Random Topics.......

[swordfish]

No place to put this without starting a whole new thread, so here's a thread for just about anything.  I'll start!!

https://www.studyfinds.org/dogs-best-friends/

Puppy love: 7 in 10 people really do consider their dog their best friend

And the other 3 are just idiots.....or communists.....either way, they are wasting our oxygen.....

 

[Muda69]

14 minutes ago, swordfish said:

No place to put this without starting a whole new thread, so here's a thread for just about anything.  I'll start!!

https://www.studyfinds.org/dogs-best-friends/

Puppy love: 7 in 10 people really do consider their dog their best friend

And the other 3 are just idiots.....or communists.....either way, they are wasting our oxygen.....

 

A lot of millennials I know, especially couples,  truly believe this:

 

[Bobref]

Calling dogs “people” is not just crazy, it’s disrespectful… to dogs.

[swordfish]

https://www.dailywire.com/news/fictosexual-man-who-married-16-year-old-hologram-cant-communicate-with-her-after-software-support-eliminated?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro&fbclid=IwAR1sckwKQa9bV5BRhOhUYy6sLvZJhr-oYyhbMWDLwkFqU7WJQWX8MKajteY

A “fictosexual” man can no longer communicate with his “wife” of four years. Akihiko Kondo, a 38-year-old Japanese man, wed a holographic image of the blue-haired anime character Hatsune Miku in 2018. The character is described as 16 years old, the New York Post reported.  

Kondo fell in love with the character in 2008 after he became ostracized from his peers following intense bullying at work. Technology made it possible for the anime fan to interact with her beginning in 2017 thanks to a Gatebox machine. This $1,300 device allows users to interact with characters using holograms. This was also how Kondo was able to “marry” the object of his affection.

 

Is "Fictosexual" a gender now?  Or a choice......? 

 

 

[Muda69]

How long will the esteemed DE's suspension from posting on the GID last?

 

[Bobref]

On 4/29/2022 at 1:51 PM, Muda69 said:

How long will the esteemed DE's suspension from posting on the GID last?

 

I’m sure he’s not too disappointed. After all, he’s “on the right side of history,” whatever that means.

[DanteEstonia]

On 4/29/2022 at 11:51 AM, Muda69 said:

How long will the esteemed DE's suspension from posting on the GID last?

Who is "DE"?

[swordfish]

1 hour ago, DanteEstonia said:

Who is "DE"?

Your alter-ego?

[Irishman]

Did not see a "go ahead and just take my money" topic on the first 3 pages here, so it was important I post it here. I have no idea how I am expected to save for retirement when there is this level of genius in our world. 
 

[DanteEstonia]

Protip @Irishman images from Facebook load better if you re-host them on Imgur or some other website. 

[Muda69]

California Court Rules That Bees Are Fish

https://reason.com/2022/06/01/california-court-rules-that-bees-are-fish/

Quote

In the latest installment of a yearslong legal debate over whether bees are fish, a California appeals court has ruled that, for the purposes of the state's Endangered Species Act, they are.

Environmentalists petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to add four bumblebee species to the list of at-risk plants and animals governed by the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). Roughly 250 plant and animal species are protected by the CESA, which prohibits the import, export, possession, purchase, or sale of listed species. The Commission provided notice in 2019 that the four bumblebee species were candidates for CESA protection, prompting lawsuits from agricultural groups that were concerned about the costs of adherence to the new requirements.

They also questioned the Commission's legal authority to designate bumblebees for protection. Insects aren't a protected category under the CESA. Candidate species may include "a native species or subspecies of a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, or plant," according to the state's fish and game code. And while California does protect some species of insect, these are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. That left state officials without an intuitive avenue.

 

Rather than let pesky biological standards get in the way, they had concluded that designating bumblebees as fish was the most fitting way to get them protected under the CESA. Legally, a fish refers to "a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals." Because bumblebees are invertebrates—a protected subset of fish—the Fish and Game Commission argued that they could reasonably be designated as fish per the CESA's terms. The trial court wasn't having it.

But yesterday, the California Court of Appeal for the 3rd District ruled that bees could in fact qualify as fish, despite the (understandable) challenge brought forth by state almond growers and other groups. "Although the term fish is colloquially and commonly understood to refer to aquatic species, the term of art employed by the Legislature in the definition of fish…is not so limited," reads the decision. "Accordingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like each of the four bumble bee species, may be listed as an endangered or threatened species under the Act." Invertebrates is certainly a broad category, and bees admittedly don't have backbones, but the ruling boggles the mind nonetheless.

