That’s what’s on the table now, but it doesn’t look good.

The Supremely Court is about to rule, essentially, on whether states can even attempt to sue the oil companies over the states’ climate-change-related expenses.

The danger for the oil companies right now isn’t final Judgement from those lawsuits, but the discovery process. If the states are allowed to proceed, the oil companies have to turn over records, which will then become public. It’s not only damning socially, but they’ll also show that they lied to their investors, and THAT would trigger a mountain of lawsuits that could do real damage.

But with the current Court, I’m not hopeful.

If they can triple the cost for businesses while losing the hobbyists they aren’t being “starved out”. They’re making a fuckton more money while making a smaller variety of products, locking in contracts, and not having to deal with us.

I’m a drummer. We’re walking contradictions. Our specialty is precision timing, but none of us have ever arrived to rehearsal on time.

“play”

Mine thinks I keep impulsively buying stuff to maintain an organized workshop because I manage to keep an organized workshop, when the reality is it’s full of half-finished organization projects cluttering up the whole space.

They don’t care about hobbyists. They don’t need the tech.

But business users do.

I’m not building a PC or buying a computer because I can make due with what I have a few years longer. But I do desperately need a new laptop at the office, so work is paying an outrageous sum of money for a new computer.

I’m also getting a few new employees - each of which is gonna need a computer

It businesses, not hobbyists paying these increased prices.

You think that Trump wouldn’t love to disarm his political opponents if given the chance?

They’re already trying it with trans people.

Where it becomes an issue is when there’s a line. When you’re 3 cars back in the line for a gas pump you’re still done in just a few minutes. With charging it can be an hour or more of waiting.

As a leftist gun owner. I’m currently not interested in handing over my weapons.

Gatekeeping is a big problem with anything - especially as it becomes easier.

Film photographers balked at people going digital and about color grading and retouching with lightroom and photoshop.

Car people talked shit about how using an automatic transmission wasn’t really driving.

PC gamers got pissy at console gamers in the 90s and 2000s for just wanting a game to fucking work without having to chase down a conflict caused by a random printer driver that made their game crash in any map with water (my actual lived experience with Battefield 1942).

Lots of old-school 3D printing enthusiasts get upset when new users don’t know when to adjust their pressure advance or can’t read gcode.

Doctors who worked three 30-hour shifts a week in their residency think new doctors should go through the same rite of passage.

Football players who were taught to lead into a tackle using the top of their skull think new rules implemented to prevent neck injuries and TBIs make new players pansies.

We need to understand that part of making the world better is that the next generation of professionals, hobbyists, and people in general will have it easier than us, and that’s a good thing.

Aiding an abetting requires participation in the crime or encouragement to commit the crime to some extent. Simply saying how a crime can be committed is not aiding and abetting.

It’s very similar (and in some cases exactly the same) as being an accessory to a crime.

If the Brady Foundation says that people are 3D printing lower receivers using design files from a specific fosscad site to create ghost guns, then someone does that in California, the Brady Foundation isn’t “aiding and abetting.”

The accessory example of the above scenario would be directly telling someone exactly where and how to to get the specific parts and files they need and encouraging them to do so in a jurisdiction where it’s illegal with the direct intent of having them commit a crime.

Since the files are legal many places, as are the materials, it’s almost impossible to prove a specific intent to violate the law. It’s similar with TPB. MEGA got taken down because they directly hosted the files and specifically encouraged people to illegally pirate software using the site. TPB has never done either.

Telling someone how to do a thing isn’t aiding and abetting.

If I tell you that you can kill someone by shoving them off the Brooklyn Bridge, I’m not potentially taking part in a homicide.

It cycles seasonally, but it’s for social reasons. It cycles in the winter because of holiday traveling spreading local outbreaks, and back-to-school season when all the kids go back to be concentrated in 1 place.

Back to school is also why there’s a late-summer bump.

Winter also has people more concentrated indoors in colder climates, and summer does the same in hot areas. Texas had a HUGE outbreak a month ago because everyone was huddled indoors to get out of the heat while the kids were bringing it home from school.

Knowing where to commit a crime is not illegal.

I grew up in a town with a huge standing weekly flea market everyone knew about where everyone knew you were buying stolen stuff, fake IDs, bootlegs, etc. The way I finally convinced my family that TPB wasn’t illegal was by asking them if it was a crime to tell someone where the flea market was.

Version 20,922,789,888,000 ?

While there’s truth there, the SR-71 still holds the records for highest sustained speed and altitude of any publicly-known air-breathing aircraft 60 years after they were adopted.

But an unclear coat on it.

Checkmate.

The mileage tax on average will make average petrol cars pay double what EVs will be paying in road taxes ( and it’s not even happening until 2028).