addicted, but would that help reduce the number of new people getting hooked?

Well that was what I was alluding to before, rolling it back would prevent people who currently need it for chronic pain management from continuing to receive it, so I'd be concerned about doing it without an alternative :/

Like I've heard concern from those communities that swinging the hammer too far in the other direction would hurt them and I'm not in a position to question their experience? Obviously we have a public health crisis and we need to do something, but

@Ash No, so everything I've said is hearsay.

@TimStone but if its not safe for long-term treatment of Chronic pain management (but it is safe for short-term treatment of acute pain), then that's what the FDA is for, right? to make those calls?

@BradC We don't know that it's not safe for long-term treatment

@TimStone Actually, we kinda do.

It's not safe to get addicted to the drug and take larger and larger doses but like, that's how everything works

I mean if we want to talk about opioid abuse as an adverse effect of the drug itself we'd probably also have to consider the preconditions that encourage people to use it as an escape in the first place, like poverty

@Ash Yeah :(

What we definitely know is that pharma execs shouldn't encourage doctors to prescribe addictive substances all day every day in the name of profit and that pharmacists shouldn't run illegal distribution rackets, and we obviously haven't made them afraid enough to attempt that

lol #yolobmbt

(you only live once but maybe brexit twice)

I guess we'll see, lib dems have been a single issue party on just this lately so

I get the whole not wanting to look like you're ignoring the will of the people thing but also really hard to get behind the logic of rolling the dice a second time. I don't know how you resolve that tbh

@TimStone So I don't know the geographic party distribution in the UK, but is London predominately represented by Labour?

I have a feeling it's mixed

Yeah, I'm not sure either but mixed seems right

There's a secondary issue of it being unclear what they'd even be voting on, too, and how that might split the vote

re London you have to figure there's a good percentage of Tory supporters in financial services et al but also not necessarily the types who would have bet the bank on Brexiting

I was more getting at urban vs rural party, and Labour is predominantly urban.

unscientific look says that they do have a lot in london

Yeah, bit of a mixed bag then

@MBraedley god dammit chrome why did you open that with a black background

I'm glad I can change that in F12 lol

Right? That's the worst

Also, US, we need to have a talk about how your political party colours are backwards.

yes

This is one of @Unionhawk's pet peeves

the left is red in literally every other country god dammit

except I guess canada where they have orange?

@Unionhawk Orange is further left than red in the UK as well... I think.

Idk what orange is here, I assumed lib dems which, no

absolutely not

@Unionhawk In that map? Yeah, Lib Dems. Red is Labour.

yeah, no

lib dems are the party of like

jk rowling

that's not even a joke

Considering that I don't know much of her politics, that doesn't tell me a lot.

Hello @Uni I am diagnosing you with being terminally Online

They are the centre party

Oh well good thing the President likes gold,,,

Hmm, how about "no"

@TimStone Do I want to load the comments?

I didn't look tbh so probably not :P

@BradC I mean, my lawyer had to do a conflict of interest check when I hired him after getting laid off. This request wouldn't be abnormal from any other legal entity.

Although there may have been a distinction between "currently representing" and "have ever represented"

@MBraedley Right. And there is a difference between "retain different legal consultants" vs "shut down your operation"

Real Clear Politics: Congress Must Join the President in Cutting Spending ??

Mission nearly complete:

1. Slash taxes on the wealthy

2. Run up the deficit

3. Insist we now need to cut spending

4. Conservative dream achieved!!

(this was the plan all along, and it was obvious even at the time)

How about instead we:

1. Repeal the insane tax cut

2. Maybe do more, like the 70% top marginal rate

3. Now maybe we have enough to not let poor people die!!

tada.wav

@BradC Pretty sure the "until different legal consultants are retained" is implied, if not outright stated in the letter.

Amazon HQ2: Understanding What Happened & Why

> Before we determine who killed Amazon’s HQ2, let’s note who did not: It was not the progressives or the Anti-ICE lefties. No, the Socialists have not taken over America. The biggest opponent to Amazon HQ2 in NYC was not from the new Congressional class, all they did was make some noise, and little to do with what actually mattered.

> It was not, to the chagrin of FoxNews, AOC or Elizabeth Warren, or anyone else in Congress. All of the incentives for this were State + City, not Federal. Congress literally had no say on this.

> Spoiler alert: It was Jeff Bezos. He belatedly realized the political landscape had changed, and decided he was unwilling to engage further. He did not want to deal with it or be embarrassed. Full stop.

Excellent comprehensive analysis

(Zarif is/was the Foreign Minister)

@TimStone hmm, don't know enough about internal Iranian politics to know if that's good or reason to be concerned, or what. Or neutral

Uhhhh I would put it as...unexpected?

I'm unclear what the reason for his resignation is at this time

Zarif is not a good guy, but given this is Iran, it's not like you can assume someone better will replace him

It does possibly complicate any conversations about the EU continuing to abide by the Iran agreement in the face of US pressure, I guess? But we'll see

@TimStone buddy I have some news for you regarding these expectations literally everywhere

Yeah, yeah :P

It's sort of hilarious that he announced it via Instagram post though

@SaintWacko well is not giving them a venue considered suppression of their freedom of speech? admittedly i am basing that assumption on this

@TimStone i wonder what the options will be (remembering options given on Last Week Tonight and assuming the worst case scenario where a third option is selected and makes everything even worse)

i honestly want it to be "do you still want Brexit" with most people voting "no" and it cal all finally end

but that's the sane option

I think there's also the issue of what happens if people vote "no". Does everyone say "OK, Brexit isn't happening", or do they say "We have one referrendum that says 'no' and one that says 'yes', so now there's no clear preference", or even "People voted 'no' to a specific Brexit plan so we'll try to do a different one"

I still don't get why they can't just say "this was a horrible idea, there is no actual exit plan, we're going to revoke our declaration of leaving the EU and just stay"

@BradC because that's and even more sane/smart idea

From what I can tell, that's not impossible to do, its just that nobody has the balls/ovaries to do so

but I must be missing something, I'm sure.

@BradC As far as I understand, there are enough people in Parliament who actually consider a no-deal Brexit preferable to no Brexit. Or at least believe it is politically better for them to vote that way.

There definitely was a ruling in the EU that Britain has the right to stop Brexit before it happens

@murgatroid99 that seems unfathomable to me. Unless its a "nobody can hate me if they're too busy starving"

@BradC There are a lot of factors that could be involved here. It could be anti-immigrant sentiment, or some notion of independence that the original campaign seemed to be partially based on, or a misconception of the actual impact of Brexit, or misplaced optimism about getting a deal in the remaining time.

@murgatroid99 I'm willing to accept those as factors in the original vote (along with Russian interference), but it still boggles the mind that those are still believed

Of course, Trump still has a ~40% approval rating in the US

(a fact which I still find absolutely unfathomable)

I was originally heartened by one of Trump's unqualified nominees facing some pushback, but after digging in, the pushback is because she is not anti-abortion enough

(And the pushback is from the far rigth)

final post today for me:

later, all

Ahahahahahaha