USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

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The Artificial Kid: Feb 22, 2002; Plibble

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

No, medically cleared doesn't mean it is definitely a psychological issue. It just means that he is safe to return to a normal schedule and activities. When you have a heart attack, you have to be medically cleared to do strenuous physical activity. It doesn't mean your heart attack was psychosomatic.

Probably the best way to summarise �medically cleared for [activity]� would be �the doctor doesn�t think [activity] will harm the patient, and the doctor doesn�t think that the patient�s medical condition will make them a danger to themselves or others while doing [activity]�

# ? Sep 1, 2023 05:10

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# ? May 25, 2024 06:29

Killer robot: Sep 6, 2010; I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it!; Pillbug

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Indeed, and it seems like it's another of those things where Biden's from such an older generation of Dems that hadn't been completely reprogrammed by Reagan. For all the understandable complaints about not wanting geriatrics in office, it seems a lot of them are basically the only establishment Dems left who are actually open to some left of neoliberal policies because they weren't trained in the End of History.

I don't see this as particularly more accurate a read on Biden than a few months ago when various online lib-whisperers were insisting that the railroad thing was the latest proof that his personal lust for union-busting even exceeded his love of non-dischargeable student debt. He seems pretty straight on with the general zeitgeist of mainstream Democrats as unions go right now: that's just changed from when Democrats were getting their poo poo kicked in by the southern strategy. Like a whole lot of their other priorities. It seems the simpler explanation would be that Democratic voters and independents are more strongly pro-union than they've been since literally the 1960s, and Biden's always been one of many Democrats that shifts to reflect the mood of the base.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 05:23

Name Change: Oct 9, 2005

McConnell looks like a ghost and has clearly lost 1/5th of his body weight. He has a bad case of Too loving Old, and getting a doctor to issue a piece of paper that says McConnell can still do whatever he wants would be impressive, if anyone else couldn't also do that. Watching ancient senators linger on, their icy hands desperately clutching onto power as they crumble to dust, is now normal in politics. Everyone knows that aides will do loving everything for a senator in exchange for the access it gives them, even if the senator's only real medical problem is morbid stupidity.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 08:13

Push El Burrito: May 9, 2006; Soiled Meat

I like when Mitch does the pause it makes me think he's doing a cool robot dance.

Push El Burrito fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 09:37

Tony Phillips: Feb 9, 2006

Push El Burrito posted:

I like when Mitch does the pause it makes me think he's doing a cool robot dance.

He looks like he just lost the rap battle at the end of 8 Mile.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 13:55

Failed Imagineer: Sep 22, 2018

If you film McConnell with the special time-lapse camera from The Secret Life Of Plants it looks like he's moving at the speed of a regular human who hasn't experienced functional brain death

# ? Sep 1, 2023 14:00

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

James Garfield posted:

That and people just have priorities that don't make sense. It's like how people want to live in a big inexpensive single family house far from their neighbors in a walkable neighborhood with transit access downtown, or how they want the government to balance the budget, raise spending on every major budget item, and cut taxes on the middle class.

College is still very good for social mobility. It could be even better (like if the government funded it at pre 2008 levels so it was more affordable) but the claim that college is no longer worth it is mostly from Republicans who don't want people going to college because it's politically detrimental to them.

I kinda wish college weren�t so necessary for social mobility at this point. Not to discourage education but a four-year degree is utterly unnecessary for a lot of jobs that require it.

Also I�m a little bitter bc I have done three loving years in Canada and France that community colleges won�t accept, I�ve gotta go to a four year expensive school to get them to consider those credits. Despite you know paying to get them evaluated for a U.S. transcript.

I just lie on my resume and say I have a french/history double bachelors bc if they counted my credits I would have one and ain�t nobody outside of academia checking for such useless degrees.

In conclusion burn the US college system to the ground and start over

# ? Sep 1, 2023 14:05

Harold Fjord: Jan 3, 2004

James Garfield posted:

That and people just have priorities that don't make sense. .. balance the budget, raise spending on every major budget item, and cut taxes on the middle class.

But this does make sense and is possible if anything good is. Like all the other good things we just get money from where the money is

Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 14:19

Jesus III: May 23, 2007

Tony Phillips posted:

He looks like he just lost the rap battle at the end of 8 Mile.

Like.

He looks like a sad, lost baby penguin.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 14:47

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Washington Post has a good article covering all the areas that would be impacted by a rescheduling of marijuana and what areas would not see any changes.

Things That Will Be Directly Changed:

- Tax and banking laws for anyone in the supply chain of legally selling or producing marijuana

This includes growers, marijuana companies, third-party suppliers, dispensaries, and federal taxes on marijuana in states where it is legal.

quote:

For companies that grow and sell cannabis, the reclassification would have significant tax implications. Under IRS code 280E, businesses that sell marijuana are taxed on gross income and are not allowed to deduct business expenses.

