FinishingDutch @ FinishingDutch @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

Hmm, the Wiki does say say her office prosecuted a higher amount of weed crimes, but also that they weren’t for mere posession. She was tough on gun crime and also created a hate crimes unit focusing on LGBT-related hatecrimes. And also that she’s opposed to the death penalty, and that she actively went after truancy.

Any of those can probably be argued to be good or bad, depending on how they were applied. I can certainly see the combo of anti-truancy and anti-gun crime as policies that might disproportionately hit minorities. Not to mention that weed simply shouldn’t be illegal anyways.

Still, all of it’s hypothetical for now. We’ll see what happens the next few days…

When you say cop… i see she worked as District Attorney, and the Wikipedia doesn’t really list anything that seems wildly objectionable? Of course, some will hate everything even remotely cop-adjacent…

I’m not in the US, so I might not always be aware of every political thing happening… but Harris feels completely invisible to me.

Biden was very visible as VP, and I actually have memories of Cheney, Gore, even Pence had some notable things.

Gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you one notable or controversial thing Harris did. So I’m reallllllly hoping US voters have a more positive mental picture in regards to her VP tenure. Being ‘not Biden’ only gets you so far…

God that whole rhetoric pissed me off to no end, when they shoved Bernie aside because it was ‘her turn’. The level of arrogance needed to even think that, let alone push it as an argument on voters…

While I’m certainly not downplaying her actual political credits - she has experience in all levels of government - the presidency is not an ‘it’s my turn now’ position. That soured a lot of voters on her as a candidate.

‘It’s my turn’ is only an argument if you’re waiting in line at Disneyland.

Well as a European, I’m going to give the US some credit: voters did elect a black, ‘possibly-Muslim’ guy with a name that sounds vaguely like a well-known terrorist. And they elected him twice.

Besides, the democrats really appear to be in a situation where they’ll vote for a proverbial ham sandwich if it stops Trump from getting the presidency.

Are there racist voters who hate women? Obviously. But it’s not like it’s an immediate disqualification.

Nooo, let’s not. We’re gonna need those pretty soon from the looks of it.

I hear ya. I’ve got enough expensive hobbies as is, so I’m glad I dodged that one. I listen to YouTube music on Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, I’ve got cheap Creative Pebble Pro PC speakers and it’s PERFECTLY FINE to my ears. Sure, I could spend 500 bucks on headphones and another 500 on speakers, but they just don’t give me that ‘wow’ factor to where it seems like a good investment. I’ve tried them; it wasn’t for me.

I’m also not the guy you should take to a fancy restaurant. A Domino’s pizza tastes just fine to me, so a five star Michelin restaurant would just be completely wasted on me. I’ve got exquisite taste and refinement in other areas, but I’m wholly a basic bitch in these two.

The Olympic Village is packed with young, attractive athletes in peak physical shape. They are notorious fuckfests.

Personally though, I say: ban condoms. Let’s see what freakishly fit and capable superhuman Olympic babies we can get out of it. There’s bound to be some future potential gold medallists that end up in a condom…

Neat, I've never heard of those. Unihertz makes one with a projector in it... that's wild. I'd be hesitant to buy a phone that's sold on AliExpress though, I'd assume OS support wouldn't be that great.

You did say “I love meat, let me assure you”. That’s pretty proud.

Fair enough, I can see how you'd read it that way.

How can you be concerned about growing meat consumption in other countries? “Gee I sure hope people don’t act like me, that’d be concerning!”. Rules for thee.

Yep, it's hypocritical, and I accept that. But it's still a cause for concern, considering the broader context.

Over the past decades, we've seen a global rise in living standards. Especially in countries like China and India, which represent a significant chunk of our global population.

China's poverty has fallen dramatically over the past decades. The average Chinese person is now much better off than they used to be. If you look at poverty figures, you'll see a nice little ski-slope: back in 1990, effectively 98 percent of Chinese wereliving below the current poverty line. In 2019, that was down to below 16 percent.

Same thing for India: a dramatic poverty decline since the 1980's.

If you're at least somewhat aware of economics, you'll understand that an increased standard of living also leads to more consumption: people can now afford cars, they can afford to travel, they can afford more food - which includes meat.

China is already the world's largest meat consumer - but there's a catch: they're lagging in per-capita consumption. Experts predict that with increased urbanization and rising income levels, Chinese people are going to eat more and more meat. Because they can finally afford to do so.

Meat consumption is also on the rise in India. While there's certainly plenty of Indians who don't eat meat on religious grounds, actually over 70 percent of the population does eat meat.

So, see why I'm worried? Because they're going down the same path towards overconsumption that we ware. Is it hypocritical to say to a no-longer-impoverished Indian or Chinese person that they shouldn't want meat, cars or shiny new phones? Yes. But one can also hope that they learn from our mistakes in that regard. Overconsumption is going to have a profound impact on the scale of those two countries.

