The California state water board just announced that farms will receive 0% of their allocation in 2022 from state run sources in both the earliest and lowest allocation announcement.

ZERO. Only the bare minimum for sanitary conditions in many otherwise completely dry communities, up to 55gal per day per person if they’re granted emergency access.

This is on top of the major cuts from sources like the Colorado river, already cut completely from Arizona and Nevada farmers, and with California aquifers rapidly running dry.
California is by far the largest food producing state, producing over 13% of all food in America (by value) and nearly 100% of many staple foods and beverages. Along with the near complete halt to farming in neighboring states, it’s impossible to imagine this won’t dramatically affect both food costs and quality in America for the foreseeable future.

This is inflation due to predicted climate change, @bobknight33 , in case you need someone to blame…and since inflation is suddenly an issue for you. Biden asked for funding to address it, and got not one Republican vote. Clearly inflation isn’t important to Republican representatives unless it’s inflation of yacht prices.

@bcglorf

Use is not evidence of efficacy. Ask the homeopathic medicine industry about that.


I'd like to see some solid evidence of torture producing the results you'd want to see. A closely guarded secret revealed only after X amount of hours on the rack or under the water board.

From what I've read, universally, people who are tortured see their torturers in a rapidly increasing negative light. What could your worst enemy do to get you to betray a good friend? What if you began to harbor feelings that were even more I tense hatred for your worst enemy and they wanted you to betray your best friend? Would you be more likely to work with them then ?

I think the premise itself is flawed when it comes to torture, and more importantly the evidence is on my side.

I hadn't thought I was ever disagreeing on Bush and Cheney and company approving war crimes in the form of torture(in particular stress positions and later on water boarding). They were shockingly open about it and basically just defended it by saying they didn't think it was that bad...

When you posed Abu Ghraib as an example of military following illegal orders though, I disagreed. You know, based upon the fact that the acts of sexual assualt, physical assault, rape and murder were counted as crimes by the military. This standing apart from 'lesser' torture like loud music and stress positions which was 'ok'.

If you want to be taken seriously stick to the truth. Trying to run out hyperbole like you were by alluding to rape and murder being an executive order and standard procedure does you no credit. Trotting out Abu Ghraib is even worse as it disproves your hyperbole, what with the military discharging and putting on trial those involved and all.

@enoch agree 100%. You got it.

@gwiz665 @Ashenkase @Taint Wow. Were you listening? Did we see the same video ? Harris made not one legitimate point.

Sam Harris has proven himself to be an ignorant warmongering bigot, holding one set of rules for Christianity and Judaism, whilst vilifying Islam in an utterly unreasonable way. The same acts carried out by Christianity and Judaism are excused. If a muslim had suggested the things Harris is quoted as saying there would be international outrage, water boarding or worse. As Cenk aptly put it, all religions are equally guilty.

Begging Cenk to pull the Reza Aslan video was just sad and sickening, crying that he had no chance at recourse whilst being interviewed for 3 hours.. pathetic.

It wasn't just waterboarding, Hitchens admitted he was wrong on Iraq as well.

One of the things I admired most about him was that on taking a strong stance on his beliefs, he was still willing to put those beliefs to the test and if persuaded change them.

As you know, he was sketchy on condemning water boarding, tried it, and came back unreservedly declaring it as unqualified torture. He did the same thing with his position on Iraq, but I can see how many missed it. During the first gulf war Hitchens was very publicly vocal in his opposition to the invasion, even debating and destroying Carleton Heston. After the war, Hitchens went to Iraq to live with Kurdish people, and he promptly came back with his mind changed and advocated from that day forward for the removal of Saddam.

I'll add this my ever growing list of things I hate in the first world: tasers, pepper spray, omnipresent invasion of privacy, water boarding, oubliettes, and, now, shock collars.

The voice of God is Government. And now that God has been ousted, we need a new machine of terror: TECHNOLOGY. And then we'll reintroduce God. Vicious cycle.

Murdochs' in what I like to call the "Room 101" classification of world-destroyers as in, room 101 is the first portion of his incarceration, THEN comes the water-boarding and the shit-all-up-under-the-fingernails treatment....

I'm an American that has moosleem friends. I water board myself daily. Stewart should do the same. Shameful.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
blankfist gets a DUI

Read your constitution! Nowhere in the constitution IS ANY PASSAGE about drunk driving!


Nor is water boarding in the constitution. Of course you could claim it's torture, but that is subjective. Is it more tortuous than dressing a man in stinky ball-sweat underwear that was worn by others? To feed him slop that pigs eat? To keep him locked up for 35 years for stealing (Even if it is 3 billion dollars?)

Or where black men do years more for the same crime white women do? Or white men for that matter? Or the fact that pot will end you up in jail--or worse, you could lose your kids and house over weed?

Please, water board me in all those circumstances... Please?

^ Most of that is sarcasm. Except "Please water board me if I get another punishment."

But seriously, RP never advocates against crimes that hurt others--in fact this guy would piss him off royally. This guy abuses freedom--not practices it. He hides behind it when busted. RP always argues that States should be able to put this guy behind bars.

>> ^volumptuous:

The right to a fair trial is a right for US citizens. And yes, the US Constitution is specifically and strictly for US citizens. Says so right there in the preamble:
"We the People of the United States"
And so on... But you knew the very first fucking sentence in the preamble to the US Constitution already, so I didn't have to point that one out to you...right?
And, if he wasn't firing back at navy SEALs who were trying to capture him, then he would've been captured and not killed. But, you have that big brain and awesome reasoning and logic to help you figure that out. You don't need me to help point out the obvious...right?

>> ^blankfist:
@NetRunner, glad you think a right to a fair trial is conditional. This is the inherent evil of war, in my opinion. It strips away the need for rights as men and women are given carte blanche to kill without trial.



Sorry Vol, I do disagree with Blank on many issues but this is not one. We the people is not good enough here. One of my friends argued your point, and when I questioned him about his wife, who is a permanent, legal resident, he stated that that was different... I said, not in terms of the law...

Heck, if it were true, then Uncle Sam would just strip certain people of citizenship (By creating new laws) and water board them all day long...

>> ^xxovercastxx:

Jeez, emotional roller coaster for that kid.
For an encore, how about we water board him with breast milk?


Hold him down?

Jeez, emotional roller coaster for that kid.

For an encore, how about we water board him with breast milk?

WTF - somebody water-board the camera guy please. What a knuckle-dragger.

And the bitch thinks she's being tortured. Quick, someone bring me a a water board and some water.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/lindsay-lohan-defends-her_n_638913.html
From the article:
Later Lindsay vented about "cruel" and "inhuman" punishment. Over several rambling tweets she quoted from the UN Declaration of Human Rights:

It is clearly stated in Article 5 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights that...., "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." this was taken from an article by Erik Luna.. "November 1 marked the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. But there were no celebrations, parades, or other festivities in honor of this punishment scheme created by Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission... Instead, the day passed like most others during the last 15 years: Scores of federal defendants sentenced under a constitutionally perverted system that saps moral judgment through its mechanical rules."

In a surprising twist, Lindsay linked to a Newsweek story about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian mother of two who may be stoned to death for adultery, and asked her followers to retweet. It's unclear whether she meant to lump her 90-day jail sentence with the inhuman punishment Ashtiani faces.