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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please.In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. |
Outrage fatigue really is a bizarre criticism. So Trump does something outrageous, people get outraged, and you say to stop lest we be too tired to be outraged when he does something even more outrageous? If he's that prone to doing unacceptable things why are you spending so much time apparently defending him against outraged liberals (and, presumably, fatiguing them more in the process)?
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On January 01 2017 04:03 Elroi wrote:Show nested quote +On January 01 2017 02:58 Dan HH wrote:On January 01 2017 01:40 kwizach wrote:On December 31 2016 22:04 LegalLord wrote:On December 31 2016 18:49 Silvanel wrote:
I wonder how Putin aims to exploit Trumps affection. What it means for Eastern European countries. How strong is nonInterventionism in congress? Will they object Trumps inaction should Putin decide to escalate in Ukraine? Trump might mess things up so bad that EE's might have to learn to get along with their more powerful neighbors without constantly calling for war against them. In which alternate reality are Eastern European countries calling for war against Russia, exactly? I'm pretty sure it's Russia that militarily occupied part of the territory of another sovereign state recently, and then outright annexed it in blatant disregard for international law. It's also Russia that has since then directed and supported armed groups to take over another region of the same country in order to destabilize and weaken it. Between this and saying Eastern European countries didn't want to join NATO but were forced into it, I'm seriously wondering where the hell he gets his information on EE from. Doesnt he read RT, or was that someone else?
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to find LegalLord writes for RT. He certainly carries their narratives. It's kind of made the thread unreadable for me.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
On January 01 2017 05:01 ChristianS wrote:
Outrage fatigue really is a bizarre criticism. So Trump does something outrageous, people get outraged, and you say to stop lest we be too tired to be outraged when he does something even more outrageous? If he's that prone to doing unacceptable things why are you spending so much time apparently defending him against outraged liberals (and, presumably, fatiguing them more in the process)?
Are you familiar with the concept in general as applied to Bush? The problem is that throwing any old shit out there makes it hard for people to care about what is "really important" in a sea of some fair, some stupid outrages.
On January 01 2017 04:03 Elroi wrote:Show nested quote +On January 01 2017 02:58 Dan HH wrote:On January 01 2017 01:40 kwizach wrote:On December 31 2016 22:04 LegalLord wrote:On December 31 2016 18:49 Silvanel wrote:
I wonder how Putin aims to exploit Trumps affection. What it means for Eastern European countries. How strong is nonInterventionism in congress? Will they object Trumps inaction should Putin decide to escalate in Ukraine? Trump might mess things up so bad that EE's might have to learn to get along with their more powerful neighbors without constantly calling for war against them. In which alternate reality are Eastern European countries calling for war against Russia, exactly? I'm pretty sure it's Russia that militarily occupied part of the territory of another sovereign state recently, and then outright annexed it in blatant disregard for international law. It's also Russia that has since then directed and supported armed groups to take over another region of the same country in order to destabilize and weaken it. Between this and saying Eastern European countries didn't want to join NATO but were forced into it, I'm seriously wondering where the hell he gets his information on EE from. Doesnt he read RT
Nope.
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Nope indeed.
On December 15 2016 08:49 LegalLord wrote:
RT is actually reporting pretty well on Syria.
On December 30 2016 14:07 LegalLord wrote:
Assange's RT show was hilarious. Where else are you going to get an interview with the leader of Hezbollah?
On November 29 2016 03:06 LegalLord wrote:
The funny thing is, despite the fact that they are obvious propaganda networks, RT and Sputnik are among the first real efforts of the Russian government to do some genuine cultural outreach. Without them, I imagine that the depth of people's understanding about Russia is "that communist country on the other side of the globe." My anecdotal experience corroborates that view of the perception of Russia in the US.
"Read RT but take it with a grain of salt" is so much more productive than "let me explain something to you that you have no means to find out for yourself." It really is.
On October 30 2016 03:21 LegalLord wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2016 03:15 Plansix wrote:On October 30 2016 02:29 Kickstart wrote:On October 30 2016 02:06 xM(Z wrote:
i believed(before it was meta) and still believe that Clinton will start ww3:
personal reasons:
-she is a woman, she wants to prove that women (can and will) make America great again and what better way to illustrate that than beating men at their own game: war.