"We certainly agree section 45 is ambiguous as to whether the Legislature intended for the definition of fish to apply to purely aquatic species," the decision continues. "A fish, as the term is commonly understood in everyday parlance, of course, lives in aquatic environments." Because a snail (a terrestrial invertebrate) was previously listed under the Act "and could have qualified as such only within the definition of fish," the court opted to liberally construe the Act and the legislature's intent when drafting it.

As Volokh Conspiracy blogger and law professor Ilya Somin points out, courts may interpret a "term of art" in seemingly counterintuitive ways. Those rulings frequently lead to confusion and messy implementation. "Imagine an ordinary Californian reading the state Endangered Species Act to try to figure out what actions might violate it. Such a person would be hard-pressed to figure out that harming bees is a no-no because the latter legally qualify as fish!" Somin argues.

Californians may now have to worry about what else qualifies as a fish since yesterday's decision establishes that "the Commission may list any invertebrate as an endangered or threatened species" if the invertebrate meets the requirements of the relevant statutes. Enter ladybugs, scorpions, moths, and butterflies.

Yet another reason to stay the heck away from the state of California.  Far, far away.

 

 

[swordfish]

https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/geico-ordered-to-pay-woman-5-2m-who-claims-she-caught-std-in-car/

A Missouri woman who claimed she caught a sexually transmitted disease when she had sex with her boyfriend in his vehicle has been awarded a $5.2 million settlement from her now-ex-partner’s car insurance company.

The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed the multimillion-dollar payout against Geico that had been entered through arbitration after the company claimed errors were made in Jackson County Circuit Court, the Kansas City Star reported.

In February 2021, the woman — identified in court papers as M.O. — informed Geico of her intention to seek damages after she allegedly contracted HPV, the human papillomavirus, from her then-beau in his car.

She claimed he caused her to catch the STD when he knew of his condition and the risks of unprotected sex.

An arbitrator later found that the couple’s sex in the vehicle “directly caused, or directly contributed to cause” the HPV infection.

The woman was awarded the $5.2 million from Geico after the man was found liable for not disclosing his infection, according to the news outlet.

The insurer asked for the award to be tossed out, claiming the judgment violated its rights to due process, but its request was denied and it appealed.

On Tuesday, the three-judge panel found that the lower court did not err by denying Geico’s motions, saying the company did not have a right to “relitigate those issues.” 

One of the judges concurred but said the company was offered “no meaningful opportunity to participate” in the lawsuit and existing law “relegat(es) the insurer to the status of a bystander.”

Wow - Just wow.......

SF is guessing this guy's insurance rates just shot up......Faster than his pe......Nevermind.....

[Muda69]

17 hours ago, swordfish said:

https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/geico-ordered-to-pay-woman-5-2m-who-claims-she-caught-std-in-car/

A Missouri woman who claimed she caught a sexually transmitted disease when she had sex with her boyfriend in his vehicle has been awarded a $5.2 million settlement from her now-ex-partner’s car insurance company.

The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed the multimillion-dollar payout against Geico that had been entered through arbitration after the company claimed errors were made in Jackson County Circuit Court, the Kansas City Star reported.

In February 2021, the woman — identified in court papers as M.O. — informed Geico of her intention to seek damages after she allegedly contracted HPV, the human papillomavirus, from her then-beau in his car.

She claimed he caused her to catch the STD when he knew of his condition and the risks of unprotected sex.

An arbitrator later found that the couple’s sex in the vehicle “directly caused, or directly contributed to cause” the HPV infection.

The woman was awarded the $5.2 million from Geico after the man was found liable for not disclosing his infection, according to the news outlet.

The insurer asked for the award to be tossed out, claiming the judgment violated its rights to due process, but its request was denied and it appealed.

On Tuesday, the three-judge panel found that the lower court did not err by denying Geico’s motions, saying the company did not have a right to “relitigate those issues.” 

One of the judges concurred but said the company was offered “no meaningful opportunity to participate” in the lawsuit and existing law “relegat(es) the insurer to the status of a bystander.”

Wow - Just wow.......

SF is guessing this guy's insurance rates just shot up......Faster than his pe......Nevermind.....

Agreed.  Exactly what is Geico's liability and culpability in this case? Did the boyfriend have a sexually-transmitted disease rider on his policy?  🙂

 

[Muda69]

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Says People Charged With Violent Crimes Are Guilty Because Prosecutors Say So

https://reason.com/2022/06/07/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-says-people-charged-with-violent-crimes-are-guilty-because-prosecutors-say-so/?itm_source=parsely-api

Quote

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly blamed bail reforms and local judges for exacerbating gun violence by releasing defendants back onto the streets, but on Monday she took her rhetoric a step further, saying that people charged with violent crime should be kept in jail because only guilty people get charged with violent crimes.

