Polarizing stories spotted in the news

[robkelk]

... So it is written.

Written where? My Immortal?

[robkelk]

Why David Suzuki skipped COP26

Set aside a half-hour for this one.

[nemonowan]

Colorado man who intervened after ambush on officer was fatally shot by police

No charges for Colorado officer who killed 'hero' who stopped mass shooting

So much for the "Good Guy with a Gun" theory...

[Jinx999]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...53998.html

For which the only response could be.

[Black Aeronaut]

Colorado man who intervened after ambush on officer was fatally shot by police

No charges for Colorado officer who killed 'hero' who stopped mass shooting

So much for the "Good Guy with a Gun" theory...

King said the use-of-force investigation was led by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. The Arvada Police Department was not involved in "critical" parts of the inquiry, she said.

How much do you wanna bet they're under the same Union, though?

You know what kills me the most about BS like this?  People on the far Left side of the political spectrum will froth at the mouth over "US War Criminals" in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Yeah, there were a few bad eggs.  There are a few people who should be sent off to the Hague.  But for the most part?  Someone fired on a civilian because the civilian didn't leave them much choice in the matter.  Our soldiers go through a lot of rigorous training and, when confronted by a situation where they feel they may be in danger, they have a very long and complex evolution they have to go through before they can actually take any kill shots.

Unfortunately, that process can't really be disclosed.  If it were, that'd present a way for our our enemies to game the system in their favor.

But it seems that our police forces can literally get away with murder if all they saw was just a gun.  No warnings.  Just bam, whap, done.  And god forbid someone accidentally kills a police officer because they failed to announce themselves or follow anything remotely resembling something like proper procedure a law enforcement officer should follow, because all civilians are considered guilty until they're dead in the street.</s>

[Jinx999]

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/spe...on-threats

Threats against election officials and police response.

[robkelk]

Three years after cancelling rebates for electric vehicles, Conservative government can't figure out why auto makers aren't building electric vehicles

Premier Doug Ford is dismissing the idea of bringing back a rebate to encourage Ontarians to buy more electric vehicles, even though the province is lagging behind much of the country in sales.

"I'm not going to give rebates to guys that are buying $100,000 cars — millionaires," he said Wednesday, even though his own government says it's counting on rising sales of those electric vehicles (EVs) to help bring down greenhouse gas emissions.

"The last time I checked my bank account, I'm far from being a millionaire," said Ontario's Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, reacting to Ford's comments.

[Black Aeronaut]

Idiot. The rebates are precisely because you want people who aren't "millionaires" to be able to buy those vehicles.

[Dartz]

Well, generally, they go towards people who can afford to buy new vehicles at the increased expense of those who can't.

I see it all the fucking time. People who can't afford energy upgrades end up subsidising those who can through higher fuel taxes. Which, generally, acts to reduce their ability to get those upgrades.

I mean, it doesn't help that all this greenwashing is just another excuse to get people to consume -- buy the newer, more efficient thing. Newness is the thing that should be taxed. Obsolescene - especially planned obsolescence or baked in software obsolescence is almost criminal. Keeping older equipment running is necessary - the less 'new' things, the less industry has to churn out, the less waste and the less shit done and burned in landfill.

But, that kind of puts a hole in the Ponzi scheme that is the economy. It falls apart when consumers stop consuming.

---

At least put a limit on the subsidies when the car's passing a certain value. Nobody buying a Tesla needs a fucking subsidy to buy it. And neither do they deserve it.

[hazard]

There's a reason the various excise tax schemes are really bad for the poorer sections of the population, and why rich people really like excise taxes over graduated income taxes.

[Jinx999]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021...epublicans

[Dartz]

It says a lot that the only thing US voters can agree on, is that the entire process is being rigged against them. Trust in the process has collapsed.