-she is a woman, a cheated woman nonetheless, while she was the first lady; that leaves scars => a need to prove herself, to prove she is better than <...>.
-she is the product of her chosen environment, she can no longer relate to her subjects/them regular folk so she hates them with passion.
other reasons:
-during Obama's term in meetings on security/Middle East issues, Clinton was the warmonger, time and time again pushing for military intervention in Middle East.
-she is the establishment and it, wants the Middle East since '49.
if Russia loses Middle East it is done for. Reminds me of when I was discussing the election with a friend from Ukraine (the Russians and Ukrainians I know all like Trump). The only thing he could come up with against Hillary was 'but she is a woman'. What is it with you eastern euros and your woman issues? There has been a Russian reporter writing into the NPR politics team saying that all the state media is pro Trump and depicts Hillary as the spawn of the devil. I haven't seen enough to think that that is really the case. The state media is more pro-Trump than pro-Hillary, and tends to whitewash some of his more stupid stuff (they mention it but don't go after it like they do on this half of the world), but it's mostly a matter of being more friendly towards someone who calls for better relations with Russia over someone who is openly aggressive towards Russia. The more I've read, the less I see that "blatant bias." Even on Russian RT and the like.
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On January 01 2017 03:49 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Show nested quote +This year’s election may have been dominated by Donald Trump, but it was also about marijuana. California, Massachusetts and Nevada made recreational use legal as a bunch of other states moved to legalize medical use. The victories weren’t all about getting high. The promise of marijuana is money – money for state taxes and for the bushels of small businesses that are being created in legal weed’s wake. Next year will be a big test for those businesses and, according to some, those promises are already going up in smoke.
Marijuana retail sales, both medical and recreational, could reach $4.3bn this year, according to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, an annual survey of cannabis-related ventures conducted by Marijuana Business Daily. Access to a multibillion-dollar industry that could create new jobs is a prospect that appeals to voters otherwise uninterested in pot, but some of the aspiring entrepreneurs chasing that dream warn that weed is not an easy business.
When he was growing up Kevin’s parents – like many others – were not impressed by his interest in marijuana. “They were not cool with that shit at all, at least not when I was a kid,” says Kevin. Now in his 30s, Kevin has been smoking pot since high school and even worked for a weed delivery service in New York City in his 20s. (Due to the prohibition of recreational cannabis in New York the names of Kevin and his girlfriend have been changed.) His parents’ disapproval only added to Kevin’s astonishment when, in September 2015, his father approached him with a question: what did he think of opening a pot dispensary?
Kevin’s mother and father had heard that legalization in their home state of Florida was only a matter of time, and they thought that maybe with some seed money, Kevin would be able to start a dispensary there. His father, a veterinarian who does his own accounting, even offered to help Kevin with the bookkeeping.
Thus began Kevin and his girlfriend Elizabeth’s effort to open their own dispensary. It was an endeavour that they ultimately abandoned, mired as they were on all sides by seemingly insurmountable challenges – from securing a retail space, to meeting their capital needs completely in cash, to coping with the uncertainty of investing so much in a business that they could lose through the stroke of a legislator’s pen. Their experience is illustrative of the current business climate around legal cannabis, where regulation is keeping some small business owners from a multibillion-dollar market.
Kevin and Elizabeth’s hopes for their business were modest. A “very chic, minimal, cool dispensary with body products, edibles and lifestyle goods” is how Elizabeth describes their ideal operation, which she would have helped finance along with Kevin’s parents. “My ideal business model was just to be a small business owner, have a small shop and kind of play it by ear for the first year,” says Kevin. “Try to at least break even, make some profit, see how it goes.”
The first problem Kevin and Elizabeth encountered was finding a suitable storefront. Rather than anticipate legalization in Florida (where medical marijuana only just passed), the couple looked to Oregon, Elizabeth’s home state. Oregon was, at the time, still four months away from accepting its first recreational retail application, and Elizabeth’s father could help the New York-based couple meet Oregon’s in-state residency restriction for applicants. (The residency requirement has since been eliminated.)
