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[Starver]

Something I nearly put in the Space Thread, except I think I've been overdoing putting little things in there, is that China (CNSA) and Russia (Roscosmos) are apparently looking to combine expertise towards an as-yet-undecided possible manned Moon base-and/or-orbiter project, probably as direct competition to the Artemis program. Bit of a coup for China (with SpaceX, etc, Russia is losing its main claim to not being a fading space-power, now not being the only West-accessible man-launcher operator for ISS transfers).

Not saying it's Space Race 2.0 (or 3.0, etc, depending on how you count) but I'd lay money on China being individually capable of getting at least an Apollo 9-equivalent up if they tried, even ahead of the first NASA/Musk/Bezos/Dynetics proving craft(s). If they thought there was advantage in doing so. Still a bit behind 2010: Odyssey Two (the Tsien, in the novel version), but maybe 2061 will line up as predicted!

Erm, anyway, yeah, China is a big unknown (with potential) in many fields. And I don't think they slacked off while being 'othered' by the prior US administration. Probably just encouraged them to quietly go it alone, and perhaps willing to develop (ex-)Soviet brotherhoodness with the sort-of-enemy's sort-of-enemy, despite the deeply fraternal sort-of-enmity they have also long had in that particular direction. But maybe I'm just rambling now. But concerns about the near-neighbour in the East that is over the western 'pond' are making me ponder these speculations a bit more than before.

(There's also the thing that I'm currently listening to an Alt-History story on the radio, weekly, 'Red Moon' - which has US and Russian moonbases and threats to world security. That might be slightly flavouring my thought experiments, while I'm waiting to find out if the tropes I think will be played out are indeed going to be played out. Roll on Saturday night! )


And, yes, it's clear that however much China did/remain doing to obscure their own culpability, on the viral issue, it's clear that what Trump knew he should do and what he did actually do about it mismatches in both extremes of dislocation, simultaneously! At the very least he was not fully honest with himself, but the integrity issue looks like it went way beyond self-delusion. Probably he got away with it, on criminal responsibility grounds. (Apart from being fired - he might well have gotten away without even that if it weren't for those pesky Covids...)

[martinuzz]

A vast majority of the Mexican parliament has approved of a new law that will completely legalize the recreational use, and home growing of cannabis. It is expected the law will be approved by the Senate as well.


I guess they got tired of the US cartels smuggling all that weed into their country 

[Madman198237]

Isn't that the sort of thing you, I dunno, negotiate? Tariffs, or something? Calling it a strong-arm move seems silly when it really only plays into republican ideologies of isolationism, and doesn't make us any more prepared to catch a Dongfeng missile.

In general, you want to have equal capabilities to your enemies. Hobbling yourself via treaty when your enemy isn't playing by the rules is potentially catastrophic. It absolutely makes sense to back out of these restrictions so that we could, if necessary, develop equivalent capabilities.

So long as they don't pull a Bismarck/Tirpitz and end up with something that breaks all the treaty limitations but is worse than your stuff anyway.

Something I nearly put in the Space Thread, except I think I've been overdoing putting little things in there

Away with you to the Space Thread, more activity there is good

[Telgin]

A vast majority of the Mexican parliament has approved of a new law that will completely legalize the recreational use, and home growing of cannabis. It is expected the law will be approved by the Senate as well.


I guess they got tired of the US cartels smuggling all that weed into their country 

I'm curious if it'll have any significant impact on organized crime there, but I got the impression that the drug cartels were centered around much less tame stuff than weed so probably not.

[lemon10]

Spending on cannabis, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine by Americans reached nearly $150 billion in 2016
...
Total spending on cannabis, from both illegal and state-licensed sources, increased by approximately 50 percent from 2006 to 2016, from $34 billion to $52 billion. The market for cannabis is roughly the size of the cocaine and methamphetamine markets combined, and the size of the retail heroin market is now closer to the size of the marijuana market than it is to the other drugs, according to the analysis.

Analysts estimate that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 to $49.4 billion annually.

I'm unsure what portion of the weed in America is from Mexico (probably less than it was since its now "legal" in large parts of America) but making it legal in Mexico should still cut out a substantial portion of their profits.

Now, it obviously won't be enough to actually ruin them or anything, but cutting off what might be ~a third or a fourth of their drug revenue should still have a noticeable impact.
That said "noticeable" doesn't mean that it will ruin or even impact them that much in the end since they still have all the other drugs and all the other illegal stuff they branched off into to keep them stable.

[MrRoboto75]

Let this be a lesson in diversifying your portfolio.

[Vector]

Hey! There's some good news -- they're going to work on ending Forever Wars.

[Egan_BW]

That is good. Bringing powers back from the executive to the legislative is a good thing.

[KittyTac]

My opinion on Biden: he's not very good in a vacuum but when the alternative is Trump you know who I'd support.

[KittyTac]

May I introduce aid for the socially disadvantaged to deal with bigotry?

Sure if it was just them who had problems.

Farmers in general are lowkey fucked so I'd say the bill doesn't cover enough.

I keep hearing that, and I've yet to meet a farmer who didn't have over a million dollars in assets, or who had to pay taxes (you aren't a person, you're a business. Everything you buy is a business loss). You can't buy stuff directly with assets, but it's a lot better than having no money or assets like most of us.

Corporate farmers yes. (Almost) every other one, you are wrong.

[MrRoboto75]

My opinion on Biden: he's not very good in a vacuum

Politicians in general don't perform very well when they cannot breathe.

[Starver]

...which reminds me of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Milligan

[Vector]

You know, given that the US has been at war for like ... the entire time I've been alive, I'm really, really happy about this.

This wasn't even on my wishlist. I'm really excited.

EDIT: Also, the 1.9 trillion is projected to cut rates of child poverty in half. This is some good stuff.

[wierd]

I am much more interested in the revisions to the tax code for poor single people without kids.

I make >25k, and have not had an actual tax RETURN for more than a decade now. If they actually fix that shit, instead of continuing the unlubed violation of my wallet every year, I would be a much happier misanthropist.

(But nope, from what I am reading, people my age are not eligible. Too old to be considered a college student, too young to be considered a senior citizen. Since you know, the amount you have to pay in bills gives two goddamn shits about your age.)

Misanthropy intensifies.

[Vector]

I mean, I agree. I also am making like 20K yearly right now.

But if they manage to kill the Trump tax "breaks" (tax raises for us) then that should help, too. It would even pay for the entire package.