That’s not to mention the antibiotic crisis where treatment resistant bacteria are developing in animals due to overuse in livestock. Or the development of animal flus like birdflu, corona virus, swine flu, ebola etc etc, which emerge from consuming animals.

Those are certainly things I'm worried about. Especially considering recent history regarding covid. God only knows what meat production is like in some countries, and I shudder to find out. It's only going to get worse if producers try to fill that increased demand.

You’re doing so much good, why not do the little extra step of going vegan? It’s so easy nowadays. Good for you, good for the planet, good for the animals. There’s no practical downside?

Well, honestly, at some point it gets really tiring to shoulder the burden of basically everything. I'm using a computer to type this, my previous post was on a phone. They both contain lithium, cobalt, coltan and other materials, a lot of which get mined with either exploited workers or outright slave labor. The clothes I'm wearing were probably made by an exploited worker in a sweatshop. And you can keep going on and on and on. There's really no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, as any economics professor will point out.

So on some days, I like to enjoy a nice burger. Even if it might not be good for me or the planet.

God yes. I absolutely HATE that phones got slimmer and slimmer while also consuming more battery - which can’t be swapped like the good old days.

I’ve got giant hands. Give me a phone that’s AT LEAST twice as thick with a battery that lasts at least three days.

I’d absolutely carry a large Motorola brick phone style if those were still viable today. They do make retro gimmick phones like it, but you really do need a smartphone for a lot of specific apps.

Meh, I wouldn’t say proud. I’m just not going to change it. If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t.

I’ve got solar panels, I ride a bicycle, don’t fly, don’t have a car, I recycle everything properly, I conserve water, and generally try to consume less whenever possible.

Is meat bad for the planet? Sure. But by and large, I don’t think me eating meat three times a week is going to have much effect. I’m much more concerned about people elsewhere on the planet discovering the joy of meat, like growing consumption in China.

That’s a perfectly valid question. The answer is very interesting:

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/gallipoli/drip_rifle

Drip (or "pop off") rifles were self-firing rifles used at Gallipoli to deceive the Turks during the evacuation of December 1915.

Fire was maintained from the trenches after the withdrawal of the last men, by rifles arranged to fire automatically. This was done by a weight being released which pulled the trigger. Two kerosene tins were placed one above the other, the top one full of water and the bottom one with the trigger string attached to it, empty. At the last minute, small holes would be punched in the upper tin; water would trickle into the lower one, and the rifle would fire as soon as the lower tin had become sufficiently heavy.

Another device ran a string, holding back the trigger, through a candle, which slowly burnt down, severed the string, and released the trigger.

TIL there’s vegan slurs. Don’t think I’ve ever been called something specific for being pro-meat. And I do loooooove my meat-based diet, let me assure you. No vegan slur would ever change that.

That’s some quality plausible deniability right there. Flared base and everything.

That’s definitely ending up in someone wearing a dog collar…

I am, in fact, quite aware of how air conditioners work :D A lot of devices work like this; it’s why a refrigerator and freezer generate heat. And why things like a slushy machine are real power hogs. Basically, anything that gets things cool will generate heat elsewhere.

Thing is, a refrigerator and freezer are very much needed in daily life. An air conditioner thankfully isn’t - yet. But on days where we have 25+ celsius, the aircon is the difference between being sweaty, irritable, unproductive and with poor sleep or… perfectly comfortable. So, we choose to not be miserable. It keeps me sane during heatwaves.

But yes, absolutely nobody should own one. And I highly encourage everybody else not to get one. I’m keeping mine though.

Here in the Netherlands, the panels are wired into the grid so you’re always delivering back and not using that power directly. What happens is, they basically deduct the power generated from the power you’ve used. This crediting system will eventually disappear, as too many people are feeding back solar power.

For all intents and purposes, as long as we generate more than we use, we’re paying nothing except grid charges and taxes. So if you’ve got a low energy use day and plenty of solar, there’s really no reason not to run an AC (or a washer/dryer, etc)

We’ve got nine panels on the south facing roof. Right now, reasonably sunny day, they produce about 3.6 -3.7 Kw. That amply covers the power consumption of one of the two LG aircons we have. Those take about 2.5 kW. We usually just run one, depending on outside temp.

I’m not really familiar with solar generators in general, but that feels like you’d need a pretty beefy one to keep an AC powered.

I’ve got solar panels and AC. I’m keeping the house at meat locker freezing while staying within the solar panel production. Might as well use the power when it’s there.

Some people will complain about using AC in general. They can sweat all they want - I’m keeping cool.

Yeah, that’s certainly one odd aspect. Also, there’s a ton of other methods to handle labour shortages. Like activating underused groups, such as women. Or offering retraining so people can switch to different jobs. And higher pay for sectors with shortages doesn’t hurt either, considering the already very low pay in Greece.

Running your existing workforce ragged is NOT the way to deal with this.

But hey, maybe we’re missing some cultural or political piece of the puzzle as to why they went this route.