That tax code results in a substantially higher tax rate for cannabis companies, which often have razor-thin profit margins � if they have any profit at all.

�It�s been debilitating for the industry, having that amount of tax go to the government,� said Matt Darin, chief executive of Curaleaf, which operates dispensaries in 19 states.

�I think it is going to have a phenomenal impact on the industry to be able to take all of those funds and be able to reinvest them into more jobs, more construction projects, more research and product development,� Darin said.

- Federal government programs - specifically veteran's healthcare programs - would be allowed to prescribe marijuana legally to people with medical conditions that marijuana has been scientifically proven to help.

Conditions like PTSD, restoring appetite after cancer treatment, chronic joint pain, mild depression, or Parkinson's disease.

quote:

The nonprofit Veterans Cannabis Project has long pushed for veterans to get broader access to marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and chronic pain. Its founder said the HHS recommendation to loosen restrictions offers hope that the federal government will signal that marijuana has medical value.

�This is huge,� Nick Etten, founder of the veterans� group, said. �This is what we have been working toward for years.�

- Removes federal government restrictions on marijuana for medical research.

Allowing more private and non-profit research into marijuana's medicinal impact.

- Removes criminal penalties for federal possession charges for marijuana.

This technically removes any possibility of being used to charge people with possession of a schedule 1 narcotic for weed in the future, but the practical impact is limited. The DOJ has basically stopped prosecuting possession of marijuana since 2018. From 2010 to 2018, there were only about 40 people in federal custody with weed possession charges and all of them were basically situations of "arms dealer had weed in his pocket when he was arrested" where the charge was just thrown on. There are currently 0 people in federal custody being held for just weed possession charges.

What MIGHT Be Changed

- The FDA would have the authority to review specific marijuana products and approve or deny them. This would potentially allow them to be purchased with a prescription in the 10 states where medical marijuana is still prohibited.

However, the FDA is likely to take a hands-off approach and allow states to continue to regulate marijuana products because there are so many different types and kinds that it would require an enormous amount of work and some states don't want outside interference.

This could change at any point, but the FDA is likely to only get involved if something is dangerous or if a company brings some kind of unique treatment method to them and asks for approval.

quote:

If cannabis is reclassified, legal experts said they believe the FDA would continue to take a hands-off approach to state-regulated marijuana markets. In states with medical marijuana programs, doctors offer �recommendations,� not prescriptions. Prescriptions can be written only by doctors for FDA-approved drugs.

�The FDA has a lot on its plate. They don�t have the resources to add more,� said John Hudak, director of the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy. �I am not concerned, as chief cannabis regulator, that the FDA is going to turn my regulatory program, or markets in my state, upside down.�

What WON'T be Changed

- This has no impact on recreational marijuana laws and does not have the ability to change existing laws and treaties the U.S. has signed regarding weed.

It doesn't make national legalization any more or less likely in a legal sense. It may make full legalization more likely from a social/momentum angle, but it has no impact on recreational weed usage in a legal sense.

It doesn't impact state laws regarding legalization in any direct way. The only major changes for states where it is already legalized are financial (allowed to list on the stock market, banking, etc.)

If your state has recreational marijuana, then nothing is going to change one way or the other except for possibly economic changes due to the tax and legal changes your dispensary will have. Maybe they pass some of the savings on to you or maybe they won't.

The U.S. is also still obligated under treaty to prosecute international drug trafficking for weed. This isn't a huge deal because trafficking weed is still a federal crime, so there may be lower penalties in some cases for people tried in the U.S., but we still have to abide by our international drug partnership treaties and send people back/stop trafficking in or out of the country.

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1697414497118351436

quote:

Possible easing of marijuana restrictions could have major implications

If a recommendation by the nation�s top health agency to reclassify marijuana is adopted, the drug could gain wider acceptance as a medical treatment, pot businesses could see their bottom line boosted and a path toward national legalization could be charted, experts said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services this week recommended that marijuana be removed from the category reserved for the riskiest drugs, such as heroin and LSD, and moved to one for certain prescription drugs. The decision to reclassify marijuana ultimately resides with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which could take months to complete its evaluation.

The nonprofit Veterans Cannabis Project has long pushed for veterans to get broader access to marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and chronic pain. Its founder said the HHS recommendation to loosen restrictions offers hope that the federal government will signal that marijuana has medical value.

�This is huge,� Nick Etten, founder of the veterans� group, said. �This is what we have been working toward for years.�

While the measure would stop short of full national legalization as many had hoped, it has the potential to help struggling cannabis companies in states where marijuana is legal and could remove barriers to scientific research into the health benefits of the drug, experts say.

Multiple requests to reschedule marijuana in the past have failed. Most recently, in 2016, the Obama administration�s DEA denied a request from two Democratic governors to change the classification. At the time, the DEA cited concerns that cannabis had a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use in the United States and lacked an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.

