A girl band needs to write that song, but not as an insult. As a song of obsession.

No. A government agency that contracts out work to a private company has a duty of oversight. They must make at least a minimal effort to ensure the contract is being executed in a lawful manner. They can't just hand out the work and turn a blind eye to any abuses of the law and only act when they are made painfully aware of violations of the law.

The Hugo is no longer a representative of the best of sci fi and fantasy. They are now excluding many others because their personal political views are different, completely ignoring the quality of the work. They are giving awards to authors for espousing the "right" politics for works that are far below the standards the award should represent. For example, Scalzi's "Red Shirts" got best novel. It's not a bad story, but it's not a great story, and Best Novel must be a great story.

When the conservative authors asked people to consider books on a list, representing conservative authors, they were accused of attempting to manipulate the vote. Not they didn't. They asked people to read the books and stories on the list and consider them. Manipulating the vote was when some higher ups in the organization publicly stated that straight white men should not be given awards, they should all go to women of color. At the height of this fiasco, they skipped giving out some awards entirely because the obvious winners didn't fit their political views.

Perhaps they've come to their senses since then, but I wouldn't know as I no longer pay attention to the award and a book with the "Hugo Winner" label on it is not the selling point it once was.

Getting perma-banned on Reddit is easy. Just post something that a moderator disagrees with. It doesn't have to violate any rules. There is no chance for review.

Israel handed over Gaza to the Palestinians in exchange for a promise of peace. Then the Palestinians used the land to launch even more attacks against Israeli civilians. They were remarkably restrained in response to those attacks. But now the gloves are off. And people like you will keep coming up with excuse after excuse as to justify Israeli women and children are being raped and murdered.

Agreed. Harris is a horrible person and if she ran for president her record in California will be front and center for everyone to see.

Basically, you are defending the murder of children and the rape of women because "they had it coming".

The Tri-valley is a good choice. Except the rent here has been growing steadily and is becoming unaffordable for many.

It wasn't their infrastructure. They stole that. The oil company paid for the rights to extract the oil and invested heavily in creating the necessary infrastructure. The Venezuelan government could have argued that the contract made by the previous government was not made in good faith and taken it to international court for arbitration. Instead, they stole everything and kicked out all the people who knew how to run and maintain things.

Venezuela nationalized (stole) the oil industry from private businesses and kicked out all the foreigners. They then drained all the money, leaving nothing for maintenance. Even if they had left money for repairs, it would not have mattered since they had kicked out most of the people who knew how to do the job. Oil infrastructure is not something you can just let run without constantly working to keep it running. As time went by, more and more of the equipment broke down, causing their overall output to drop at a steady pace.

For other types of businesses, they instituted price controls. The problem was, price cap on goods were below cost. So a small business had the choice of operating at a loss or not operating at all. Shops were seized by the government for hoarding because they refused to sell at a loss. This effectively destroyed what middle class remained.

But sure, blame the USA.

Who has a reason to cover for the lab leak? Only China since no one else has anything to gain from a coverup. For this to be possible would require that they have infiltrated our intelligence offices at the highest level, which is absurd. So either the claim is bullshit or our country is already controlled by the CCP. Which seems more likely?

That suggests the original charge was bogus. Probably a case of the cop demanding ID for no reason and the guy refusing because California is not a stop and identify state.

The arson and looting during BLM protests would like a word with you.

Good point. If it was federal property, that's an issue. Though I believe if that prohibition is ever seriously challenged, the law would be tossed. Not something I've ever been concerned with since I don't have a CCW, though I clearly need to avoid making a side trip to the post office on range day.

Knowing the San Francisco Chronicle and Police, they were probably standard ball ammo and standard size magazines, instead of reduced capacity magazines sold with newer guns. Standard capacity magazines are not illegal. Using the "expanded magazine" description is to make it sound scary. Also, having a gun in your car is not necessarily illegal. It has to be unloaded and locked up (in a case or other means).