See, this is why I love real conversation! Now I’m learning something! Thanks for dropping by and sharing!
Fr, I’d never heard this mentioned. It’s an all new take on the purpose of (state? local?) militias, for me anyway, I’ve got some reading to do now…
Yeah, sorry, sometimes my ADHD just randomly throws in a clown. I mean, an entire non-sequitur sentence.
Oh, I’m so sorry, I figured that one out. The ADHD hit bad yesterday…
SO MUCH great information here! Bookmarked for later, so I can pick through it later and absorb all of your knowledge. Because I’m like a sponge. Or maybe more like a leech…
The same reason that DeBeers doesn’t flood the market with diamonds.
OPEC has always been about manufactured scarcity. It’s not a bad scheme, if you have a heavily concentrated, limited resource. The difference, of course, is that oil is actually useful. So might as well pump it while you can, store it where it’s easy to get and ration it out.
What is more, Saudi Arabia has 68 years of reserves at 2024’s production rate. The world will probably have stopped using hydrocarbons long before those run out. So any crude it does not pump today could be money lost forever.
Holy. FUCKING. SHIT! That is a lot of oil!
But the math doesn’t check out. The world uses about 37 billion barrels annually. Saudi Arabia has ~260 billion barrels in reserve. That’s more 7 years of global oil reserves. It would cover about 40 years of US oil use. And it would cover the modest Saudi annual useage for over 200 years. So no matter which way you slice it, the math is funky here.
Something else I just discovered. Saudi Arabia does not have the world’s largest oil reserves. That honor goes to…drumroll…yep, you guessed it. Venezuela.
Someone did. They missed by inches. I would imagine they beefed up security a bit since then…
And, in most cases, it’s a good thing that our head of state is well-protected. Otherwise, we’d have a new president every week and the executive branch would be a mess…oh…hmmm…
Edit: It’s because I chose “Link” as the type of post. If I had chosen “Discussion”, a URL wouldn’t have been required.
I always do this - I ask questions first and click around later. JFC, I don’t know if I’ve got ADHD or just come down with a case of boomeritis.
Thanks for this!
The field was marked required, with a red asterisk. I tried posting without a URL, and it did not accept the webform. Said I needed to fill in the required field.
I took a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/gbF3jP3
(And if Imgur doesn’t meet Lemmy standards, I’m happy to use a different service.)
Totally agree with you, a handgun is no match for a tank. If the military wants to make war on citizens, they will lose.
However, there is more going on that meets the eye. Many members of the military would not want to shoot their own citizens. And armed citizens can still do more damage than unarmed citizens. In other words, the 2A forces an authoritarian administration to use violence in order to repress the citizens. It ups the stakes. And citizens can strike in ways that the military can’t. Guerilla warfare tactics. They don’t need to “win”, they just need to disrupt, to spread fear.
But, yeah, with the current surveillance state, along with the culpability of the media, it seems a dubious proposition that armed citizens can save themselves from the fascists. Regardless, I have suddenly become a HUGE proponent of guns. Especially when I see the Black Panthers providing security for demonstrators. Respect.
This is interesting.
This memo is only relevant if Trump plans on staying in office past 2028, or installing another MAGA sycophant.
I mean, Trump knows that if a Democrat takes office, the DOJ will first clean house and then go after him for this shit. Yet he telegraphs his intention to break the law. Why?
The Constitution allows for the possibility of a gangster Administration. Checks and balances. The hope was that the Supreme Court and Congress would keep the executive branch in check.
The Constitution also recognizes that no system is perfect, so it adds the right to bear arms. Not for sport. Not for defense. The Second Amendment exists specifically to fight tyranny. Just in case the elections get rigged and an extremist party takes control.
Such an unlikely scenario, amiright?
Never thought of it that way!
Can “Iran fries” be a thing?
Or maybe since fries is already taken, we can rename “chili” to “Irani stew”?
Your head is really gonna hurt when you read about printer ink and printing presses.
CMYK ftw!
This is false.
The Pentagon hosts a Ramadan dinner (at the end of the holiday, to celebrate the conclusion of the fasting ritual).
The Pentagon has hosted Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremonies. (I’m not sure if they still do.)
The issue here isn’t the sponsoring of a religious activity. The function of the military is to send soldiers to their deaths. Those soldiers who need spiritual support should absolutely have access to it.
The issue is that the president and the defense secretary have incorporated evangelical Christianity into their cronyism. Religion is being used as a litmus test for loyalty.
Signed,
A pragmatic (ex-militant) atheist
Your average American is not intelligent enough to decipher the clever wordsmithing of the average journalist.
In an age where sensationalistic headlines are the norm, an understated headline can seem to lend credibility to the absurd.
This is not a problem, though. I enjoy eating popcorn and watching the world burn.
First, who the fuck is an expert on teleporting to Waffle House?
Second, why the fuck are the experts “dubious” instead of incredulous or openly condescending? JFC, c’mon experts, do better!
You are correct!
That is to say, you are right about being not right.
At the core, Hindus and Christians basically share the same philosophy on God.
In Christianity, God has three aspects. Jesus, The Holy Ghost and God. In Christianity, this is known as “The Trinity”. If you pray to Jesus, you are also praying to God and the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, ancient Hindus asserted that the essence of the deities was unitary, and the deities were nothing but pluralistic manifestations of the same concept of the divine god.
So, if a Hindi met a member of a death cult, they might think “This person is missing out SO much good stuff!” But not really - they’d probably think that Mr. Death Cult Person was a weirdo and missing the point of religion entirely.
DLC expansion packs
You might not believe this, but there was a time before DLC expansion packs. Super Mario World, I love you.
Unless they are metahuman - probably, yes.
There are exceptions, like The Punisher, but he’s not really a “super” hero (at least, not in any of the media I’ve consumed, which is admittedly not very much). Heroes like this are great at saving the day, but its just not believable that they can save the world or the galaxy or the universe.
Iron Man without money is some dude in a garage who spends his lifetime building the arc reactor and the Mark I. By the time he’s gathered enough resources to build a Mark II, he’s already 60.
Right! I must have been high when I wrote that! 🤣