strawd @strawd@qoto.org
Software developer, skeptic, geek
he/him
Joined Nov 2022
@freemo @georgetakei seems fair to me, if he was willing to plead guilty. But he didn't, at least not in the indictments so far.
strawd
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The United States is beset with many problems, not least of which is Donald Trump. I waver between thinking he is the disease and thinking he is a symptom of a greater disease. In either case, I agree with much of what Thomas Friedman says in this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/opinion/trump-indictment-presidency.html?unlocked_article_code=QljgemNUFbSTO7WF6o1FP5T_shRG24zDrtUkNzZSeOiF7eE5rcxzRlvM9YWBykiSFAUKHhsg9ANQlxKt7JbT-5D9LXF8WZEbPC4IRPd8f-1SJ3uV9_ZxMmYAlzgJ_S3Llyy6MlPPjo8uEZFGjnZIl_vkfeasaXvan9FVizGELDTmgfjmuIKBFg4jLFlSQbGQj1if5GQb1fqucahfwr1r01LSVSIOJ39XJkXAtzJZh97baSavYOWapwIJT2HWDjbfGN9M-ALVU_RNigwc_WokZ84AFWNh3E_xkOdgUDti_HUbob1G8iyquUPxHyYgeaLHlgE500vOszJwNPOhDhZKZihPIGY&smid=url-share (Gift Link).
@davidvnewman it feels like the best we can hope for is that he'll continue to be seen as so dangerous to those who aren't in the maga cult that people will again vote for the lesser evil in droves. He seems to be trying his best to make that happen.
🏳️🌈🖖🏽
strawd
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President Biden should invite Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the trans legislator silenced in Montana for speaking truth to power, to the White House. Just like he did the #TennesseeThree
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I want to tell parents of trans kids under attack in the red states something:
This is simply horrifying. Like you, we can't understand how any politicians could stoop so low as to attack the most vulnerable among us.
You are strong, and we will fight for and beside you. And though we may lose these initial battles, your love and strength will help win this in the end. I know that to be true.
@freemo is there anything to what the media talks about when they say that assault rifles create far more damage to a body due to cavitation? Couldn't this, in addition to large and easily swappable magazines, be a reason to consider only allowing weapons with less lethality?
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For many people, reproductive rights feel like a non-issue because they would never think about having an abortion. But even if you are actively trying to expand your family, abortion bans passed by Republican-dominated legislatures across the country could affect you and your family.
That is because the reach of these invasive, oppressive laws goes far beyond abortion. We explore why that is today in The Big Picture: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/strict-abortion-laws-affect-miscarriage
@freemo your original post here asked whether or not it was a common enough occurrence to be a huge concern, and I think the answer is yes
@freemo yeah my risk assessment compares where the US is to where other countries are, not to where the US could be with changes in laws. It may be that there is no good way to come back from where we are in the US, but I hope not. I don't know what specific actions can reduce gun violence, and I'm not advocating for trying to ban all guns.
@freemo fair enough, the 1/400 number isn't directly comparable to the daily risk numbers you used for the original stats.
On the other hand, when considering lightning strikes, the risk assessment question one might ask is "is it worth the risk to go outside today?", whereas the question one might ask (and I have asked myself many times) w.r.t. gun violence in schools is "is it worth the risk to raise my kids in the US?". In my opinion it's worth the risk to go outside regularly despite the 1/15,300 (https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-odds) chance of being struck by lightning in a lifetime, but it's seriously debatable whether or not it's worth a 1/400 chance per kid (ack: not entirely independent variables) to have them exposed to school gun violence.
@freemo if this number from WaPo can be believed, then there have been 348,000 students who have experienced gun violence at school since 1999. Divide by the number of US school-aged people since then (I got 147 million from quick addition of census data), and you get about 1 in 400.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/school-shootings-database/
@freemo what about the chance of a child being traumatized by a school shooting? Surely that's far higher.
@georgetakei very good post, though I wonder if we should avoid using using the word groomer to describe assault rifle users and religious bigots passing those views onto their children (to be clear, I do think this is a bad thing). That seems to go against the argument earlier in the post that the word has a real meaning w.r.t. manipulation for sexual abuse.
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Calling something “woke” is just a way to avoid proposing real solutions or doing anything to actually fix problems.
Racism? It’s those “woke” schools and colleges!
Bank failures? “Woke” board policies!
Oppression of LGBTQs? It’s “woke” culture’s fault!
Stay woke, friends.
strawd
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It's a shame that masks have become so politicized. I think this opinion article by Zener Tufekci is a fair analysis of what we know about masks (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/opinion/masks-work-cochrane-study.html?unlocked_article_code=f2nUxTb5Kqzwlx_Kd_57awdni-4HgzpBNcK9WAdTUoend2wOI9elvXh9kwZZYvd0gXeTXDTafaarLjiVDU9nJzv3jNo54UKbm5zX5r8U7PpPASKI_ZXMUB9A0wU-PvgQUPjAQ1M_y_2OD7UEkwfiKbff4NkYE737ShSUQgGYRhAM5ZKEkd8yZq5WK2M2eG22DFLOcUTkcFPShZxnVVUchKf_SSEb7-yXtsO-ktQljMhIEjFl4XpVbG4MemjDpLYw_SGS3SBMSUaCD-X0p0ZhhioBOMQfEvHpZqDeMhyoimoLueEvNbeLf5uTX3QNvKgnp2xMPgtzsbE4b6EWq6OTgrck&smid=url-share
strawd
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Many on the right have openly embraced “Christian nationalism” as a goal, even though it is wholly anathema to our fundamental democratic values and cherished personal freedoms.
How have we stumbled our way toward the Gilead America of The Handmaid’s Tale? And how do we fight back against it? That’s today’s subject in The Big Picture. Visit this link to read my team's latest piece on the topic: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/christian-nationalism-threat-democracy-freedom
Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
strawd
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Make no mistake: History has already taught us in plain terms where this is headed if we do not collectively stop it in its tracks right now.
I am not an alarmist. I am historically literate, and we must all be in the face of this attack. https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/when-they-call-for-eradication-it?sd=pf
strawd
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🇳🇱
strawd
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On this one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, let us call out and condemn the apologists and cowards who would give Putin free reign to invade and destroy other free nations and to slaughter their citizens.
They are on our some of our “news” networks and even in the halls of Congress. They are a threat to liberty, freedom and democracy for all of us.
This war must be won on the home front, too. We must continue military aid until the war is won.
Never back down! Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦
Software developer, skeptic, geek
he/him
Joined Nov 2022
