HelixDab2

joined 1 year ago
[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 32 points 5 days ago (9 children)

It's not even a propaganda problem, per se, because most people aren't obsessively following the news and economic reports.

It's how they feel about money.

That was the biggest single issue.

People looked at grocery store prices and said, this is nuts, I was paying half this just four years ago.

It doesn't matter to them that global inflation skyrocketed along with inflation in the US, or that we're doing better than the rest of the world right now. They want to see prices go down, even though that would be deflation, which is incredibly bad for an economy.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Force can only legally be used against imminent threats. (This, BTW, is why women tend to get convicted of murder when they kill their abusive partners; they tend to do it at a time when their partner is not harming them.) Even if you are positive that someone intends you great bodily harm or death, you can not use force legally until the moment arrives when they are trying to cause that harm. You can not pre-emptively self-defend.

If you use lethal force in the absence of an imminent, immediate threat of great bodily harm or death, it is highly likely that you would be arrested, charged, and convicted.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Lying about this can get you charged with perjury and/or held in contempt of court. I would strongly suggest that you not consider lying about things like this when attorneys are questioning you while you're in a jury pool.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I went to school for fashion design. (Hence interacting with a famous designer in school. Come to think of it, the head of the department at the time was someone with a significant international reputation. And I still think he's a pretentious dick.) These days I do industrial print media, because I burned out hard in school, due to a combination of raging, untreated ADHD and 48+ hour days working in studio.

I would not recommend fashion design to anyone that has any interest in a healthy work/life balance, and fast fashion has absolutely gutted anything domestic that's of any interest at all.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I... Can't do that without giving away far too much personal information. Unfortunately.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago (4 children)

You would likely be removed for cause from the jury pool if you said something like this during questioning from attorneys.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago (8 children)

You aren't going to find mountains in any of the parts of Canada that you'll want to live in. BC is trending right, Alberta and Saskatchewan are the right (Alberta is the Texas of Canada), Ontario is a shit-show, and Quebec is... Well, how good is your French?

I'd suggest PEI or Nova Scotia and satellite internet.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 65 points 6 days ago (38 children)

This is not correct. Do not do this.

"Your body, my choice" does not rise to the level of an imminent threat of violence or lawless behavior. It's certainly not "fighting words" as defined by SCOTUS. Without an immediate threat of violence, you do not have a legal right to use physical force. Even in states with 'make my day' laws, this is absolutely not something you can respond to with violence.

I am not an attorney, I am not your attorney, and I would strongly suggest that you consult with a competent criminal defense attorney before you take this course of action.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

Yes, definitely. It also forces the US to exploit more natural resources (which I oppose, since I like having forests and mountains). Things like 100% tariffs on electric cars or computer chips made in China would help the US catch up. Tariffs on lithium--I don't think we have significant lithium deposits in the US--would just sharply raise prices. Tariffs on finished goods that are high enough make it cheaper to produce in the US.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 29 points 6 days ago (9 children)

Fundraiser at a very expensive art school. I was a scholarship student at a cocktail mixer, and I was at the mixer because it was being held in the department I was majoring in. All of the people that were attending were fine arts patrons, the kind of people that drop tens of thousands on art without thinking twice about it. I was--literally--a punk kid with tattoos and shit tons of piercings, and I was supposed to be pleasant to people with millions more than I'll ever have.

Got to piss off a world famous fashion designer that evening, so that was cool.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

TLA agencies would have no problem with a cover identity to "prove" who they are. Your average citizen is going to have a hard time buying a slightly used social security number that they can use to get an ID that will pass KYC laws.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Something I just thought of today...

Industry has been outsourcing for more than 40 years now. Manufacturing has been gutted in the US, and that's wrecked labor. With the loss of the power of organized labor, money has flowed up from the workers to the executives. We've seen labor unions making big gains under Biden, but there simply aren't enough people covered by unions in the US to reverse this trend. Right now we have a smallish-number of higher-paid information workers, a somewhat larger number of people in manufacturing, and a LOT of people in service-sector jobs that aren't organized, or can't effectively organize. An economy built largely around large numbers of low-wage service-sector jobs, with a small number of higher paid information workers just isn't sustainable.

Tariffs that went on long enough would force manufacturing to be done in the US. And wages would have to rise, because if the workers can't afford the products they make, then an economy collapses completely (unless you are exporting a lot). Yeah, it would be super-rough until factories were back in the US, maybe 10+ years. But our thirst for more and cheaper plastic shit from Asia is gonna be the death of us. (...That is, if climate change doesn't do it first.) In that respect, Trump is kind of right, but the tariffs are probably going to be so harmful in the short run that people will reject any attempts to restructure the economy. I don't think that Trump is principled in this at all; I think that it's populist, and he's a broken clock on this issue.

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