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cybrguy

Putin is a War Criminal

florduh

Well-Known Member
What climate change? Just normal variations in the weather...

Yeah, this shit was pretty scary...

The all-time high of 121 degrees set in British Columbia on Tuesday has left weather and climate experts all over the world shocked, speechless and deeply concerned about the future of the planet.

This Is Fine GIF
 
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Robert-in-YEG

Well-Known Member
Major Storm Hitting Western Canada - Edmonton's First Snow of The Year

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/qv65ce
https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/qv61hx




Robert-in-YEG

Russo-Quote.jpg

What climate change? Just normal variations in the weather...
Let's leave that there. One of the things I like most about this forum, is the absense of politics, conspiracies, and similar. Some of that stuff can be interesting, but that is a whole Abovetopsectret type forum. I much prefer the smoke in this forum; please create more smoke, with gentle fruity undertones; no heavy skunk.

Robert-in-YEG

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pakalolo

Toolbag v1.1 (candidate)
Staff member
Whenever there's a police misconduct incident, a common refrain you'll hear is, "it's just a few bad apples."

This is true. I don't know why anmyone would resort to this aphorism because clearly the people spouting it are ignoring the rest of it, which is: "...spoil the whole barrel." This is exactly what is happening, because the supposed "good apples" almost never toss out the bad ones. On the contrary, they form the famous "thin blue line" and protect them.
 

Robert-in-YEG

Well-Known Member





 

florduh

Well-Known Member

The Sacklers, who admit no wrongdoing and who by their own reckoning earned more than $10 billion from opioid sales, will remain one of the wealthiest families in the world.

I just finished Hulu's "Dopesick". Holy shit, what a bummer. The Sackler Family murdered like half a million Americans, destroyed another few million lives all to make a quick buck. And in my estimation, they faced basically no real consequences. They didn't have to sell any houses or yachts to pay these settlements. They're still billionaires!

Can you imagine watching all of "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" and at the end, the Evil Emperor or Sauron got to retire to the Texas Hill Country with more money than they could ever spend? That was basically the experience of watching "Dopesick".

It was a compelling show, but I didn't really need a reminder that justice is a complete farce in this country. The Sacklers were all rich before Oxy. They murdered half a million Americans just to score more points on some rich person scoreboard. Zero consequences.

On the plus side, it's the first show/movie about drug dealers where I'm rooting for the cops!
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
Big Pharma spent 263 million dollars lobbying Democrats. In return, they gave Big Pharma a 450 BILLION dollar gift. Who is paying for that nearly half a TRILLION dollar gift? You and me, when we have to buy medication.


This outcome illustrates why industry groups are willing to throw ungodly sums of money at influencing Washington lawmakers. While spending hundreds of millions on lobbying and advocacy efforts might seem exorbitant, it’s nothing compared to the hundreds of billions these business interests stand to lose if legislative decisions don’t go their way.

The ROI on lobbying is incredible. In this case 1,700%. This is another reminder that our real rulers don't sit in Washington. They meet in corporate boardrooms.

I also never want to hear the American government talk about "corruption" in third world countries. Look in the goddamn mirror.
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

 
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JOHN GALT

Well-Known Member

Marijuana-Based Sleep Aid Could Be ‘Life Changing’ For Those With Sleep Trouble​


Garden Remedies is teaming up with the therapeutic company Real Isolates on a cannabis pill directly aimed at helping people sleep. It’s meant for people like Peter Riggs of Newton, who suffers from PTSD and needs extra help shutting his eyes.

 

florduh

Well-Known Member

A plot of digital land in Decentraland — an online, virtual-only environment — sold for a record $2.43 million worth of cryptocurrency on Tuesday, more than double the prior record high for virtual real estate, which was more than $913,000.

I see we're at the buying fake real estate with fake money stage of capitalism. We can laugh at them, but I'd guess at least 80% of the US economy is just financialized scams sitting on top of other financialized scams. A big collection of ponzi schemes.
 

florduh

Well-Known Member

I only take issue with a few of the items in the "Leaving Reality" section.

Iran Contra: Reagan absolutely sold weapons to Iran to fund brutal Right Wing death squads in Nicaragua. That all happened. In actual reality.

