Do you happen to remember the name of that documentary? I saw the Vice specials from a really long time ago, but they seem to have gone through a much more controlled experience that wouldn’t see what you describe. Heck, I think what I saw predates smartphones taking over the world.

Please elaborate. Better yet, don’t.

By the way, you do understand that itineraries with layovers exist, and that stopping all international flights in and out of the world’s most populous country is unrealistic?

If everything is running on renewables, cool. Until then, there’s still the opportunity cost.

Lotsa misinformation coming from that general area.

Assuming the words themselves are accurate, there is still a difference between wanting to “engage more” with Beijing and wanting them to swallow your country whole. Not to mention all the other issues one may vote over

Screenshot taken at 18:07, which puts you at GMT+2. Curious what makes you such an expert in American and Asian secessionist politics from Eastern Europe 🤔

Hi, it’s now 2024. To the best of my knowledge the independence movements of Puerto Rico and Hawaii are currently minimal (not non-existent, but even Texas has some weirdo secessionists). While the circumstances of those territories becoming a part of the US may be dicey, “our ancestors made a mistake” isn’t really a good reason to cut those places away entirely if modern-day people generally wish to keep the current arrangement.

Taiwan, on the other hand, generally wishes to remain independent from China. False equivalence.

I love how new Teams doesn’t even have a contacts list for chat anymore, it’s just your most recent chats. And if you search for someone, any recent group chats with that person show up first so you may still have to scroll to find that person’s chat. Oh, and we store documents on Teams so if I want to switch between looking through the document repository and chat I still have to do a whole bunch of clicks between the two.

I don’t fault them for when my project manager tags @everyone on the group chat with an important message saying “good morning and happy Monday” though. I wish I were kidding.

Super hard, actually

When did I say anything about a private room? You get a few feet of separation from your parents and a different adult to talk to for a moment. That may be enough of an opportunity.

Uh, that’s not exactly what happens when the metal detector goes off but it gives you an opportunity to talk with someone without your parents around. TSA isn’t police, but hopefully they can contact police.

That said, parents do get a pretty strong say in where they take their minor children.

So Maduro’s response should be to falsely claim victory in the election? Or do you think he actually won?

I understand your point, but the original claim was that spirits and cola could be the same price. My argument was that spirits have a much more involved manufacturing process which raises the price. In my opinion, watered down cleaning alcohol has a different manufacturing process and wouldn’t count - whether government prohibits it or not. It’s a different product, made a different way, so of course it’s going to have a different cost.

Thinking of it another way, and trying to play devil’s advocate against myself to think this through, what if government said that cola needed to come with a side of premium caviar? It would raise the cost, and government would have caused it, but it would also be a different product. That doesn’t mean that if you got rid of government regulation, cola with a side of caviar would cost the same as cola without caviar, spirits, or diluted cleaning alcohol. It just means that the regulation alone wasn’t what made it expensive, because there are intrinsic manufacturing costs regardless.

Venezuela quality of life is so horrid right now, people are leaving everything and traveling thousands of miles to get away from it. It’s no wonder people would want their president out… but it’s the US imperialism that’s at fault, obviously.

So it’s actually a lot more involved to make spirits when you don’t want to go blind over it, especially if you want it to taste good as well.

US taxes spirits at $13.50 per proof gallon at most (like income taxes, there are different margins). That means a gallon of 100 proof (50% alcohol by volume) alcohol spirits has a tax rate of $13.50. A 750ml bottle is .198 gallons, and .198*$13.50 is $2.67.

So… You sure about that?

A bottle of spirit would cost the same as a bottle of cola if the government would not interfere

Sorry, how do you figure? Cola is basically water, sugar, and flavorings/colorings. Mix it together, carbonate it, put it in a bottle, and ship it out. Super easy to scale up. Whiskey (for example) involves mashing grain, fermenting it to get alcohol, distilling that alcohol to get it more concentrated and less watery, aging it in a barrel for a number of years, and then bottling it and shipping it out. Each step involves big, specialized equipment (harder to scale up) and many involve losing product along the way. And yet, it’s because of government? Sure, there are higher taxes on alcohol and that contributes to the difference, but to blame it entirely on government is ridiculous.

So the opposite of everything we hear is actually true, and things are quite peachy in Venezuela? Ok, got it. Thank you for enlightening me! I’m sure all the migrants that made it up here will be thrilled to know they can go back home now

Do you believe Trump lost his last election? Do you believe Putin won his?

Seems to me being able to pick an executive is a pretty good litmus test

Ok, there are still a few airlines that fly into Caracas (many have pulled out). I’m sure that’s a coincidence though. You go there and let me know how it is.

Shit’s pretty fucked up in Venezuela right now. If the elections were free and fair I doubt they’d need much from the US

850TRY is currently about $26 USD, or about $.03 to a lira. Holy crap, I was there about 10 years ago and a lira was about $.50!