Despite these advantages, securing a location proved nearly impossible. The couple considered renting storefronts in Portland, an hour’s drive south in Silverton and, finally, two hours north-west of Portland in Astoria. Portland was saturated with existing medical marijuana dispensaries and requiring new dispensaries be at least 1,000 feet from each other and schools. Landlords in Silverton made Kevin feel as if he was “the 500th dude to call” and either rejected his proposal outright or failed to return his calls. The couple were able to find one location for sale in the neighboring town of Warrenton but they didn’t like the location and there was another snag: the local government hadn’t yet decided whether or not it would opt out of legalization, which is possible under Oregon law.
Like any other small business, the couple’s venture was also limited by their available funding – but unlike other businesses, Kevin and Elizabeth weren’t able to turn to traditional sources of additional financing. Due to the federal prohibition of marijuana, dispensaries are unable to apply for government-backed small business loans; owners must instead provide all of the necessary capital themselves in cash, either from their own savings or from family, friends and other private investors.
According to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, the national average startup cost of a dispensary is $325,000 and 72% of new pot businesses are backed primarily by their founders’ savings and debt. With only $100,000 from Kevin’s parents and Elizabeth’s retirement savings, the couple could have yet purchased the Warrenton property, paid $5,000 for state licensing, covered their lawyer’s fees and stocked their wares, but if anything went wrong, they would have nowhere to turn.
And many things can go wrong in the cannabis business as Tariq Alazraie, owner of the Bay Area Safe Alternatives (BASA) dispensary, can attest. “We’re kind of in purgatory,” Alazraie says of dispensaries. “Law enforcement doesn’t like us, and we’re attractive to the criminal element.” Since its founding in 2003, BASA has been threatened multiple times by the DEA, evicted 10 times and robbed a few times, as well as having its business accounts shut down thrice. All of these hardships are, in some way or another, connected to government regulations. Inspired by the federal prohibition of marijuana, the DEA not only threatens to raid dispensaries but also threatens landlords with forfeiture of their property unless they evict dispensary tenants. Federal prohibition also prevents dispensaries from having business bank accounts, meaning all transactions must be conducted in cash, which incentivizes criminals while leaving business owners with little sympathy from law enforcement. Source
this cannabis story is all over the place. i find it hard to be sympathetic to all the poor wannabe small business owners who can't find a place to open up shop because all the prime areas are already "oversaturated" with dispensaries. it seems a bit weird to make a story about how hard it is to open up shop when its a billion dollar booming business with places like portland "oversaturated". the real problem seems to be that every disaffected stoner out there wants to open a pot shop and it's not being legalized fast enough.
most small businesses go under anyway. kevin probably doesn't even realize how lucky he is that he couldn't throw his capital away.
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On January 01 2017 06:05 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On January 01 2017 03:49 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:This year’s election may have been dominated by Donald Trump, but it was also about marijuana. California, Massachusetts and Nevada made recreational use legal as a bunch of other states moved to legalize medical use. The victories weren’t all about getting high. The promise of marijuana is money – money for state taxes and for the bushels of small businesses that are being created in legal weed’s wake. Next year will be a big test for those businesses and, according to some, those promises are already going up in smoke.
Marijuana retail sales, both medical and recreational, could reach $4.3bn this year, according to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, an annual survey of cannabis-related ventures conducted by Marijuana Business Daily. Access to a multibillion-dollar industry that could create new jobs is a prospect that appeals to voters otherwise uninterested in pot, but some of the aspiring entrepreneurs chasing that dream warn that weed is not an easy business.
When he was growing up Kevin’s parents – like many others – were not impressed by his interest in marijuana. “They were not cool with that shit at all, at least not when I was a kid,” says Kevin. Now in his 30s, Kevin has been smoking pot since high school and even worked for a weed delivery service in New York City in his 20s. (Due to the prohibition of recreational cannabis in New York the names of Kevin and his girlfriend have been changed.) His parents’ disapproval only added to Kevin’s astonishment when, in September 2015, his father approached him with a question: what did he think of opening a pot dispensary?
