Cross-posting from the heroin thread. Since the data comes from 2016, it’s entirely appropriate here.
[quote]
Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times.
The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.
Although the data is preliminary, the Times’s best estimate is that deaths rose 19 percent over the 52,404 recorded in 2015. And all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017.[/quote]
Alternatively: we all accept Iowa for the scienceforsaken shithole it clearly wants to be and you liberal motherfuckers all move here and shift the needle the .5% we need to guarantee a solid blue state for all eternity, and I make food weekly to celebrate.
California should really consider a program to move 500k of its citizens out to swing states to flip them- maybe pay Dems to move temporarily to counter-rig the elections.
The homeless problem is huge there, but truly, there are worse lives.
I remember working out there, and watching the news, and they were taking to some homeless guy on the beach living out of a van. They were asking why he wasn’t at a shelter, since Hawaii apparently has tons now.
The guy just said, ”why? I can live out here, surf, fish, do whatever I want all day… Why would I want to go live in some shelter and I have to follow the rules?"
And really, he had a point. The weather’s always pretty much perfect… Fishing is good. Pretty good amount of wildlife that’s edible like pigs and chickens.
I can imagine a lot worse places to live on the street.
I hear you. I’ve a known a few people who move to this area from Hawaii and then proceeded to tell me how surprised they were who could live in a house now. These people had been almost homeless… but they had jobs.
Now of course you might be referring to places like ND and SD. Remember back around what, 2010, 2011 when they reporting how the mid-west had jobs and people were driving their in desperation before they had jobs and a place to live and those cities/states were kind of reminding people you can’t just spend the night there in your car in the middle of winter and expect to live?
Not if they decide to put CA under Martial Law, or declare CA in rebellion and try to reconstruct the state. It’s one way to take 55 Electoral Votes from the Dems and a bunch of Congressional seats.
I wouldn’t put shenanigans like that past today’s Republicans.
A rather maddening Slate interview with Joan C. Williams on the topic of how Democrats need to do a better job of tiptoeing around the feelings of working-class whites. (Insert snowflake joke here.)
Snippet that set my teeth on edge:
Slate: I watched a lot of campaign speeches last year, and I can tell you the single biggest topic of conversation in Trump campaign rallies was Donald Trump. And if you tallied up the time that Hillary Clinton spent talking about jobs for the American people versus Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton spent way more time. And if you look at their websites Hillary Clinton has more plans, or had, for Americans without college degrees than Donald Trump does, and the more sensible plans, at least by my analysis and I think your analysis. Don’t “average people” have some responsibility to learn this.
JW: No I think that’s completely unrealistic.
Slate: I agree it’s unrealistic, but I am not sure whose fault that is.
JW: I am. I think the Democrats are—I’m damn sure they are at fault for that.
This willingness to completely absolve voters of any responsibility for being an informed electorate is astonishing to me. Humans don’t possess some innate, instinctual wisdom that makes democracy work.
Does “assuming the average human is incapable of rationally participating in a functional Democracy” count as absolving them of responsibility?
I mean, you can’t really be mad at your dog for shitting on the carpet. His capacity to understand why that’s bad and how bad it is is exceedingly limited. You can be angry that it happened and take steps to prevent it in the future, but actually being angry at him is sort of pointless.