The comments, first reported by the Chicago Tribune, were part of a longer harangue against the Cook County courts and bail reform efforts.

"We shouldn't be locking up nonviolent individuals just because they can't afford to pay bail. But, given the exacting standards that the state's attorney has for charging a case, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, when those charges are brought, these people are guilty," Lightfoot said. "Of course they're entitled to a presumption of innocence. Of course they're entitled to their day in court. But residents in our community are also entitled to safety from dangerous people, so we need to keep pressing the criminal courts to lock up violent dangerous people and not put them out on bail or electronic monitoring back into the very same communities where brave souls are mustering the courage to come forward and say, 'this is the person who is responsible.'"

 

The comments outraged civil liberties advocates and public defenders in Chicago, and rightly so. They should offend anyone familiar with the American criminal justice system and why it places such an emphasis on the presumption of innocence: to force the government to prove its case and shield defendants from prejudice and demagoguery. Lightfoot's statements are particularly absurd, given the enormous amount of taxpayer money Chicago has spent settling wrongful conviction lawsuits.

"It is sad to see a highly-trained lawyer and former prosecutor so badly mangle the meaning of our Constitution," Alexandra Block, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, said in a statement to Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt. "A charge based solely on assertions of police often has proven unreliable in this city—as evidenced by the city's history of paying large settlements for CPD's role in wrongful convictions."

Last month, the Chicago City Council voted to approve a $14.25 million settlement to Daniel Taylor, who spent more than 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 1992 double murder. Taylor alleged that police beat a false confession out of him and hid evidence that he was actually in police custody at the time of the murders. His conviction was overturned in 2013 after the Illinois attorney general revealed that the county prosecutors had failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to Taylor's defense counsel, including custody records and interviews with several officers showing that Taylor was indeed behind bars before, during, and after the murders. Two other co-defendants in Taylor's case also received a combined $10.5 million settlement.

In 2017, BuzzFeed News published an investigation into accusations that retired Chicago detective Reynaldo Guevara had framed more than 50 people for murders they did not commit. Since then, at least 20 people have already been exonerated in cases that Guevara led.

 

The most infamous and expensive series of wrongful conviction cases in Chicago have been tied to disgraced Chicago police commander Jon Burge. Burge led a group of detectives who were accused of torturing confessions out of more than 100 men between 1972 and 1991, using methods like suffocation, electrocution, and burning. Burge was fired in 1993 after a police board found he tortured a man suspected of killing a police officer. Overall, Chicago taxpayers have footed the bill for $130 million in lawsuit settlements and judgments related to Burge and his crew, including $5.5 million in reparations to torture survivors.

"Chicago is the false confession capital of the nation," Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchel Jr. said in a statement. "For decades, the city has shamefully disregarded the presumption of innocence—which applies to everyone, regardless of the charge against them. As an attorney, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot knows that the criminal justice system is not designed to decide guilt early in a case. In fact, in the past year the Cook County Public Defender's Office represented people in more than 11,000 cases that ended in dismissal or a finding of not guilty."

As the ACLU and public defender's office both noted, Lightfoot's attacks on bail reforms have been based on shoddy or nonexistent data. WBEZ reported last year that hacked emails from Lightfoot's office showed that city officials and CPD were aware that the link between gun violence and people bonding out of jail was weak and not supported by studies, but they continued to press the talking point anyway.

Lightfoot's office tried to clean up the mess in a statement later on Monday.

"Let's be clear, as a lawyer, former federal prosecutor, and former criminal defense attorney, the Mayor, of course, knows that individuals are entitled to the presumption of innocence, which is precisely what she said today," Lightfoot's office said. "The Mayor has been explicit that violent offenders should be held accountable for their actions that harm our communities."

Precisely, but not entirely. She also said that the bar for prosecutors to win cases is so high that prosecutors won't bring weak cases, but Chicago's recent history shows the exact opposite.

Lightfoot has a habit, when criticized or facing political pressure, of embracing authoritarian solutions and rhetoric. She recently tried to change the city's curfew for teens through an executive order, despite the fact that such statutory changes have to go through the City Council.

Lightfoot has also repeatedly called on the City Council to pass a new ordinance allowing the city to sue gang members and seize their property, despite pushback from civil liberties groups. Or how about when Lightfoot threatened to jail people who violated Chicago's stay-at-home orders during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Lightfoot often says exactly what she thinks, and if it was a mistake, it was only for erring on the side of too much disclosure.