Epstein didn't kill himself: We'll never know for sure, but it seems unbelievable that a guy with dirt on some of the most powerful people on earth just conveniently happened to kill himself pre-trial. MAYBE he'd off himself after he's convicted and exhausted every appeal option. But not before.

JFK Assassination: Again. We'll never know for sure. But I'm certain the conclusions reached by the Warren Commission are a laughable joke.

The person who launched the plot to kill Kennedy was almost certainly Allen Dulles, the founder of the CIA. He was pissed at Kennedy for firing him after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He's the only guy with the motive, the means, AND the means to help cover the whole thing up. And most importantly, had a track record of assassinating world leaders who didn't share his ideology.

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Everything else on that chart is pretty insane. I'm sure the US Intel community encourages some of the whackier conspiracy theories. It helps discredit anyone reporting on actual, horrific conspiracies the CIA has been a part of.
 

Siebter

Less soul, more mind
I'm sure the US Intel community encourages some of the whackier conspiracy theories. It helps discredit anyone reporting on actual, horrific conspiracies the CIA has been a part of.

...which in itself is another conspiracy theory. :-) Just saying.

The goal of such stories is not spreading a certain belief or searching for truth, it's FUD.

Sorry for offtopic – here's an interesting article about „Soberana“, a Covid-vaccine developed by Cuba:

 

florduh

Well-Known Member
...which in itself is another conspiracy theory. :-) Just saying.

Technically, yes. But it didn't escape my attention that two of the most prominent early proponents of all the "Deep State" Q-Anon bullshit both were former Military Intelligence operatives.

I guess my whole point was there are more plausible, and more implausible "conspiracy theories". We know the "Military Media Industrial Complex" helped spread false narratives to sell the Vietnam and Iraq wars, for example. And faced zero consequences for their deception. So I'm not sure why we should assume they ever stopped.

Mostly, that infographic triggered me by putting Area 51 on equal footing with Iran Contra. Just because two items could be classified as "conspiracy theories" doesn't mean they're equally plausible. To me, Iran Contra is just an actual criminal conspiracy. Hard to call it "theoretical" when the fascist death squads the US trained and armed actually murdered tens of thousands in horrific ways that would make Heinrich Himmler queasy.

Is the "theory" part that Saint Reagan didn't know about the Iran weapons deal? Because SNL called out that bullshit like 40 years ago.

 

Siebter

Less soul, more mind
I guess my whole point was there are more plausible, and more implausible "conspiracy theories". We know the "Military Media Industrial Complex" helped spread false narratives to sell the Vietnam and Iraq wars, for example. And faced zero consequences for their deception. So I'm not sure why we should assume they ever stopped.

Yeah, the fact that conspiracies have happened and most likely still do makes it hard to argue against conspiracy theories in general. I don't mind conspiracy theories per se, just how vague they often are, because that creates a very destructive impact. Once we have clear insights, it shouldn't be called a „theory“ anymore.

NY TIMES: Vaping Is Risky.

Conspiracy, seriously. :-)
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
I don't mind conspiracy theories per se, just how vague they often are, because that creates a very destructive impact.
That's understandable. There's a fine line to walk here. On one extreme, we could just accept everything the Military-Media Industrial Complex tells us as the unvarnished truth. But that doesn't make sense, since they've been caught lying so many times.

On the other end of the spectrum, we could say because some conspiracy theories turn out to be true, we should just go ahead and assume Hillary is a blood sucking vampire demon from another dimension. There is a middle ground where you can evaluate each conspiracy theory on its merits. I like to have an open mind, just not so open that my brains spill out.
I have completely given up on the NYT. Paper of record my ass.

It's the paper that sold at least two totally bullshit wars. The NYT, like most major media, relies on ad revenue from defense contractors, big pharma, oil companies, etc. It's also owned by billionaires. More often than not, they will push a narrative that serves the billionaire class. Buying vapes from small businesses doesn't serve their masters. Buying approved smoking cessation devices from tobacco companies sure does though.
 

Siebter

Less soul, more mind
There is a middle ground where you can evaluate each conspiracy theory on its merits. I like to have an open mind, just not so open that my brains spill out.

I agree, being skeptical is wise, but whatever we hear, we should insist on a good level of plausibility *and* data. The conspiracy around e cigs and tobacco for example offers *a ton* of data (and shows that conspiracies do not necessarily rely on a good cover up).
 
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