Experts predict this time will be different.

The week�s HHS recommendation became public nearly a year after President Biden, in a presidential first, asked the health agency to evaluate whether marijuana should be reclassified. If the DEA follows the health agency�s recommendation, marijuana would be placed in the same category as anabolic steroids, ketamine and testosterone � which can be obtained with a prescription.

With an increasing roster of states legalizing marijuana, experts said political momentum is growing in favor of a change in the federal government�s treatment of marijuana.

Shane Pennington, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in cannabis law, predicts HHS�s recommendation will carry considerable weight with the DEA, which has acknowledged receiving the recommendation but declined to elaborate.

�Historically, the DEA has never overridden a HHS recommendation,� Pennington said.

Not everyone is convinced. Paul Armentano, deputy director of the pro-legalization organization NORML, pointed out that the DEA could try to keep marijuana in its current category, Schedule I, as it did in 2016, by pointing to obligations under international drug treaties.

�It will be very interesting to see how DEA responds to this recommendation, given the agency�s historic opposition to any potential change in cannabis� categorization under federal law,� Armentano said in a statement Wednesday.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, the Schedule I category is reserved for drugs having a high potential for abuse, with little or no accepted medical use. HHS is recommending marijuana be moved to Schedule III, a designation applied to drugs with moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence, and some medical value.

�It�s a big deal,� Robert Mikos, a Vanderbilt Law School professor who specializes in drug policy, said. �That would be the first time the federal government has concluded that.�

Reclassifying a drug is a complicated administrative process.

Before HHS recommends reclassifying a drug, the Food and Drug Administration conducts a medical and scientific review using what is called an �eight factor analysis.� It considers the potential for abuse of the drug, its history of abuse and the scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect. The FDA sends the review to HHS, which uses it as the basis of its recommendation to the DEA. That agency then conducts its own analysis, which involves issues beyond the scope of the health agencies.

HHS this week sent a letter to the DEA with its recommendation. The letter has not been made public, but the recommendation was confirmed by a person familiar with it, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the issue.

If cannabis is reclassified, legal experts said they believe the FDA would continue to take a hands-off approach to state-regulated marijuana markets. In states with medical marijuana programs, doctors offer �recommendations,� not prescriptions. Prescriptions can be written only by doctors for FDA-approved drugs.

�The FDA has a lot on its plate. They don�t have the resources to add more,� said John Hudak, director of the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy. �I am not concerned, as chief cannabis regulator, that the FDA is going to turn my regulatory program, or markets in my state, upside down.�

Howard Sklamberg, a former FDA official who was involved in cannabis policy and is now an attorney with the Arnold & Porter law firm, agreed that the FDA is unlikely to attempt to conduct enforcement of cannabis businesses if marijuana is rescheduled.

�The FDA has chosen, under three different administrations � Obama, Trump and Biden � to not take enforcement action,� he said. And now, he said, the agency apparently �is saying there is less of a health risk than they thought before.�

Twenty-three states and D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana, and medicinal use is lawful in 38 states.

�There is some legitimacy being brought to our industry and, frankly, for the millions of people who use cannabis as part of the their personal health journey,� said Kim Rivers, chief executive and co-founder of Trulieve, one of the nation�s largest cannabis retailers with 186 dispensaries in 10 states.

For companies that grow and sell cannabis, the reclassification would have significant tax implications. Under IRS code 280E, businesses that sell marijuana are taxed on gross income and are not allowed to deduct business expenses.

That tax code results in a substantially higher tax rate for cannabis companies, which often have razor-thin profit margins � if they have any profit at all.

�It�s been debilitating for the industry, having that amount of tax go to the government,� said Matt Darin, chief executive of Curaleaf, which operates dispensaries in 19 states.

�I think it is going to have a phenomenal impact on the industry to be able to take all of those funds and be able to reinvest them into more jobs, more construction projects, more research and product development,� Darin said.

The expected economic advantage of making cannabis a Schedule III drug appeared to resonate with investors Thursday, as five major cannabis companies that trade on the Canadian stock market saw share prices rise 3 to 11 percent.

Jason Blanchette, president of the Virginia Cannabis Association, a trade group representing marijuana growers and dispensaries in the state, said the financial impact of reclassifying the drug, especially for small businesses, will be profound.

�It almost immediately overnight turns good operators into profitable businesses,� Blanchette said, �whereas before they were fighting and scratching for every bit of revenue they could get.�

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 15:11

ummel: Jun 17, 2002; <3 Lowtax; Fun Shoe

I'll take it, but this should've happened about 20 years ago. Reclassifying to C-III while we have state recreational markets is stupid and dumb and still leads to misalignment of laws. Imagine if Nebraska wanted to open a recreational Xanax (a schedule IV controlled substance, so less "abuse potential" per HHS) market.