Kevin’s mother and father had heard that legalization in their home state of Florida was only a matter of time, and they thought that maybe with some seed money, Kevin would be able to start a dispensary there. His father, a veterinarian who does his own accounting, even offered to help Kevin with the bookkeeping.
Thus began Kevin and his girlfriend Elizabeth’s effort to open their own dispensary. It was an endeavour that they ultimately abandoned, mired as they were on all sides by seemingly insurmountable challenges – from securing a retail space, to meeting their capital needs completely in cash, to coping with the uncertainty of investing so much in a business that they could lose through the stroke of a legislator’s pen. Their experience is illustrative of the current business climate around legal cannabis, where regulation is keeping some small business owners from a multibillion-dollar market.
Kevin and Elizabeth’s hopes for their business were modest. A “very chic, minimal, cool dispensary with body products, edibles and lifestyle goods” is how Elizabeth describes their ideal operation, which she would have helped finance along with Kevin’s parents. “My ideal business model was just to be a small business owner, have a small shop and kind of play it by ear for the first year,” says Kevin. “Try to at least break even, make some profit, see how it goes.”
The first problem Kevin and Elizabeth encountered was finding a suitable storefront. Rather than anticipate legalization in Florida (where medical marijuana only just passed), the couple looked to Oregon, Elizabeth’s home state. Oregon was, at the time, still four months away from accepting its first recreational retail application, and Elizabeth’s father could help the New York-based couple meet Oregon’s in-state residency restriction for applicants. (The residency requirement has since been eliminated.)
Despite these advantages, securing a location proved nearly impossible. The couple considered renting storefronts in Portland, an hour’s drive south in Silverton and, finally, two hours north-west of Portland in Astoria. Portland was saturated with existing medical marijuana dispensaries and requiring new dispensaries be at least 1,000 feet from each other and schools. Landlords in Silverton made Kevin feel as if he was “the 500th dude to call” and either rejected his proposal outright or failed to return his calls. The couple were able to find one location for sale in the neighboring town of Warrenton but they didn’t like the location and there was another snag: the local government hadn’t yet decided whether or not it would opt out of legalization, which is possible under Oregon law.
Like any other small business, the couple’s venture was also limited by their available funding – but unlike other businesses, Kevin and Elizabeth weren’t able to turn to traditional sources of additional financing. Due to the federal prohibition of marijuana, dispensaries are unable to apply for government-backed small business loans; owners must instead provide all of the necessary capital themselves in cash, either from their own savings or from family, friends and other private investors.
According to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, the national average startup cost of a dispensary is $325,000 and 72% of new pot businesses are backed primarily by their founders’ savings and debt. With only $100,000 from Kevin’s parents and Elizabeth’s retirement savings, the couple could have yet purchased the Warrenton property, paid $5,000 for state licensing, covered their lawyer’s fees and stocked their wares, but if anything went wrong, they would have nowhere to turn.
And many things can go wrong in the cannabis business as Tariq Alazraie, owner of the Bay Area Safe Alternatives (BASA) dispensary, can attest. “We’re kind of in purgatory,” Alazraie says of dispensaries. “Law enforcement doesn’t like us, and we’re attractive to the criminal element.” Since its founding in 2003, BASA has been threatened multiple times by the DEA, evicted 10 times and robbed a few times, as well as having its business accounts shut down thrice. All of these hardships are, in some way or another, connected to government regulations. Inspired by the federal prohibition of marijuana, the DEA not only threatens to raid dispensaries but also threatens landlords with forfeiture of their property unless they evict dispensary tenants. Federal prohibition also prevents dispensaries from having business bank accounts, meaning all transactions must be conducted in cash, which incentivizes criminals while leaving business owners with little sympathy from law enforcement. Source this cannabis story is all over the place. i find it hard to be sympathetic to all the poor wannabe small business owners who can't find a place to open up shop because all the prime areas are already "oversaturated" with dispensaries. it seems a bit weird to make a story about how hard it is to open up shop when its a billion dollar booming business with places like portland "oversaturated". the real problem seems to be that every disaffected stoner out there wants to open a pot shop and it's not being legalized fast enough. most small businesses go under anyway. kevin probably doesn't even realize how lucky he is that he couldn't throw his capital away.