This is what we get when you have a judicial system where getting a plea deal out of a defendant, regardless of guilt or innocence, is the primary goal.  This is because most prosecutors are too lazy or just don't want to take the risk of a jury trial.  Most obviously hate or fear actual litigation.  Makes you wonder why they got into the legal profession in the first place.

 

 

[DanteEstonia]

 

 

[Muda69]

29 minutes ago, DanteEstonia said:

 

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/analyst-high-gas-prices/

Quote

"Most of the increase has come from crude oil prices going up, and that's because world demand has been coming back quite strongly from the pandemic and supply hasn't caught up," he said. "Even before Russia attacked Ukraine, we were seeing the production of oil lagging. Producers in the United States are reporting they're having a hard time getting workers to come back to the oil fields. They're having supply chain problems with parts and equipment." 

Oil companies are benefiting from the spike in prices at the pump. In the first 3 months of the year, Chevron's profits rose 33% over the last three months of 2021. Shell's profits jumped 42% while Conoco Philips is up 43%, and British Petroleum's profits soared 51%. 

"Oil companies are making a lot of money by going along for the ride. They're selling their oil at the market price," said Borenstein. 

.....

 

 

[swordfish]

1 hour ago, DanteEstonia said:

 

 

There's no "price gouging" by US gas stations or oil companies.  Come on - This is a prime example why the US needs out of OPEC and why we need to get to energy independence in the US so we can quit relying on other countries for our oil.

[Muda69]

51 minutes ago, swordfish said:

There's no "price gouging" by US gas stations or oil companies.  Come on - This is a prime example why the US needs out of OPEC and why we need to get to energy independence in the US so we can quit relying on other countries for our oil.

Agreed. Dante and other socialists see U.S. companies turning a profit and it enrages them.  They seem to have some kind of threshold of what is "too much profit".  The thing is they can never objectively and logically define what that threshold is.

 

[Impartial_Observer]

2 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

 

 

If you paid a fortune at the pump it’s because the Biden Administration has lousy:

Energy policy

Foreign policy

Monetary policy 

Economic policy

It’s like watching Bullwinkle pull a rabbit out of his hat  

 

[swordfish]

26 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Agreed. Dante and other socialists see U.S. companies turning a profit and it enrages them.  They seem to have some kind of threshold of what is "too much profit".  The thing is they can never objectively and logically define what that threshold is.

 

Great point.  It always reminds SF of when a professor once asked me what is the basis of our free market economy - "What is the sole purpose of a US business?"  Answer - to create profit.  Not "provide a service or a good", not "to employee people" create profit.  One of the undeniable truths in the US free market economy.

Revenue minus expenses equals profit.

 

[DanteEstonia]

On 6/10/2022 at 9:10 AM, swordfish said:

This is a prime example why the US needs out of OPEC

https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm

From the website-

Quote

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. They were to become the Founder Members of the Organization.

These countries were later joined by Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), Gabon (1975), Angola (2007), Equatorial Guinea (2017) and Congo (2018).

Ecuador suspended its membership in December 1992, rejoined OPEC in October 2007, but decided to withdraw its membership of OPEC effective 1 January 2020. Indonesia suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it again in January 2016, but decided to suspend its membership once more at the 171^st Meeting of the OPEC Conference on 30 November 2016. Gabon terminated its membership in January 1995. However, it rejoined the Organization in July 2016. Qatar terminated its membership on 1 January 2019.

This means that, currently, the Organization has a total of 13 Member Countries.

Can't get out of an organization you aren't a part of. 

On 6/10/2022 at 10:03 AM, Muda69 said:

Dante and other socialists see U.S. companies turning a profit and it enrages them.

Again, Tesla shareholder, high gas prices incentivizes the purchase of electric cars. 

[swordfish]

On 6/11/2022 at 8:51 PM, DanteEstonia said:

https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm

From the website-

Can't get out of an organization you aren't a part of. 

 

I stand corrected - SF Should have said "out from under it's influence".  

[DanteEstonia]

1 hour ago, swordfish said:

I stand corrected - SF Should have said "out from under it's influence".  

Well, if you want to get out of the influence from those people, invest in electric cars and nuclear energy. 

[swordfish]

21 hours ago, DanteEstonia said:

Well, if you want to get out of the influence from those people, invest in electric cars and nuclear energy. 

True.  SF can believe that eventually electric powered cars COULD POTENTIALLY EVENTUALLY have a huge presence in the market, but the current President and his cronies want to force that product on us way before the technology and infrastructure is even close to being in place to support it.