There'll be some level of civil unrest in 24 - almost without question, from whomever looses. Whether it's mass protests in the street or lynchings of public officers depends on who looses. Biden isn't really capable of sledgehammering the issue the way it needs to be sledgehammered - he's a bit too soft.

[Jinx999]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sneaky...t-wellness

[Norgarth]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sneaky...t-wellness

have to be a member to read the article.

[robkelk]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sneaky...t-wellness

have to be a member to read the article.

If you're using Firefox, load the article, then tap the F9 key to go into reader mode.

[Jinx999]

I use NoScript so didn't even notice any security.

[Inquisitive Raven]

I don't use NoScript, but I do use Privacy Badger. At a guess, Privacy Badger works for this site, too.

[Jinx999]

https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/l...wn-project

A Libertarian walks into a Bear

book review

[Black Aeronaut]

Yeah, I read that one before. Labster and I figure that in order to educate people on the hazards of Libertarianism, one should use the example of fish farms in a lake as the theoretical example, and the story of Grafton, NH for the real-world concrete proof.

[Labster]

    As a thought experiment, let’s consider aquaculture (fish farming) in a lake. Imagine a lake with a thousand identical fish farms owned by a thousand competing companies. Each fish farm earns a profit of $1000/month. For a while, all is well.

    But each fish farm produces waste, which fouls the water in the lake. Let’s say each fish farm produces enough pollution to lower productivity in the lake by $1/month.

    A thousand fish farms produce enough waste to lower productivity by $1000/month, meaning none of the fish farms are making any money. Capitalism to the rescue: someone invents a complex filtering system that removes waste products. It costs $300/month to operate. All fish farms voluntarily install it, the pollution ends, and the fish farms are now making a profit of $700/month – still a respectable sum.

    But one farmer (let’s call him Steve) gets tired of spending the money to operate his filter. Now one fish farm worth of waste is polluting the lake, lowering productivity by $1. Steve earns $999 profit, and everyone else earns $699 profit.

    Everyone else sees Steve is much more profitable than they are, because he’s not spending the maintenance costs on his filter. They disconnect their filters too.

    Once four hundred people disconnect their filters, Steve is earning $600/month – less than he would be if he and everyone else had kept their filters on! And the poor virtuous filter users are only making $300. Steve goes around to everyone, saying “Wait! We all need to make a voluntary pact to use filters! Otherwise, everyone’s productivity goes down.”

    Everyone agrees with him, and they all sign the Filter Pact, except one person who is sort of a jerk. Let’s call him Mike. Now everyone is back using filters again, except Mike. Mike earns $999/month, and everyone else earns $699/month. Slowly, people start thinking they too should be getting big bucks like Mike, and disconnect their filter for $300 extra profit…

    A self-interested person never has any incentive to use a filter. A self-interested person has some incentive to sign a pact to make everyone use a filter, but in many cases has a stronger incentive to wait for everyone else to sign such a pact but opt out himself. This can lead to an undesirable equilibrium in which no one will sign such a pact.

source

[Jinx999]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjb8mv/q...lies-apart

That JFK thing in Dallas? It's not funny and it's getting worse.

[Labster]

The Discordians have long prophecied the rise of the Dealey Lama, having seen this film before.

[Jinx999]

To no one's (who is actually sane) surprise, Lindell's swamp gas plan for the supreme court to undo the election has fizzled out.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mypillow-c...es&via=rss

Apparently, it's all the fault of the republican party.

[Labster]

I doubt this is very polarizing here, but it seems to be the correct thread for it anyway:

Oath Keeper playing Judas in 'Jesus Christ Superstar' charged in US Capitol riot

There are so many jokes here I don't even know where to start. He's also a Florida Man! FBI agents went to two performances, just to make sure they had the right guy, being your tax dollars at work. I guess James Beeks a.k.a. James T. Justis wants to show us the danger of method acting.

[Jinx999]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021...-jobs.html

The Republicans are enthusiastic about unemployment benefit - but only for people fired for refusing covid vaccination.