It’s suicides. Almost 60% of gun deaths are suicides.

Gun deaths reached their last peak in the US around 1975. At that time the rate between homicide and suicide was about 50/50. So it’s not like suicides were very low with guns, guns are probably the most quick and effective way to kill yourself and if you want to be dead, using a gun is the gold standard. Still, from 50% to 60% is a very significant change. It’s also important to note, there is more variability in gun homicide than there is in suicide (though there is still a little bit of a positive correlation), so in times of low violent crime the disparity grows.

First, no he did not. He released information relating to government officials engaging in misconduct. Hillary Clinton had been a government official for a long time, Trump had not. Of course youre more likely to get that kind of information on her and not him.

But even if he had, having a political allegiance is not a crime punishable by prison as far as I know.

Nope. I have fast internet and good displays and I still prefer 720p video. I just don’t see the benefit of multiplying the filesize by 4 to see marginally more detail. Even 4k, if I wanted to have a 4k display, I’ve seen people’s displays and after the initial disorientation and crispness, the appeal wears off. 720p is perfectly adequate.

Good god the methodology.

If you count abortions as deaths, which the state of Texas would, hence making it illegal, it’s impossible that they went up. But even without that…

If more infants are born, because less abortions are happening of course, some of those are going to die.

Neither of these are particularly noteworthy.

Did deaths as a percentage of births go up? If not, this isn’t news at all.

Yup, same. I haven’t pirated software in a decade or so. I’m not much of a gamer, and the software I do use is almost all FOSS.

Books, eh. I’ll buy an epub or PDF that I can download. I’m not “buying” something that can disappear from my library after license agreements change between corpos. I don’t want paper, too heavy and voluminous.

I will buy an artist’s music on bandcamp if available if it’s something that’s going to enrich my life for years to come.

Oh it’s a replica? Why do you have it in the first place?

When people feel ignored in a democratic country, they begin to feel like the democracy they live in is a sham or that democracy itself doesn’t work.

Votes like this aren’t necessarily about “we need a different direction” and more about desperation and/or anger. They want to show the elites of their country that they still have the power, they want to cost them something for treating the population like it’s there to be harvested from, they want to shake up the status quo at all cost.

They want to prove to themselves that their vote still matters.

Letting it get to this point is really bad governance. Once you get here, either they win, or they don’t. And of they don’t, most of the people who support them have their suspicions confirmed, they don’t live in a democracy, they voted and didn’t get what they want, again. This creates a division that is difficult to come back from.

How so? The parties they’re competing against are incumbents, and often, there are laws preventing them from campaigning. If anything they’re at a disadvantage policitally, and yet they’re winning. Obviously, what they’re offering is popular for some reason.

Well, they win because they get votes, what is it that they’re unhappy with that they’re drawn to the potential leadership of these parties? I’d start with that. These are democracies, so these parties can’t gain power unless they offer the citizenry of their countries something they want.

Yes, they have been turned into prisons. It sucks. I wish they weren’t in there. People seem to be conflating my statement, “it’s a dangerous environment”, with something I haven’t said, something like “these are criminals who deserve to be in there.” All I’m saying is they’re in there, it’s dangerous in an environment like that, some people will try to hurt others in a place like that and since they’re there you’ve gotta try to prevent that.

Not water. Water bottles. People in places like that make knives out of paper. A guy taught me how to start a fire using a pencil and toilet paper. You’d be surprised what some people can do with some simple materials in a place like that. I’d be willing to bet there’s some security that’s the direct result of something someone did.

The knives Sikh people usually carry cannot be drawn, FYI. They’re harmless.

We are talking about prisons, not schools, although I concede that the distinction is getting fuzzier by the day.

Water bottles for ablution and head scarves…

I doubt they let Jews have tefellin in jail either. Or Sikhs carry a ceremonial knife at all times. Not everything is a violation of religious rights, some things are dangerous to give people in situations like that. They make a good faith effort, they let them take time for prayer and eat at the right times during Ramadan, they don’t make them wear immodest clothing, they can wash up before prayers. I wish they weren’t in there, but it’s a potentially dangerous place, the ingenuity people have with the materials around them you wouldn’t believe.

“Islamically significant” lol who comes up with this stuff.