Look up the stats on defensive gun uses. Just Google it.

The vast majority (90+%) end with no shots fired- the criminal sees the gun and runs away.

Because it’s regularly over reported.

People call the police and claim they saw/heard a thing, then grabbed a gun. Police arrive to investigate and it is - predictably - nothing. Resident self-reports that they must have scared the ephemeral assailant of. Cops dutifully write it up without further investigation.

Gun-as-security-blanket is registered as successful defensive use.

Feels a bit like we’re getting the opposite.

They are so understaffed these days that they are no longer fast anymore.

The food itself is pre-prepared and re-heated on the spot. Go when there’s not a rush on and you can get your food in minutes. Go during rush hour and you’ll still be in and out much faster than at a sit-down establishment (that’s also inevitably understaffed).

They’ve got people addicted to 7,000 times the amount of recommended daily sugar, fat, and salt content.

I’ve heard this line and I think there’s an element of truth to it. Food really does taste differently if you’ve been eating the high salt/sugar junk for an extended period.

But you can get junk food anywhere. You don’t need McD’s to make it for you. Gas stations have soda fountains. Grocery stores have microwaved meals full of preservatives and sweeteners. You can just make yourself a hamburger at home, it doesn’t have to come from a store.

It just takes time, a certain degree of skill, and a kitchen with functional appliances that you’re going to need to clean up after you’re done. McD’s just goes in the trash afterwards. Far faster to buy a burger than cook one.

Historically, it was one of the cheaper items on the menu. In college (20 years ago) I could get a large fries for under $1. Back in the 80s/90s they were practically free. Like, loose-change free.

Also one of the tastier meal items given that they went so fast you could safely assume they’d be fresh, why the sandwich options could be sitting in the warmer for half an hour or longer depending on the speed of business.

I don’t get the point of fast food chains anymore.

It’s all in the name. You can get through a fast-food drive through in about 5-10 minutes. Dining in and cooking tends to take thirty min to an hour.

With 15€ i can go to an actual restaurant, why would I go to a fast food place?

Because you’re fighting traffic on your way home to feed your spouse and kids.

Crazy to see people smile benignly while US Presidents shake hands with Saudi Kings and Egyptian Dictators, only to discover their love for democracy when a socialist they don’t like secures a 7-pt election lead.

If the J6ers had all been Venezuelan, I wonder if liberals would have stood back and let the US Congress get lynched?

It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.

Liberals will go on and on about how any defense of the Venezuelan government marks you out as a “Tankie”, then clap like seals as US tanks and helicopters obliterate homes, massacre civilians, and snatch people up as political extortion.

These are the same tactics used time and again by ICE Agents within the US’s own borders. They’re the tactics used abroad, to quell dissidents in The Philippines and Haiti and Gaza and Yemen. These are the actions of a fascist government for the purposes of genocide of native peoples, seizure of lands, and generating capitalist profits.

Anyone who endorses it has picked a side. Just a shame they can’t have these decisions carved into their foreheads for all the world to remember.

“Hey Palpatine, whatcha building?”

“Nothin’”

“Is it another Death Star?”

“No.”

“Can I see it?”

“…”

“This is another Death Star, Palpatine”

“It’s going to bring order to the galaxy at last, I tell you!”

I suspect he saw the non-renewal as a threat he had to respond to

I’m sure folks in the US O&G industry are disgruntled. I doubt Trump can see past the next news cycle, and this wasn’t even headline news.

Venezuela happens to tick that box

Trump’s been wrangling with every nation on the designated US Enemies List since he stepped foot into office. Venezuela’s not selling light sweet crude oil. If anything, its a competitor with Canadian Balkan crude.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-prices

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-battery-cell-price

The good news is that prices are falling fast. Batteries are 30% cheaper and panels 20% cheaper than four years ago. As the old credit was 30% of installation cost capped at $2000, that’s practically a push relative to the installation costs when the credit was created. In many cases, I’m sure its cheaper today even without the credit.

Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation. It’s just the promise of violence that’s enacted and the police are basically an occupying army. You know what I mean?

Crazy that they’d have a tip off before the Congressional Gang of Eight, especially in light of Lucky Palmer’s assertion that Congress needed to be kept in the dark to prevent leaks.

Real “which side are you on, boys?” moment.

Trump is still a pedophile.

Jeffery Dahmer is a cannibal, but that’s sort of secondary to the large number of murders.

The backbone of the petrodollar is the deal with the Saudis where they agreed to exclusively trade oil in USD. That deal is no longer in place.

The non-renewal of the 50 year agreement hasn’t changed the Saudi wholesaling of their light sweet crude in USD. Nor has it discouraged the Saudis from accruing enormous volumes of US Treasury notes with those dollars. Nor purchasing US military equipment nor contracting with US energy companies for transport and refining nor gobbling up commodities in US agricultural and industrial markets.

This is the real reason the US wants to steal Venezuela’s oil now.

It’s not. The US is a net oil exporter. We don’t need Venezuela’s oil now any more than we needed it 20 years ago, when the Fraking boom began.

But Venezuela’s export markets help keep Cuba’s economy afloat and their power on. Cutting off the bilateral trade between Venezuela and Cuba helps further isolate Cuba. And that opens Cuba up to a similar encirclement and bombardment and eventual decapitation of national leadership.

If you look at the people running the Trump bureaucracy, Cuba is the real crown jewel of Carribbean foreign policy. It’s the prize everyone from Marco Rubio to Jeff Bezos has their eyes on and the reason why Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is crowded with guisanos looking to re-colonize the island.

None of this has to do with the petrodollar, which remains as strong as ever. The goal is to finally crack Cuba like the US cracked Chile, Argentina, and (for at least a little while under Bolsonaro) Brazil.

Okay, what I said before but totally unironically for everyone in this picture except Macy.

A bicyclist’s very existence is offensive. But I consider the .50 mounted on the back of the pickup a more sporting way to handle things. Alternatively, mini-gun mounted from a helicopter, and if anyone asks I’ll just say I was hunting wild hogs.

I’ve never set my house on fire, but I still feel better having a fire extinguisher flame thrower

The most likely person to shot you is yourself.

The second most likely person to shot you is a housemate.

The third most likely person to shot you is a loved one.

Victims of assault and abuse are overwhelmingly people closely related to the assailant.

So this does raise the question… do you feel safer living with your abusive partner if there’s a gun in the house?