More importantly - Why in the wide wide world of sports would the US, while sitting on the world's largest reserves of crude oil that would provide an estimated 400 years of crude, simply want to keep that oil in the ground?  Again - there is no way large cities will be able to supply enough electricity to charge those EV's.

[swordfish]

12 minutes ago, swordfish said:

True.  SF can believe that eventually electric powered cars COULD POTENTIALLY EVENTUALLY have a huge presence in the market, but the current President and his cronies want to force that product on us way before the technology and infrastructure is even close to being in place to support it.

More importantly - Why in the wide wide world of sports would the US, while sitting on the world's largest reserves of crude oil that would provide an estimated 400 years of crude, simply want to keep that oil in the ground?  Again - there is no way large cities will be able to supply enough electricity to charge those EV's.

https://nypost.com/2022/06/13/gas-prices-too-high-its-all-part-of-bidens-plan-to-eliminate-fossil-fuels/

If you think gas prices are high now, just wait. They’re going much higher, thanks to President Biden’s “irreversible” plan to eliminate fossil fuels. Truth is, your pain at the pump is being planned and executed by the White House.

Over the weekend, buyers paid $5 a gallon or roughly $100 bucks to fill the tank.

Gas prices have doubled since Biden took office. J.P. Morgan analysts predict $6 a gallon by August. And experts warn this crisis will continue even after Biden’s term ends because he’s dismantling fossil fuel production.

When Biden was running for president, he promised to shut down oil producers: “No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.” He pledged to put the country on “an irreversible” path toward “doing away with” fossil fuels.

On Day One as president, Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline, sending a message of no new pipelines anywhere, period.

In the months that followed, he stopped all sales of leases to drill on federal lands or offshore, meaning zero new leases allowing oil to be brought out of the ground.

And in September, House Democrats introduced legislation to stop banks from lending money or investing capital for new or expanded fossil fuel production. That legislation hasn’t passed, but it sent a clear message. The oil industry is being shut down.

Now, as outrage over gas prices pushes Biden’s poll numbers down, the president is trying to shift the blame. He told Jimmy Kimmel last week that oil producers refuse to expand operations. “Why aren’t they drilling? Because they make more money not producing more oil.” He accused oil companies of deliberately “making things worse for American families.”

Sorry, Mr. President, that doesn’t pass the laugh test, even on late-night TV. It’s sheer demagoguery.

Biden confessed his actual plan just six weeks ago, when gas was already more than $4 a gallon. He marveled at the “incredible transition” of the US economy away from fossil fuels. “God willing, when it’s over,” we’ll be “less reliant on fossil fuels.”

In a congressional hearing the same week, Biden’s interior secretary, Deb Haaland, repeatedly declined to agree that gas prices are too high. Climate zealots in the Biden administration want high prices to deter the public from buying gas.

Biden’s media toadies are singing the same song. High gas prices will force us to make “good choices,” claims Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. “The right long-term solution, for the sake of the planet, is not increasing the supply of fossil fuels.” It’s to compel consumers to switch to electric vehicles.

It’s one thing to choose electric vehicles. Soviet-style compulsion is another matter. EVs are about one-third more expensive than gas-powered cars. That doesn’t matter to out-of-touch Democrat Debbie Stabenow. The Michigan senator brags about driving past gas stations in her EV, not caring how high prices are. But what’s the average family supposed to do, take out a mortgage to afford an electric vehicle? 

Another problem: EVs generally go about 200 miles on a charge and less in cold temperatures, per Consumer Reports. About a quarter of charging stations are broken at any one time. Imagine running low on charge and driving into a charging station that’s out of order. When EVs are ready for prime time, the Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley concludes, consumers will decide to buy them.

In the meantime, people are feeling pain at the pump. And Team Biden is rolling out the blame game.

Playing defense, a gas station outside St. Paul, Minn., put up a sign telling its customers, “We hate our gas prices too.” That’s credible. Gas stations are not to blame for today’s prices, according to an analysis in Barron’s.

House Democrats eyeing the polls are trying to fault “price gougers” and urging the Federal Trade Commission to punish oil companies that charge “excessive” prices.

It’s all theatrics. The FTC has concluded several times that gas prices are the result of market conditions, not illegalities — rising demand and inadequate supply.

Who’s to blame for inadequate supply? Worldwide, there are many factors, but here in the United States, blame drivers with Biden bumper stickers. They heard candidate Biden announce his “irreversible” plan, and they voted for him anyway.

Let's go Brandon!!