chenGOD

Actually yes. The first clause is declarative. The rest of my point stands.

You don’t need the comma between you and google. These are two imperative clauses that would ordinarily be joined with the conjunction “and”. In such a case you would write “Fuck you google, and suck my dick.” Here we have simply elided the conjunction and a comma suffices. Happy Grammar for Happy Life.

Trying to make Manhattans tonight but am forced to drink them with no maraschino cherries as garnish like some sort of gutter dwelling peasant.

I’ve never read anything he’s written but DJ Spooky is great...

por qe?

Yeah they go into it in the article. Not sustainable in the long run - market saturation etc. Same thing happened in Vancouver, BC. When I was living there, there were 3 dispensaries in like a 5 block radius, and this was in essentially a residential neighbourhood (not in the suburbs, but it was not downtown for sure). I hope they get some regulation in place, otherwise you're going to have people who sell the cheap, adulterated weed running the show. That's either organized crime, big business, or as the meme goes - why not both?

probably only a matter of time. the comments in the linked youtube clip =.. ugh. That linked clip is fucking god awful.

I don't understand, are we hatin' on DJ Spooky in this thread now?

Smokelahoma: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/27/toke-lahoma-cannabis-market-oklahoma-red-state-weed-legalization-437782

I didn't know where to put this, but to illustrate the importance of voting in local elections: https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-brandon-scott-inauguration-20201208-e6plg5omprh33lecpchscxf6g4-story.html

Human rights are very much a modern thing whereas democracies have been around for thousands of years. I’m not sure the idea of the two is necessarily entwined. Modern Iran is a theocracy, as religious officials hold more power than elected ones. Not quite sure why you’re bringing in foreign policy matters. I’d say that 18 is a good age for voting mostly because then you’ve finished high school and should have some capacity for critical thinking (please note I said should...)

Democracy as in the government was selected by a vote. Not all citizens need be eligible to vote for it to be considered a democracy. Unless you have a lot of 4 year olds running around voting in Germany, large swathes of your population can’t vote either. So, semantics aside, my point stands. Expand Expand Votes are only one aspect of democracies, though. I think racial segregation and the praxis that political participation opportunities are determined by ancestry/genealogy (not even indirectly but directly) are against core principles of democracy and it's fair to not call such a place a democracy. Iran has elections but isn't a democracy, either. The comparison to 4 year olds voting is a bit weak, but yes, voting age should be reduced. In my state it's 16, but could go down to 14 imo (would mostly help progressive parties) but that's an entirely different topic. Your original argument was based on the ability to vote, which is why I didn't expand further. I think your point of racial segregation is a good one, but that is a matter of human rights, and not democracy per se. The intersection between democracy and human rights is an important nexus, of course, and one that needs to be improved still further. I suppose you will have to define democracy first before we can agree on core principles. From my point of view, a democracy allows for people to change leaders without the need for a revolution (as opposed to a dictatorship). This obviously ties in with the concept of what defines a person, but again, that is an issue of human rights. Yes, I was a bit facetious with my point (and god no, 14 year olds shouldn't be allowed to vote), but again, the original point is that the US is the longest standing example of a democracy (democratic republic to be more accurate) that exists at the moment. Yes 1 and 2 need work, and access should be improved (although I would argue that certain types of criminal activity - like corruption, child exploitation, human trafficking, and rape for example, should remove that person's ability to participate in society), but attitudes are changing and that is a good step. Point 3 - how can you vote on issues ahead of time, when the issue may not be defined? Point 5, great we agree on the importance of voting in local elections (and the fucked-upness of gerrymandering).

Prisoners can in fact vote in two states, and felons can vote in many states. As usual, it’s more nuanced than what you present: https://felonvoting.procon.org/state-felon-voting-laws/ Men under the age of 26 can vote without registering. Yes voting should be a national or local holiday, depending on the election. Following the previous point, it should be mandatory to vote, with potential fines if you don’t. Yes gerrymandering is fucked and needs to be outlawed. This is why voting in local elections matters: http://reclaimtheamericandream.org/progress-gerrymander/ Not going to bother with the last two points, cause you cannot legislate or create policies to mitigate every foreseeable event without creating legislation or policy so stifling that it ends up doing more harm than good.

Democracy as in the government was selected by a vote. Not all citizens need be eligible to vote for it to be considered a democracy. Unless you have a lot of 4 year olds running around voting in Germany, large swathes of your population can’t vote either. So, semantics aside, my point stands.

It would be great if no news media covered it whatsoever.

Lol the China virus. What a fucking nutbar.

That Somalia one though, Biden just rescinds the order once in office. Trump didn’t say they had to be out by Jan 20.

^^^ yeah but according to her, she only had to wait a few minutes. Meanwhile...months later here. The fucking clown continues to lose court cases (think he's 1-46 as of Friday), but as long as the grift keeps pulling in cash from his suckers, he'll keep running it.

Yes the American form is outdated, but it's also the longest-standing continuous democracy. It needs reform to better represent the nation as a whole (some sort of federalism similar to what we have in Canada but better please), as well as to provide real options for political parties (like moving to some form of proportional representation voting system), and legislative reform to get rid of money in politics. But it should be noted that while Trump and his fucking ilk are trying their level best to subvert democracy, the system so far is working as fucntioned - where the courts are putting a check on the attempt to stage a coup. So there must be something to it.

It's not associated with the official Biden campaign or anything right?

Man thanks to whoever recommended that deerhoof mash-up/cover thingy. Great piece of music.

Probably just buying them to donate them to poorer countries. Great PR ?

Key though: Federal pardons issued by the president apply only to federal law; they do not apply to civil, state, or local offenses. I know it's been said elsewhere in this thread, but I really hope the new SDNY attorney goes after Trump and his cadre of clowns hard. Berman's firing earlier this summer was fucking ridiculous, but Strauss has already gone after Giuliani.

I love Max Tundra but I think Super_collider or Geez’n’Gosh (or really any of Uwe Schmidt’s excellent pop material from around that time) are more apt comparisons, no?

With the latest album, image is unfortunately entwined into the music. Which is fair enough but just not my cup of tea.