Beating a dead horse, but flower/bud needs to be regulated like wine/beer or even tobacco and concentrates like liquor, if we insist on proceeding with market regulation for ~~reasons~~. Medical products intended to cure or treat disease need to be regulated by FDA like Marinol and marketed like drugs are. I'm glad the cannabusiness industry is able to make more money though, I guess.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 15:48

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

ummel posted:

I'll take it, but this should've happened about 20 years ago. Reclassifying to C-III while we have state recreational markets is stupid and dumb and still leads to misalignment of laws. Imagine if Nebraska wanted to open a recreational Xanax (a schedule IV controlled substance, so less "abuse potential" per HHS) market.

Beating a dead horse, but flower/bud needs to be regulated like wine/beer or even tobacco and concentrates like liquor, if we insist on proceeding with market regulation for ~~reasons~~. Medical products intended to cure or treat disease need to be regulated by FDA like Marinol and marketed like drugs are. I'm glad the cannabusiness industry is able to make more money though, I guess.

True. It's a big change, but only because everybody else in the last 50 years declined to do it - even when the science was starting to come in pretty conclusively in the 90's.

We're inching closer and closer. Weed is one those areas that seems to explode in fits and bursts in terms of progress, so hopefully we're on the cusp of another big fit of changes in the next few years.

The Senate Majority Leader proposed a federal legalization bill and it had about 44 sponsors, so there has definitely been a lot of movement in society at large and the government is trailing along.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 16:08

Quixzlizx: Jan 7, 2007

I have older neighbors with Confederate flags who are growing their own plants now that it's legal in NY, so I can't imagine it being a particularly potent culture war wedge issue like woke groomer drag queens in our schools.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 16:52

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

Weed isn�t legal because the people in power didn�t use it as college students and don�t want to feel like they missed out. As soon as the average federal politician is of the age where lots of people smoked weed in college, the federal prohibition will finally fall. So, 20 years?

# ? Sep 1, 2023 17:20

FizFashizzle: Mar 30, 2005

quote:

Federal government programs - specifically veteran's healthcare programs - would be allowed to prescribe marijuana legally to people with medical conditions that marijuana has been scientifically proven to help.

I�m about to be the most popular provider at the VA home.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 17:29

GlyphGryph: Jun 23, 2013; Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The biggest surprising thing is that preparing for college has fallen from the top 10 to almost dead last (47 out of 50).

And that people really want schools to teach "character."

I mean, that makes sense to me? That's always been one of the major purposes of school in America (and in the religious schools beforehand)

Mind you, the American tradition defines character differently than the religious one, but having two conflicting meanings for it just means both sides can rte its importance as high even if they fundamentally disagree about what it means.

The classic American tradition of education is based on understanding both your rights as a citizen and your duty to your fellow man, and how they should be balanced, and the skills and character necessary to engage in effective self governance, encouraging involvement, thoughtfulness, and the use of reason.

Admittedly we don't talk about any of that much anymore since the new standard is "achievement, preparation, and global competitiveness" (according to the DOE), where character doesn't matter a bit, but traditionally it did and its understandable why people would still value it.

GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 17:49

Civilized Fishbot: Apr 3, 2011

MickeyFinn posted:

Weed isn�t legal because the people in power didn�t use it as college students and don�t want to feel like they missed out.

Citation needed. Maybe this is the case for a few weirdos, but people with political power generally grew up rich and had the standard rich kid college experience, which in my experience means plenty of weed or coke or both. It's not really even a secret - Trump and Biden are weirdo teetotallers but Obama, Bush, and Clinton all admitted to smoking weed or using coke when they were young.

The actual reason is that life is easier for the police when the scent of marijuana is grounds for a search and seizure and when possession is grounds for arrest. And life is better for private prison operators when drug possession is a crime.

MickeyFinn posted:

As soon as the average federal politician is of the age where lots of people smoked weed in college, the federal prohibition will finally fall. So, 20 years?

Marijuana use has been common on college campuses since the 60s and 70s, so every US politician is at the age you're describing.

Beyond that this is still just so silly. Politicians pass laws based on what gets them votes, which is mostly based on what gets them donations, with some additional consideration toward what will get them a job after leaving office. It's changes in those factors that change policy, not politicians becoming wiser or more empathetic people.

Civilized Fishbot fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 17:51

MixMasterMalaria: Jul 26, 2007

University should be the norm and people should be paid a living wage to attend. Job training should happen after and also be paid.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 18:24

Fighting Trousers: May 17, 2011; Does this excite you, girl?

Quixzlizx posted:

I have older neighbors with Confederate flags who are growing their own plants now that it's legal in NY, so I can't imagine it being a particularly potent culture war wedge issue like woke groomer drag queens in our schools.

Never underestimate people's ability to believe that something is fine for them but not Those People.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 18:43

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Former vegan here, people also just really hate vegans.