Given how many stupid stoners with dispensary pipe dreams I personally know, I largely agree. However, in many states, the marijuana statutes were written by and designed to benefit a select few monied interests, Ohio's recent legalization efforts being a good example. Once Trump signals his administration's approach to marijuana, I expect things will become a lot less uncertain.
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On January 01 2017 06:08 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On January 01 2017 06:05 IgnE wrote:On January 01 2017 03:49 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:This year’s election may have been dominated by Donald Trump, but it was also about marijuana. California, Massachusetts and Nevada made recreational use legal as a bunch of other states moved to legalize medical use. The victories weren’t all about getting high. The promise of marijuana is money – money for state taxes and for the bushels of small businesses that are being created in legal weed’s wake. Next year will be a big test for those businesses and, according to some, those promises are already going up in smoke.
Marijuana retail sales, both medical and recreational, could reach $4.3bn this year, according to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, an annual survey of cannabis-related ventures conducted by Marijuana Business Daily. Access to a multibillion-dollar industry that could create new jobs is a prospect that appeals to voters otherwise uninterested in pot, but some of the aspiring entrepreneurs chasing that dream warn that weed is not an easy business.
When he was growing up Kevin’s parents – like many others – were not impressed by his interest in marijuana. “They were not cool with that shit at all, at least not when I was a kid,” says Kevin. Now in his 30s, Kevin has been smoking pot since high school and even worked for a weed delivery service in New York City in his 20s. (Due to the prohibition of recreational cannabis in New York the names of Kevin and his girlfriend have been changed.) His parents’ disapproval only added to Kevin’s astonishment when, in September 2015, his father approached him with a question: what did he think of opening a pot dispensary?
Kevin’s mother and father had heard that legalization in their home state of Florida was only a matter of time, and they thought that maybe with some seed money, Kevin would be able to start a dispensary there. His father, a veterinarian who does his own accounting, even offered to help Kevin with the bookkeeping.
Thus began Kevin and his girlfriend Elizabeth’s effort to open their own dispensary. It was an endeavour that they ultimately abandoned, mired as they were on all sides by seemingly insurmountable challenges – from securing a retail space, to meeting their capital needs completely in cash, to coping with the uncertainty of investing so much in a business that they could lose through the stroke of a legislator’s pen. Their experience is illustrative of the current business climate around legal cannabis, where regulation is keeping some small business owners from a multibillion-dollar market.
Kevin and Elizabeth’s hopes for their business were modest. A “very chic, minimal, cool dispensary with body products, edibles and lifestyle goods” is how Elizabeth describes their ideal operation, which she would have helped finance along with Kevin’s parents. “My ideal business model was just to be a small business owner, have a small shop and kind of play it by ear for the first year,” says Kevin. “Try to at least break even, make some profit, see how it goes.”
The first problem Kevin and Elizabeth encountered was finding a suitable storefront. Rather than anticipate legalization in Florida (where medical marijuana only just passed), the couple looked to Oregon, Elizabeth’s home state. Oregon was, at the time, still four months away from accepting its first recreational retail application, and Elizabeth’s father could help the New York-based couple meet Oregon’s in-state residency restriction for applicants. (The residency requirement has since been eliminated.)
Despite these advantages, securing a location proved nearly impossible. The couple considered renting storefronts in Portland, an hour’s drive south in Silverton and, finally, two hours north-west of Portland in Astoria. Portland was saturated with existing medical marijuana dispensaries and requiring new dispensaries be at least 1,000 feet from each other and schools. Landlords in Silverton made Kevin feel as if he was “the 500th dude to call” and either rejected his proposal outright or failed to return his calls. The couple were able to find one location for sale in the neighboring town of Warrenton but they didn’t like the location and there was another snag: the local government hadn’t yet decided whether or not it would opt out of legalization, which is possible under Oregon law.
Like any other small business, the couple’s venture was also limited by their available funding – but unlike other businesses, Kevin and Elizabeth weren’t able to turn to traditional sources of additional financing. Due to the federal prohibition of marijuana, dispensaries are unable to apply for government-backed small business loans; owners must instead provide all of the necessary capital themselves in cash, either from their own savings or from family, friends and other private investors.
