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BTW, are you trying to say US oil usage has dropped? I looked that up and it’s not what’s happening.

US oil production is not US oil usage.

Explain. Do you think the oil disappears or doesn’t affect climate because it’s not burned in the US? Why wouldn’t I hold US policymakers accountable for oil being produced under their watch, even if it is exported?

As for dips, then there was the 2008 great recession and covid which changed everything for a few years each.

Look at the chart. The decline started in the mid-80’s, and reached the bottom in 2005. By about 2001 it was the lowest since 1950. Years before the 2008 crash. You are right that the drop during Trump’s last year coincides with the onset of COVID, but it rises again as early as the summer of 2020. And continues unabated into Biden’s presidency and last year.

That running on an environmental policy was a losing proposition.

Obama was already elected into his 2nd term when oil production started climbing quicker than ever before at the end of 2012. Campaign strategy was over by then.

Nothing I’m seeing in the data suggests that Dems were meaningfully impeding/capping oil production. You may say it’s because the environment is a losing political proposition (and you may be right). But in doing so you’re just assigning a reason for the trends and timing that show dual-party responsibility.

4 years? Climate scientists have been warning the world about climate change for about half a century, and urgently for a few decades. Bill Nye specifically has videos going back at least 13 years.

Don’t just blame the 2017-2021 Trump presidency either for the current high, if that is what you mean by your “reworking the energy grid/vehicles in 4 years” argument. US oil production was at its lowest since about 1950 under Bush Jr. then climbed again dramatically through Obama’s 2 terms. Then the Biden presidency started after a year of “low” production (that was actually higher than anything pre-2017) before climbing again steeply during the last 4 years. This is a problem of both parties, and the worst of it has happened in the last 13 years of which 9 were under a Dem president.

“I hope this medal makes up for 2024 being the year of highest oil production in US history. Which happened in defiance of all the climate science you’ve been trying to tell us about. You know, as part of the years of science education this award honors.”

Bullet vending machines? Just in case you find yourself running low on bullets while out and about in the city? “Damn it. They’re out of Snickers bars so I guess I’ll just settle for some 9mm.”

Fabulous.

8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and you can find episodes if you want on YouTube.

They’re such a good duo :)

Sean Locke and Miles Jupp putting a personal bet on the outcome of a round is one of the funniest moments in the whole series.

Part 1: All of history from corporations becoming a thing to present day.

Part 2: The results of heartless corporate policy for the foreseeable future.

For a second I thought “self-ruling” = driven by one of those sovereign citizen idiots. You know, the kind that think they don’t need license plates or to pay tickets because they are nations unto themselves. In which case it’s almost a ghost car in that it’s not guided by an intelligent life form. Then I saw the board.

I have yet to encounter an self-driving car (not yet legal in Canada) but it probably feels wild driving near one.

Conservatives want their women to be able to get abortions while also being able to tell everyone they oppose it. It’s a phenomenon you can look up called “the only moral abortion is my abortion”.

Policies should be passed at a governmental/institutional level to reduce inequality as it’s identified by data. No one should be at a societal disadvantage because of how they were born or choices that are their personal right to make.

That said, I think some problems to avoid are:

• On case-by-case scenarios, assuming that broad trends apply to every individual. I don’t like automatically assuming everyone of a certain demographic is a victim. Also, some people in disadvantaged groups will use very real discrimination to excuse bad decisions and behaviors. Everyone is fallible, and sometimes justice requires punishment even for these folks.

• Gatekeeping suffering. It’s hazardous to society and individual mental health to tell people of “advantaged” demographics that their suffering/problems aren’t valid because of who they are. I’m talking about “what do you have to complain about, you’re not X or Y”. We can acknowledge discrimination and work to reduce it without dismissing the concerns of other groups.