Like you ask for a vegan option at a restaurant or if something has dairy or fish sauce or so on, you bring something vegan, you just decline to eat and have a coffee or whatever, you will be labelled the preachy vegan even without ever commenting on anyone�s choices or saying the word vegan

Existing while vegan pisses people off

I started on this path, initially with veg and fish only, and when I went full veg I never asked for something vegan (for the reasons you cited), I just found menu items that would work or could be made to work. Many a business dinner had me eating a baked potato, no butter, with mustard or lemons.

My latest woe is MSG. Doesn't effect most people, pretty much doubles my heart rate for about 24 hours.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 18:49

This Is the Zodiac: Feb 4, 2003

Civilized Fishbot posted:

Citation needed. Maybe this is the case for a few weirdos, but people with political power generally grew up rich and had the standard rich kid college experience, which in my experience means plenty of weed or coke or both. It's not really even a secret - Trump and Biden are weirdo teetotallers but Obama, Bush, and Clinton all admitted to smoking weed or using coke when they were young.

Clinton "didn't inhale" :rolleyes:

The first time I remember ever seeing the issue seriously brought up was during one of the 2004 Democratic primary debates. It was town hall style and one guy asked the candidates whether or not they had smoked weed. IIRC everyone said yes except Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich.

This Is the Zodiac fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 18:54

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1697655526245433745

The animating force behind Trumpism is �I am a dickhead�. Set aside ed, socio economic factors, the most fervent supporters see in him their own assholishness that they resent being forced to hide

# ? Sep 1, 2023 18:58

Skex: Feb 22, 2012; The great thing about the thousands of slaughtered Palestinian children is that they can't pull away when you fondle them or sniff their hair.

That's a Biden success story.

zoux posted:

https://twitter.com/JordanOnRecord/status/1697655526245433745

The animating force behind Trumpism is “I am a dickhead”. Set aside ed, socio economic factors, the most fervent supporters see in him their own assholishness that they resent being forced to hide

Been saying it all along, the only freedom these MAGAts care about is their freedom to be assholes.

It's like all of them blowing up the case of this kid being kicked out of school for having a backpack covered in right-wing bullshit.

https://twitter.com/cboyack/status/1696696889507287337?t=aAAUDmA5MfAxOSvQfLofow&s=19

The Gadsden flag is the least offensive thing on that backpack. It also covers all of their whining about pronouns. I swear none of them have real jobs with real corporations where wearing intentionally evocative attire or intentionally insulting coworkers and potential clients will most assuredly lead to rapid termination of employment.

A huge part of what school does is teach kids to be able to navigate the world, and a giant part of that is socializing them to be able to get along with the people they are going to have to be able to get along with people who may not look or believe the same things.

They're training a generation of kids to fail in life, which I guess works for them as it keeps the number of uneducated poor white people up. It certainly tracks.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:34

Combed Thunderclap: Jan 4, 2011

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

I kinda wish college weren�t so necessary for social mobility at this point. Not to discourage education but a four-year degree is utterly unnecessary for a lot of jobs that require it.

To tack on an extra depressing postscript from my professional universe: the think tank/research world seems to increasingly require master�s degrees for �programmatic support�/�research� roles that if you read between the job description lines are actually secretarial and conference/event organizing/office manager roles that could easily be done by anyone with a high school degree. The MO is to effectively work aimless fresh-out-of-school would-be do-gooders as long as possible before they realize no actual thinking is happening until they bail. :barf:

Plenty of employers happy to take advantage of the glut of overeducated knowledge workers looking for socioeconomic mobility, in short, while everyone else falls into an economic black hole.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:41

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Per a law passed last year, the Pentagon has finished its review of all classified documents related to UFOs and launched a website where they will be posted online.

So far, the only interesting things I've found are a declassified report to the Director of National Intelligence Services from 2022 and a lot of charts organizing data the Pentagon collected about UFOs.

More documents will be added over time.

The actual website is: https://www.aaro.mil/

Here's some of the summaries of data the Pentagon collected on UFOs from 1996 through 2023.

Descriptions of the shapes of UFO by people claiming to see them:

The average characteristics of UFOs described by every person who reported one from 1996 through 2023:

Heat map of locations of UFO sightings:

Distribution of reported altitude of UFOs by those who claim to have seen one:

Declassified 2022 Report to U.S. Director of National Intelligence:

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf

Some random highlights from the report:

The government has verified the source of 54% of UFO sighting. They are generally weather balloons/balloon-like objects or unmanned drones. They are unable to completely verify the origin of 46% of claimed sightings for various reasons (primarily a lack of evidence).

quote:

CONTINUED REPORTING AND ROBUST ANALYSIS ARE PROVIDING BETTER FIDELITY ON UAP EVENTS, BUT MANY CASES REMAIN UNRESOLVED

The ODNI preliminary assessment on UAP discussed 144 UAP reports and had an information cut-off date of 05 March 2021. Since then, AARO received a total of 247 new UAP reports. An additional 119 UAP reports on events that occurred before 05 March 2021, but were not included in the preliminary assessment, have been discovered or reported after the preliminary assessment�s time period. These 366 additional reports, when combined with the 144 reports identified in the preliminary assessment, bring the total UAP reports catalogued to date to 510.