According to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, the national average startup cost of a dispensary is $325,000 and 72% of new pot businesses are backed primarily by their founders’ savings and debt. With only $100,000 from Kevin’s parents and Elizabeth’s retirement savings, the couple could have yet purchased the Warrenton property, paid $5,000 for state licensing, covered their lawyer’s fees and stocked their wares, but if anything went wrong, they would have nowhere to turn.
And many things can go wrong in the cannabis business as Tariq Alazraie, owner of the Bay Area Safe Alternatives (BASA) dispensary, can attest. “We’re kind of in purgatory,” Alazraie says of dispensaries. “Law enforcement doesn’t like us, and we’re attractive to the criminal element.” Since its founding in 2003, BASA has been threatened multiple times by the DEA, evicted 10 times and robbed a few times, as well as having its business accounts shut down thrice. All of these hardships are, in some way or another, connected to government regulations. Inspired by the federal prohibition of marijuana, the DEA not only threatens to raid dispensaries but also threatens landlords with forfeiture of their property unless they evict dispensary tenants. Federal prohibition also prevents dispensaries from having business bank accounts, meaning all transactions must be conducted in cash, which incentivizes criminals while leaving business owners with little sympathy from law enforcement. Source this cannabis story is all over the place. i find it hard to be sympathetic to all the poor wannabe small business owners who can't find a place to open up shop because all the prime areas are already "oversaturated" with dispensaries. it seems a bit weird to make a story about how hard it is to open up shop when its a billion dollar booming business with places like portland "oversaturated". the real problem seems to be that every disaffected stoner out there wants to open a pot shop and it's not being legalized fast enough. most small businesses go under anyway. kevin probably doesn't even realize how lucky he is that he couldn't throw his capital away. Given how many stupid stoners with dispensary pipe dreams I personally know, I largely agree. However, in many states, the marijuana statutes were written by and designed to benefit a select few monied interests, Ohio's recent legalization efforts being a good example. Once Trump signals his administration's approach to marijuana, I expect things will become a lot less uncertain.
I don't doubt that. I was mostly commenting within the bounds of the article itself.
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Anyone who knows how votes are tallied here in the US would know that vote tampering is practically impossible; the system is just too decentralized and spread out. I don't think anyone on these boards made that claim, though I could be mistaken.
Igne: word, the article is indeed rather unfocused.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
The subtext behind the entire "Russia" matter, in context, is a long-winded attempt to discredit Trump under the guise of caring about "foreign interference in democratic elections." The conversation for leaks tends to go like this:
"But the documents!"
"But Russia!"
"But the documents!"
"But Russia!"
Ad infinitum, with the "tampering" being just an added element for "good measure."
In any case, Trump won the electoral vote, and at this point his win is quite official. Just 20 days until it comes into effect.
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Trump is irrelevant. He would have won the electoral vote even without Putin's help.
Fact remains Putin did try to hack the vote, which could and maybe should be considered as an act of war.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
On January 01 2017 07:54 Euphorbus wrote:
Trump is irrelevant. He would have won the electoral vote even without Putin's help.
Fact remains Putin did try to hack the vote, which could and maybe should be considered as an act of war.
Fair enough, as long as we keep it fair and do the same for US hacking - such as that of Iran centrifuges.
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Sanya12364 Posts
I still fail to see what is a convincing attribution to Russian agents for the phishing attack, and phishing is well known social engineering type attack against security-unaware users.
Looking at what the whole csv/stix file and not seeing it either.
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On January 01 2017 08:31 TanGeng wrote:
I still fail to see what is a convincing attribution to Russian agents for the phishing attack, and phishing is well known social engineering type attack against security-unaware users.
Looking at what the whole csv/stix file and not seeing it either.
CIA and FBI didn't show us their evidence yet. But the US/white house wouldn't come out and claim Russia if evidence didn't force them to. If the evidence was less clear, it would have been possible to ignore it and carry on. That would be easier for both sides. They couldn't. Therefore, it is clear to me it was almost certainly Russia, even though I haven't seen the evidence yet.