Lots of reasons. Left-leaning Canadian’s take on Kamala’s loss:

• Biden/Kamala have acted against the American majority for months now in Gaza. This isn’t a sabotage take, it’s as close to fact as can be determined of national attitude. Look at my post history before you accuse me of “both sides”. A lot of Dems and especially young people are very vocal about hating support of the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestinian Territory. Millions of people chose to stomach it, but I think other millions felt unrepresented and betrayed by protest suppression/bipartisan condemnation.

• I don’t want to insult anyone, but even moderately detailed political plans may not work in America. Trump’s campaign was run on vague promises and angry rhetoric that was emotionally engaging. Clearly people don’t know how much Trump’s policies like tariffs are going to hurt them personally, but like “America for Americans”. Kamala ran on a detailed platform that took effort to understand and clearly it failed to motivate enough voters.

• “Try to please everyone and you will please no one.” Instead of solidifying support and inspiring hope among the Dem base, Kamala’s campaign assumed their support due to fear of Trump and went after undecideds and Republicans. Republicans aren’t going to switch and many undecideds are that way due to apathy.

• No Dem primary meant people couldn’t choose the candidate they might actually want to support. They were given Biden then Harris without being asked for input.

• Related to that: Biden’s campaign soured voters, and Kamala wasn’t able to climb out of the hole left to her. His low approval rating didn’t help given Kamala felt like a younger version of more of the same.

• Misinformation and propaganda by foreign and domestic right-wingers kept a lot of people from switching sides.

• If you’re the owner of the home, know what bylaws there are regarding snow removal near your home. Where I live you can get a fine + snow removal costs if you aren’t reasonably prompt getting snow off the sidewalk.

• Snowy surfaces (sidewalks, driveways, roads) are often icy surfaces = slip and fall hazard. This is especially serious for older folks but it can hurt/injure at any age. This gets worse if it snows then melts then refreezes. Don’t run if you don’t have to. Sand/grit on these surfaces can help, and in my area you can get sand for free at certain town facilities.

• Frostbite on exposed skin is a genuine hazard. Look up the weather forecast when it’s cold and take time-to-frostbite warnings seriously.

What’s a can opener? Kind of NSFW - like not really, but if someone walks in on you watching you’ll have some explaining to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be the little spoon once in a while?

Get either a piercing weapon to exploit weak points or a bludgeoning weapon to transmit force through the plate, because she’s clearly here to do battle. Dinner can come AFTER I’ve defended my honor.

Reddit:

• It has a much larger user base and many heavily specialized boards that nevertheless stay reasonably active.
• It’s a collection of echo chambers. Dissent is usually stomped out by mass downvoting and heavy moderation/bans. It’s rare to find a board that allows arguments for a long period of time. Agree with the board’s users/mods or get silenced. Posted rules do not matter, and you can definitely be hateful in ways that violate posted rules so long as that type of hate is acceptable on that board.
• So many users mean that getting content to succeed is a crapshoot. Often posts become lost in the noise, especially on busy boards.
• I left about a year ago, but apparently there’s a lot of bot/AI slop on boards now.

Lemmy:

• Much smaller user base. Heavily specialized boards move slowly if they exist at all. It’s not unusual to see boards where it’s just one/a few people posting with days in between new content.
• More ability to have disagreements. Whether it’s because moderating a smaller # of users is easier, the mods are less authoritarian, or whatever you are more likely to be able to disagree. Don’t be blatantly racist, celebrating violence, clearly trolling, etc. and you’ll probably remain able to participate. I’m sure this isn’t universal on all boards, but it’s my experience on many boards.
• For all that I believe the above point, there are still “echo chamber” moments on Lemmy. Sometimes it seems people may be downvoted simply because they are already downvoted. It’s still way less egregious than on Reddit, and such is human nature I suppose.
• Fewer users means you are more likely to get some engagement on your post, at least in my experience. I never sorted my feed by new posts on Reddit because it was an avalanche of posts of questionable quality, so I only saw whatever content had already succeeded. On Lemmy I can look for new posts and see most if not all content on the boards I enjoy.