AARO has formulated and started to leverage a robust analytic process against identified UAP reporting. Once completed, AARO�s final
analytic findings will be available in their quarterly reports to policymakers. AARO�s initial analysis and characterization of the 366 newly-identified reports, informed by a multi-agency process, judged more than half as exhibiting unremarkable characteristics:

 26 characterized as Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or UAS-like entities;
 163 characterized as balloon or balloon-like entities; and
 6 attributed to clutter

The CIA, NSA, Office of National Intelligence, DoD, FAA, and NASA all have programs devoted to reporting, detecting, and investigating UFOs.

quote:

ODNI and AARO are committed to the responsible sharing of UAP findings with interagency partners (such as FAA and NASA), other stakeholders, congressional oversight, international partners, and the public. AARO is working closely with the OSD(PA) and mission partners to develop an information-sharing and messaging strategy that aims to maximize transparency, while maintaining appropriate protections of sensitive sources and methods.

ODNI and AARO have maintained communication with our allied partners regarding UAP, keeping them informed of developments and U.S. initiatives. The DoD and IC enterprises are working collaboratively to report, identify, and resolve UAP events. Agencies across the IC have established standard operating procedures that will streamline UAP resolution. For example, AARO�s analytic methodology requires a whole-of-government approach to resolving UAP events, to include analysts and science and technology specialists, to help resolve UAP events.

People who claim to have been in contact with UFOs have never contracted an alien disease or fallen ill due to their contact with a UFO.

quote:

Regarding health concerns, there have also been no encounters with UAP confirmed to contribute directly to adverse health-related effects to the observer(s). Acknowledging that health-related effects may appear at any time after an event occurs, AARO will track any reported health implications related to UAP should they emerge.

The Federal Government is trying to destigmatize reporting UFOs, especially among members of the military or pilots. They believe that most unidentified UFOs are potential national security threats assumed to be either drones or advanced aircraft from a hostile nation that are spying on the U.S.

They want more members of the military to report UFO sightings to see if they can use the location data to determine who sent them or what kind of technological level hostile nations have access to for spying purposes.

quote:

UAP continue to represent a hazard to flight safety and pose a possible adversary collection threat. Since the publication of the ODNI preliminary assessment in June 2021, UAP reporting has increased, partially due to a concentrated effort to destigmatize the topic of UAP and instead recognize the potential risks that it poses as both a safety of flight hazard and potential adversarial activity. Whereas there were previously 144 UAP reports covered during the 17 years of UAP reporting included in the ODNI preliminary assessment on UAP, there have been 247 more UAP reports during the 17 months since.

Combined with another 119 reports either discovered or reported late that fell within the original 17 year period but were not included in the preliminary assessment, a total of 510 UAP reports are currently catalogued. AARO has been established as the DoD focal point for UAP. In an effort to gain fidelity on the nature of UAP and the possible risk UAP represent, Congress required the establishment of a central office for all UAP matters in the FY 2022 NDAA. That office formally became operational as the AARO, under the USD(I&S), in July 2022.

AARO is the single focal point for all DoD UAP efforts, leading a whole-of-government approach to coordinate UAP collection, reporting, and analysis efforts throughout DoD, the IC, and beyond, to include other government agencies not in the IC, as well as foreign allies and partners of the United States. Coordinated efforts between DoD, the IC, and other government agencies to collect and report UAP events have resulted in increased data sets, spanning multiple security domains. AARO, in coordination with the IC, is focused on identifying solutions to manage and alleviate the resulting data problem, including the intake, indexing, visualization, and analysis of that data across multiple security domains.

We are confident that continued multi-agency cooperative UAP prosecution activities will likely result in greater awareness of objects in and across the air, space, and maritime domains, as well as the nature and origin of UAP in the future. The establishment of AARO and application of AARO�s new analytic process to this detailed reporting will increase resolution of UAP events.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:47

GhostofJohnMuir: Aug 14, 2014; anime is not good

hmmm, people are seeing an awful lot of sneaky flying objects in the airspace between israel and iran and over korea

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:50

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The Federal Government is trying to destigmatize reporting UFOs, especially among members of the military or pilots. They believe that most unidentified UFOs are potential national security threats assumed to be either drones or advanced aircraft from a hostile nation that are spying on the U.S.

They want more members of the military to report UFO sightings to see if they can use the location data to determine who sent them or what kind of technological level hostile nations have access to for spying purposes.