The theory that whoever actually did it was able to convincingly frame Russia when Russia is in fact innocent, I find that inconceivable.
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The sane people are not saying that Russia hacked the elections. They are saying that Russia hacked the DNC and used wikileaks to influence the narrative.
Something many believe is not acceptable behaviour.
Dumb/Insane people will believe anything anyway.
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Estonia4504 Posts
On January 01 2017 08:31 TanGeng wrote:
I still fail to see what is a convincing attribution to Russian agents for the phishing attack, and phishing is well known social engineering type attack against security-unaware users.
Looking at what the whole csv/stix file and not seeing it either.
I do not know how convincing you find this, but here's an article that convinced me.
https://news.vice.com/story/russia-dnc-hack-vladimir-putin
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
On January 01 2017 08:31 TanGeng wrote:
I still fail to see what is a convincing attribution to Russian agents for the phishing attack, and phishing is well known social engineering type attack against security-unaware users.
Looking at what the whole csv/stix file and not seeing it either.
The DNC had some pretty advanced malware in its servers that are associated with groups thought to be associated with Russian intelligence. The Podesta hack was little more than a phish. I had a writeup on this upthread.
Of course, that's still not proof of leaking. If there were two successful independent hacks, why not three?
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It doesn't matter how 'easy' it was. It was also 'easy' for Russia to shoot down MH17.
User was warned for this post
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On January 01 2017 09:08 Gorsameth wrote:The sane people are not saying that Russia hacked the elections. They are saying that Russia hacked the DNC and used wikileaks to influence the narrative. Something many believe is not acceptable behaviour. Dumb/Insane people will believe anything anyway.
So that makes approximately half of Hillary's supporters dumb/insane.
On January 01 2017 06:08 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On January 01 2017 06:05 IgnE wrote:On January 01 2017 03:49 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:This year’s election may have been dominated by Donald Trump, but it was also about marijuana. California, Massachusetts and Nevada made recreational use legal as a bunch of other states moved to legalize medical use. The victories weren’t all about getting high. The promise of marijuana is money – money for state taxes and for the bushels of small businesses that are being created in legal weed’s wake. Next year will be a big test for those businesses and, according to some, those promises are already going up in smoke.
Marijuana retail sales, both medical and recreational, could reach $4.3bn this year, according to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, an annual survey of cannabis-related ventures conducted by Marijuana Business Daily. Access to a multibillion-dollar industry that could create new jobs is a prospect that appeals to voters otherwise uninterested in pot, but some of the aspiring entrepreneurs chasing that dream warn that weed is not an easy business.
When he was growing up Kevin’s parents – like many others – were not impressed by his interest in marijuana. “They were not cool with that shit at all, at least not when I was a kid,” says Kevin. Now in his 30s, Kevin has been smoking pot since high school and even worked for a weed delivery service in New York City in his 20s. (Due to the prohibition of recreational cannabis in New York the names of Kevin and his girlfriend have been changed.) His parents’ disapproval only added to Kevin’s astonishment when, in September 2015, his father approached him with a question: what did he think of opening a pot dispensary?
Kevin’s mother and father had heard that legalization in their home state of Florida was only a matter of time, and they thought that maybe with some seed money, Kevin would be able to start a dispensary there. His father, a veterinarian who does his own accounting, even offered to help Kevin with the bookkeeping.
Thus began Kevin and his girlfriend Elizabeth’s effort to open their own dispensary. It was an endeavour that they ultimately abandoned, mired as they were on all sides by seemingly insurmountable challenges – from securing a retail space, to meeting their capital needs completely in cash, to coping with the uncertainty of investing so much in a business that they could lose through the stroke of a legislator’s pen. Their experience is illustrative of the current business climate around legal cannabis, where regulation is keeping some small business owners from a multibillion-dollar market.
Kevin and Elizabeth’s hopes for their business were modest. A “very chic, minimal, cool dispensary with body products, edibles and lifestyle goods” is how Elizabeth describes their ideal operation, which she would have helped finance along with Kevin’s parents. “My ideal business model was just to be a small business owner, have a small shop and kind of play it by ear for the first year,” says Kevin. “Try to at least break even, make some profit, see how it goes.”
