What is the difference between the two?

How do we measure “democracy”? I think the best way is to measure how average citizen’s preferences influence policy.

One of the largest political studies in history, conducted by Princeton, attempted to measure this.

The Princeton University and Northwestern University study, titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”, concludes that the preferences of the average American have a “near-zero, statistically non-significant impact” on public policy.

Because there is a deep divide in the party. The voters are turning on Israel in massive numbers. The leadership has not changed position.

The solution is new leadership, like AOC, that reflects the will of the voters. That’s how democracy is supposed to work, in theory.

The alternative is doubling down for Israel and further fracturing the Democratic base. I’m not voting for Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris or any other pro-genocide candidate in 2028, “lesser of two evils” be damned.

Nate Bronze keeps falling lower. He started as a serious data analyst, now he’s writing clickbait articles, desperate for attention.

I guess Harry Enten was the real star at FiveThirtyEight. Holy toledo.

How long do you think that position will last?

If energy infrastructure is destroyed, then “paying a little bit extra at the pump” is just the beginning. You will need to reduce your overall consumption by 15-20%.

Remember the worst month of Covid? That’s the last time consumption was reduced so heavily. Now imagine that Covid lifestyle for 5 years as energy infrastructure is rebuilt.

The joy of Trump’s downfall will not be enough to mask the real economic pain, unfortunately.

The Iraq War didn’t end when we killed Saddam, that was really only the beginning.

A tiny compnay called ComradeWorkwear tried to do this last year with their “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards.

In less than a week, their social media accounts were shut down, they were debanked, and they were visited by the police multiple times.

And perhaps worst of all, the playing cards were never released.

Now it appears most of the news stories about this incident have been scrubbed from the Internet.

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made “Most Wanted CEO” Playing Cards - Electronic Frontier Foundation

Coffee is a diuretic, it is beneficial to the kidneys and hard on the stomach.

A large percentage of cats die from kidney issues, not many die from stomach issues. So coffee is good for cats makes sense imo.

Here’s a better link where you can download the full PDF Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criterion decision analysis

Sorry to hear about your father.

I believe the study considered everything you mentioned, you can see the categories in this graph:

PDF of the study is available: Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criterion decision analysis

How do you know they will not comply with an order to land? No country has tried, despite their obligation to do so under the Rome Statute.

Studies in the UK show that there are three classes of ‘hard’ drugs - alcohol, amphetamines, and opioids.

All three roughly follow the ‘10% rule’: 10% of people who try these drugs become addicted, and 10% of addicts die from their addiction.

Meth, heroin, and alcohol each kill about 1% of the people who try them.

Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis

There have been many studies on this subject (none in the US, since we are under strict prohibition). They calculate both harm to user and harm to society.

Almost all these studies are in agreement that there are three classes of ‘hard’ drugs that are significantly worse than the rest- opioids, amphetamines, and alcohol. Many rate alcohol as slightly more destructive than the other two.

Tobacco is rated significantly less harmful, mostly because of the amount of tobacco it takes to do harm. No one dies from a single night of heavy smoking; many people die from a single night of alcohol, amphetamines, or opiates. Second-hand smoke is dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as a drunk driver.

Personally I think these studies underrate benzodiazipines, they should be considered the fourth class of hard drugs imo.

When Luigi killed that UHC oligarch, the company responded by lowering their claims denial rate by 1-2%. UHC processes hundreds of millions of claims every year.

Do the math- the slaying of Brian Thompson meant that millions of claims that would have otherwise been denied were approved.

By killing one oligarch, hundreds of lives were saved. Perhaps even thousands.

We know this because Investors Are Pressing UnitedHealth Group to Deny More Care

Right, you don’t “just shoot down” planes. You order them to land, as they are in violation of your sovereign airspace, and in violation of international law.

Russian planes violating European airspace are not shot down, they are ordered to land and they comply. Planes violating “US airspace” in Iraq and Afghanistan were not shot down, because they complied when ordered to land.

And maybe I’m being pedantic, but a leader overseeing an ongoing genocide is an immediate threat of the highest order.

There is currently widespread violence. It is the structural violence of poverty. Hundreds are being socially murdered everyday.

Killing an oligarch is a certainly a violent act, but it reduces the overall violence in the system.

Yes.

Scramble jets, have air traffic control instruct them to land, and if they do not follow instructions then shoot to kill.

This is literally how all restricted airspace works.

I think the best evidence of this, and an accurate predictor of economic recession, is the number of people taking the LSAT.

According to LSAC, the number of test takers is up 19% this year, and applications are up 44.5% over the 4-year average.

The number of legal jobs only increases by ~1% each year.

Yea the subsidies disproportionately benefit the large corporate farms.

But they are also one of the last things keeping the small farmers solvent.

Yeah I agree. Cheering this on feels good, because fuck Trump and fuck Trump voters, but it is so shortsighted.

The remaining small- and medium-sized farms are going to go under, and get bought up by the big Ag firms. We are speeding straight towards a monopoly on farming in this country.

The consequences of an Ag monopoly will be devastating for the environment, devastating for the economy, and devastating for anyone who wants to eat healthy food.