I assume these bits are a direct response to the chinese spy balloon kerfuffle

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:53

Baronash: Feb 29, 2012; So what do you want to be called?

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

hmmm, people are seeing an awful lot of sneaky flying objects in the airspace between israel and iran and over korea

I would be interested to see how much this heatmap of reported sightings would align with a heatmap of flight paths of US military aircraft. Like, are we just seeing where our planes fly the most, or are there actually concentrations of these sightings in certain locations?

Baronash fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 19:54

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

hmmm, people are seeing an awful lot of sneaky flying objects in the airspace between israel and iran and over korea

I also like that the UFOs are still visiting southern Nevada for nostalgia purposes, I guess.

And that weird blob in the ocean between Denmark, Finland, and Poland where a bunch of people are claiming to see UFOs.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:00

Craig K: Nov 10, 2016; puck

i for one, am absolutely stunned, shocked, and surprised the heat map of reports lit up around DC like a fuckin christmas tree

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:01

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Baronash posted:

I would be interested to see how much this heatmap of reported sightings would align with a heatmap of flight paths of US military aircraft. Like, are we just seeing where our planes fly the most, or are there actually concentrations of these sightings in certain locations?

It's reports from American civilians (mostly pilots, I would guess) and members of the military. So the sightings are definitely going to be heavily weighted to places in America (because America is where most Americans live) and places where commercial and military flights/radar/tracking equipment would be.

I'm sure there are a bunch of people in France or Russia who claim to see UFOs, but they aren't reporting it to the FAA or another American government agency.

Edit: I wonder why so many people are seeing UFOs in the Baltic sea between Denmark, Finland, and Poland.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:03

VorpalBunny: May 1, 2009; Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

VideoGameVet posted:

I started on this path, initially with veg and fish only, and when I went full veg I never asked for something vegan (for the reasons you cited), I just found menu items that would work or could be made to work. Many a business dinner had me eating a baked potato, no butter, with mustard or lemons.

The problem is when there is meat hidden in a dish, so I always ask gently "Is there meat in it?" especially a salad. Bacon is a given on a salad in many places, so I always have to check. I am grateful for the big green V on menus these days. International travel was tough, in Spain and Portugal I ate asparagus and eggs at almost every meal. Most wait staff didn't understand that vegetarians don't eat fish.

To the college/work conversation, I really hope I can convince my kids to learn a trade and then take some basic business courses at the local junior college. Some of the most successful people I know had some specific trade skill and ran a small business, making their own hours and essentially choosing their level of success. We have a leak in our roof, and finding a competent local roofer just to come out and give us an estimate has proven very difficult. We live in a SoCal suburb, I guess these guys are just swamped with work. My father-in-law ran a machine shop that manufactured gears for industrial use, running the shop was hard but he retired well and owns multiple residential properties. I'd rather that future for my kids than my own, stupidly in debt to a private university with no career to show for it. It took a few relatives to die and leave me money to allow me to pay it all off.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:09

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Here's some more declassified reports on AARO and the military's organization and processes in their UFO programs.

This also confirms that their data is heavily weighted to the U.S. and areas with a large U.S. military presence because they can't assess the reliability of claims from foreigners due to lack of evidence most of the time/they are pretty sure most UFOs they detect are from hostile nations spying on American military locations.

They also have an official UFO recovery team and policies for UFO storage (this is going to set off a bunch of people, I'm sure).

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:33

DeadlyMuffin: Jul 3, 2007

VorpalBunny posted:

To the college/work conversation, I really hope I can convince my kids to learn a trade and then take some basic business courses at the local junior college. Some of the most successful people I know had some specific trade skill and ran a small business, making their own hours and essentially choosing their level of success. We have a leak in our roof, and finding a competent local roofer just to come out and give us an estimate has proven very difficult. We live in a SoCal suburb, I guess these guys are just swamped with work. My father-in-law ran a machine shop that manufactured gears for industrial use, running the shop was hard but he retired well and owns multiple residential properties. I'd rather that future for my kids than my own, stupidly in debt to a private university with no career to show for it. It took a few relatives to die and leave me money to allow me to pay it all off.

My father was a contractor and it was incredibly hard on his body. He was adamant that I not follow his footsteps, so it's interesting to see people advocating the opposite. If I was talking to someone interested in the trades I'd steer them towards a specialty that's easier on the body.

It's a pipe dream but I'd like to see college become cheap or free so it's more decoupled from work. I agree that there are way too many jobs that require a degree that shouldn't (or a more advanced degree than is necessary, PhDs love hiring PhDs) but I believe we as a society benefit from a more educated population, even if that has nothing to do with the career someone goes into. Why shouldn't a roofer have a degree in literature, sociology, history, or philosophy, and wouldn't they be better equipped to handle misinformation and propaganda in our political system if they had that education?