The first problem Kevin and Elizabeth encountered was finding a suitable storefront. Rather than anticipate legalization in Florida (where medical marijuana only just passed), the couple looked to Oregon, Elizabeth’s home state. Oregon was, at the time, still four months away from accepting its first recreational retail application, and Elizabeth’s father could help the New York-based couple meet Oregon’s in-state residency restriction for applicants. (The residency requirement has since been eliminated.)
Despite these advantages, securing a location proved nearly impossible. The couple considered renting storefronts in Portland, an hour’s drive south in Silverton and, finally, two hours north-west of Portland in Astoria. Portland was saturated with existing medical marijuana dispensaries and requiring new dispensaries be at least 1,000 feet from each other and schools. Landlords in Silverton made Kevin feel as if he was “the 500th dude to call” and either rejected his proposal outright or failed to return his calls. The couple were able to find one location for sale in the neighboring town of Warrenton but they didn’t like the location and there was another snag: the local government hadn’t yet decided whether or not it would opt out of legalization, which is possible under Oregon law.
Like any other small business, the couple’s venture was also limited by their available funding – but unlike other businesses, Kevin and Elizabeth weren’t able to turn to traditional sources of additional financing. Due to the federal prohibition of marijuana, dispensaries are unable to apply for government-backed small business loans; owners must instead provide all of the necessary capital themselves in cash, either from their own savings or from family, friends and other private investors.
According to the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook, the national average startup cost of a dispensary is $325,000 and 72% of new pot businesses are backed primarily by their founders’ savings and debt. With only $100,000 from Kevin’s parents and Elizabeth’s retirement savings, the couple could have yet purchased the Warrenton property, paid $5,000 for state licensing, covered their lawyer’s fees and stocked their wares, but if anything went wrong, they would have nowhere to turn.
And many things can go wrong in the cannabis business as Tariq Alazraie, owner of the Bay Area Safe Alternatives (BASA) dispensary, can attest. “We’re kind of in purgatory,” Alazraie says of dispensaries. “Law enforcement doesn’t like us, and we’re attractive to the criminal element.” Since its founding in 2003, BASA has been threatened multiple times by the DEA, evicted 10 times and robbed a few times, as well as having its business accounts shut down thrice. All of these hardships are, in some way or another, connected to government regulations. Inspired by the federal prohibition of marijuana, the DEA not only threatens to raid dispensaries but also threatens landlords with forfeiture of their property unless they evict dispensary tenants. Federal prohibition also prevents dispensaries from having business bank accounts, meaning all transactions must be conducted in cash, which incentivizes criminals while leaving business owners with little sympathy from law enforcement. Source this cannabis story is all over the place. i find it hard to be sympathetic to all the poor wannabe small business owners who can't find a place to open up shop because all the prime areas are already "oversaturated" with dispensaries. it seems a bit weird to make a story about how hard it is to open up shop when its a billion dollar booming business with places like portland "oversaturated". the real problem seems to be that every disaffected stoner out there wants to open a pot shop and it's not being legalized fast enough. most small businesses go under anyway. kevin probably doesn't even realize how lucky he is that he couldn't throw his capital away. Given how many stupid stoners with dispensary pipe dreams I personally know, I largely agree. However, in many states, the marijuana statutes were written by and designed to benefit a select few monied interests, Ohio's recent legalization efforts being a good example. Once Trump signals his administration's approach to marijuana, I expect things will become a lot less uncertain.
He already did, he nominated Jeff Sessions (total holier than thou moron when it comes to cannabis) for AG
Cannabis is a great place to try a new way of restricting the sizes of business. Cannabis is cheaper, better, and safer now than it was 20 years ago (one of very few commodities that is that way). The problems of corporatization of cannabis far outweigh any potential benefits. All corporatizing cannabis would do is shift the wealth from the workers to the financiers.
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United Kingdom13775 Posts
We all celebrate at different times, but Happy New Years! May 2017 bring even more glory than 2016 has!
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EPT
