How should west respond to potential (likely) U.S. invasion of Venezuela?

[Elixir]

Why is Epstein an issue?

Why is anything Trump rants about "an issue"?
Trump PROMISED The Faithful that he would expose the vast Epstein/Democrat conspiracy hoax, name the bad Democrat guys and hold them to account. The Faithful are really antsy about it; they want him to deliver. They have no idea that a guy who crashes the dressing room of young pageant participants, publicly lusts after his own daughter and brags about grabbing the genitalia of women he doesn't know, might also be found on The List.
I wonder what kind of threats against the victims are being pondered, (or issued) now that they have threatened to name names without redacting those of Republicans.

 

[bilby]

the bus driver's regime is horrible

I was not aware that I even had a regime.
I did refuse to carry someone yesterday because he was rude to me; I am not sure that counts, even if I made him late for work.

A different bus driver.

No true bus driver puts his hand through the steering wheel, holding a spoke rather than the rim like that, it is asking for a broken wrist if a front wheel strikes a pothole or kerb. He should also have both hands on the wheel when there are pedestrians in such close proximity to his vehicle. His seat back is incorrectly adjusted, with too large a gap between the top of the seat and the driver's head; This gap should be kept to the minimum necessary to allow comfortable head movement, as a larger gap will not adequately protect against whiplash injury to the neck in the event of a collision.

More importantly, his vehicle does not appear to be equipped with a seatbelt for the driver; This is a critical defect and should have led to him rejecting the vehicle for service, and recording it as defective in the vehicle log, unless it exempt from NVHR regulations (eg. due to being an historic vehicle, or not used to carry passengers for hire or reward; Or more plausibly in this case, because it is being driven outside the NHVR area of jurisdiction*).

Whoever that guy is, he is clearly not yet competent to operate a heavy vehicle. If any of my students did these things, they would be marked "training given", and if they persist in the error, would get an NYC classification, that could delay their certification to carry passengers without supervision.





* Despite the name, the National Heavy Vehicle Regilations currently do not apply to Western Australia or the Northern Territory, whose legislatures continue to regulate heavy vehicles in accordance with pre-NHVR rules. These are broadly similar to those enshrined by NHVR, but some maximum vehicle dimensions and weights differ, as do the rules around fatigue management.

 

[Elixir]

the bus driver's regime is horrible

I was not aware that I even had a regime.
I did refuse to carry someone yesterday because he was rude to me; I am not sure that counts, even if I made him late for work.

A different bus driver.

No true bus driver puts his hand through the steering wheel, holding a spoke rather than the rim like that, it is asking for a broken wrist if a front wheel strikes a pothole or kerb. He should also have both hands on the wheel when there are pedestrians in such close proximity to his vehicle. His seat back is incorrectly adjusted, with too large a gap between the top of the seat and the driver's head; This gap should be kept to the minimum necessary to allow comfortable head movement, as a larger gap will not adequately protect against whiplash injury to the neck in the event of a collision.

More importantly, his vehicle does not appear to be equipped with a seatbelt for the driver; This is a critical defect and should have led to him rejecting the vehicle for service, and recording it as defective in the vehicle log, unless it exempt from NVHR regulations (eg. due to being an historic vehicle, or not used to carry passengers for hire or reward; Or more plausibly in this case, because it is being driven outside the NHVR area of jurisdiction*).

Whoever that guy is, he is clearly not yet competent to operate a heavy vehicle. If any of my students did these things, they would be marked "training given", and if they persist in the error, would get an NYC classification, that could delay their certification to carry passengers without supervision.





* Despite the name, the National Heavy Vehicle Regilations currently do not apply to Western Australia or the Northern Territory, whose legislatures continue to regulate heavy vehicles in accordance with pre-NHVR rules. These are broadly similar to those enshrined by NHVR, but some maximum vehicle dimensions and weights differ, as do the rules around fatigue management.

That guy is trying to steal the bus. The actual driver (in the white tank top) had gotten out to help an old lady, and is now grabbing the thief's arm through the window.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Legalise, regulate, tax. Spend some of the tax revenue on assistance for addicts who want help to break their addiction, and on PSAs warning people of the dangers of both addiction and impairment.

I used to agree with you, but I have changed my mind. Delete the tax part, the taxes are being set so high it doesn't drive out the illegal markets completely.

 

[bilby]

Legalise, regulate, tax. Spend some of the tax revenue on assistance for addicts who want help to break their addiction, and on PSAs warning people of the dangers of both addiction and impairment.

I used to agree with you, but I have changed my mind. Delete the tax part, the taxes are being set so high it doesn't drive out the illegal markets completely.

So, set them lower.

They don't need to be zero to push out the illegal players, just not nutso.

Tobacco tax is high enough here that there's lots of smuggling and even some illegal growing. But that's not really much of a problem; They have to compete with lawful supplies, so quality is much higher than it would be under prohibition, and prices are much lower, so there's no big money for criminal gangs.