# ? Sep 1, 2023 20:46

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

Civilized Fishbot posted:

Citation needed. Maybe this is the case for a few weirdos, but people with political power generally grew up rich and had the standard rich kid college experience, which in my experience means plenty of weed or coke or both. It's not really even a secret - Trump and Biden are weirdo teetotallers but Obama, Bush, and Clinton all admitted to smoking weed or using coke when they were young.

The actual reason is that life is easier for the police when the scent of marijuana is grounds for a search and seizure and when possession is grounds for arrest. And life is better for private prison operators when drug possession is a crime.

Marijuana use has been common on college campuses since the 60s and 70s, so every US politician is at the age you're describing.

Beyond that this is still just so silly. Politicians pass laws based on what gets them votes, which is mostly based on what gets them donations, with some additional consideration toward what will get them a job after leaving office. It's changes in those factors that change policy, not politicians becoming wiser or more empathetic people.

Your experience was (going off the demos on SA) likely college in the 2000s or early 2010s. The rich kids you saw smoking weed and doing coke will have real political power at the federal level in about 20 years.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 21:09

SpeedFreek: Jan 10, 2008; And Im Lobster Jesus!

MixMasterMalaria posted:

University should be the norm and people should be paid a living wage to attend. Job training should happen after and also be paid.

So many businesses don't want to train people and think that having a degree means they're going to be able to do the job. My job requires a degree I don't have, the people hired with the required degree with the exception of two or three can't do the job. Unfortunately they tend to be the ones smart enough to go somewhere better.

For the rescheduling thing I'm half expecting the DEA to come back saying it's more dangerous than we thought. How the hell is something like Xanax supposed to be less harmful than cannabis?

Edit: It varies from place to place but I see a lot more equipment being used in the trades to lessen the impacts of the work on your body. I'm not in the trades but work with them and my laptop has caused more injury to my hands and wrists than any other work I've done.

SpeedFreek fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 21:10

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

MickeyFinn posted:

Your experience was (going off the demos on SA) likely college in the 2000s or early 2010s. The rich kids you saw smoking weed and doing coke will have real political power at the federal level in about 20 years.

Rich kids have been smoking weed and doing coke in college since long before any of us were even born. Bill Clinton tried marijuana (but "didn't inhale") back in college (which would've been in the 60s). George W Bush did a bunch of cocaine in the 70s, before sobering up after ~~he decided to go into politics~~ experienced a religious awakening. Obama was super into weed in the 80s.

# ? Sep 1, 2023 21:33

Meatball: Mar 2, 2003; That's a Spicy Meatball; Pillbug

Main Paineframe posted:

Obama was super into weed in the 80s.

Even when he was campaigning he admitted it.

"Yes, I did inhale. That was the point."

# ? Sep 1, 2023 22:15

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

His presidency was disappointing but ngl, I can�t be mad at President Choom Gang

# ? Sep 1, 2023 23:19

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# ? May 25, 2024 06:29

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Cannabis legalization and regulation is not as simple as conservatives and out of touch old pols trying to block the devil lettuce, and it hasn't been for decades. The entire ongoing clusterfuck, including the various state legalization efforts, are the product of billions upon billions of dollars from some of the filthiest money and interests out there, all looking to profit from different legalization models. The incredibly long and winding process by which this has occurred is for two primary reasons:

1) Burns-like, these competing interests each are looking for different regulatory structures that will benefit them and close out the market to others. The tobacco companies trying to create a sideline through e-cigs want different laws from the OTC drug companies, who want different laws from the prescription drug companies with existing IP, who want different laws from the "legacy market" (read: organized crime), who want different laws from the alt-med and supplement companies, who want different laws from the pure VC groups and techlords. Each of these sets have cross-funding and pollination, all feeding through several dozen lobbying and trade association and "consumer advocate" groups.

2) There's actual public health concern. Cannabis isn't as addictive as other stuff on schedule 1, but it still hits a lot of addiction markers and qualifies as carrying abuse potential (including under the frameworks applied by DEA and HHS, which is why this is getting recommended at Schedule 3 and not for full descheduling). The really, really unpleasant elephant in the room, though, is data showing cannabis having a causal role in the development of schizophrenia. At this point (particularly with cohort data from countries with broader legal use, such as this study), it's clear that while the mechanism isnt well-characterized (and it doesn't hit everyone equally), it's pretty clear it's causal and not correlational (so it's not, for example, people having a tendency to self-medicate for early symptoms of development). Most of the industry groups under 1) aren't very interested in a regulatory setting that addresses that side of the equation. Regulations that would address it are made much messier because so far every indication is the mechanism is way worse in men than women.

FDA's seeking a whole new harm reduction framework and authority to try to handle cannabis and related products; it's unclear that it would work versus creating a new avenue for industry capture.

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Sep 1, 2023

# ? Sep 1, 2023 23:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

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