People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
Starting to look like executives may be trying to split the gas and electric portions, declare bankruptcy on the electric (and have the state take it over, and thereby also the liability) and take over the gas and try to get away that way.
I'm going to be pissed as hell if someone doesn't go to jail for criminal negligence.
People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
You don’t believe that anybody finds it a burden because you don’t?
I am legit having difficulty understanding how having to say "can I have a straw" is an insurmountable burden for anyone, disabled or otherwise.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
I am legit having difficulty understanding how having to say "can I have a straw" is an insurmountable burden for anyone, disabled or otherwise.
In an ideal world, the question would be “what are we gaining by taking away an accessibility feature?” and not put the burden of proof the other way around.
But recognizing we don’t live in that world, the answers are gatekeeping and non-compliance.
You can write a waiver into the law, but what will happen and is already happening is restaurants will simply stop stocking them. And if they do stock them, you have to hope that the staff knows that and doesn’t decline reflexively.
And then among those who do, they’ll want to know why you want one. Theyll tell you they don’t look disabled. They’ll want to know your personal medical information. They’ll want to know why you can’t use the reusable straw that their friend’s cousin’s nephew used.
Straw bans, plain and simple, make life worse for disabled people.
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
Every bit of not making disabled people’s lives harder also helps
So here's how I see it.
The argument feels kind of hollow because it's going to apply to every single instance of regulating away some wasteful or polluting convenience. I would think that most things that are useful for people who aren't disabled can be very useful or even needful for some people who are disabled. I understand that something going from being in common use to being a special exception means accessibility goes into the toilet but like, should we just never make any improvements to our wasteful culture? Because any new restriction to our American excess is going to put some disabled person somewhere in a pinch.
Instead we should be advocating for greater laws protecting the disabled and punishing businesses who do not provide accommodation. There should be programs that work with business to educate them about what kind of accommodations they're expected to provide. There should be inspectors regularly checking out businesses before there are complaints, showing them where they went wrong and fining them if they don't get into compliance.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
You don’t believe that anybody finds it a burden because you don’t?
I do find it a burden. My younger son went through a phase of throwing a fit if a restaurant didn't have a straw for his cup. Many restaurants do not provide them. To address my minor need for a straw, I began bringing them with because if you need a straw you cannot count on a restaurant to provide one.
If there had been a law saying restaurants had to provide straws, this would be a change which would hurt the disabled. There is no such law. As such, no-one who needs a straw is counting on restaurants having them, so there is no additional burden on them.
People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
You don’t believe that anybody finds it a burden because you don’t?
I do find it a burden. My younger son went through a phase of throwing a fit if a restaurant didn't have a straw for his cup. Many restaurants do not provide them. To address my minor need for a straw, I began bringing them with because if you need a straw you cannot count on a restaurant to provide one.
If there had been a law saying restaurants had to provide straws, this would be a change which would hurt the disabled. There is no such law. As such, no-one who needs a straw is counting on restaurants having them, so there is no additional burden on them.
But they are telling you it is an additional burden. Explicitly. I linked a few disability advocates up above talking about it.
Telling a disadvantaged group they’re wrong when they explain their problems is a really bad look.
So here's how I see it.
The argument feels kind of hollow because it's going to apply to every single instance of regulating away some wasteful or polluting convenience. I would think that most things that are useful for people who aren't disabled can be very useful or even needful for some people who are disabled. I understand that something going from being in common use to being a special exception means accessibility goes into the toilet but like, should we just never make any improvements to our wasteful culture? Because any new restriction to our American excess is going to put some disabled person somewhere in a pinch.
Instead we should be advocating for greater laws protecting the disabled and punishing businesses who do not provide accommodation. There should be programs that work with business to educate them about what kind of accommodations they're expected to provide. There should be inspectors regularly checking out businesses before there are complaints, showing them where they went wrong and fining them if they don't get into compliance.
It doesn’t apply to every waste improvement because we don’t have these complaints for every waste improvement. Plastic bag restrictions, for example, passed without a peep.
Your world of preventative inspections sounds great. We don’t live in that world. We live in one where disabled people are pooped on from all corners and they have to fight like heck all the time just to get the insufficient accommodations they do now.
When you pass straw bans, you make life worse for disabled people. There isn’t any way around this.
The problem isn't banning straws it's restaurants being cheap and not getting paper straws as a replacement for plastic ones. The restaurant I am getting dinner at right now doesn't use plastic straws and my drink order with me ordering a coke and the waitress asking if I wanted a straw no questions when I said yes.
Paper straws are not a viable replacement for plastic straws. They don’t hold up to hot drinks and can cause cuts on the inside of the mouth for people who have trouble holding the straw still. They are also a choking hazard for people with poor jaw control.
So here's how I see it.
The argument feels kind of hollow because it's going to apply to every single instance of regulating away some wasteful or polluting convenience. I would think that most things that are useful for people who aren't disabled can be very useful or even needful for some people who are disabled. I understand that something going from being in common use to being a special exception means accessibility goes into the toilet but like, should we just never make any improvements to our wasteful culture? Because any new restriction to our American excess is going to put some disabled person somewhere in a pinch.
Instead we should be advocating for greater laws protecting the disabled and punishing businesses who do not provide accommodation. There should be programs that work with business to educate them about what kind of accommodations they're expected to provide. There should be inspectors regularly checking out businesses before there are complaints, showing them where they went wrong and fining them if they don't get into compliance.
It doesn’t apply to every waste improvement because we don’t have these complaints for every waste improvement. Plastic bag restrictions, for example, passed without a peep.
Your world of preventative inspections sounds great. We don’t live in that world. We live in one where disabled people are pooped on from all corners and they have to fight like heck all the time just to get the insufficient accommodations they do now.
When you pass straw bans, you make life worse for disabled people. There isn’t any way around this.
I'm ok with this.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
So here's how I see it.
The argument feels kind of hollow because it's going to apply to every single instance of regulating away some wasteful or polluting convenience. I would think that most things that are useful for people who aren't disabled can be very useful or even needful for some people who are disabled. I understand that something going from being in common use to being a special exception means accessibility goes into the toilet but like, should we just never make any improvements to our wasteful culture? Because any new restriction to our American excess is going to put some disabled person somewhere in a pinch.
Instead we should be advocating for greater laws protecting the disabled and punishing businesses who do not provide accommodation. There should be programs that work with business to educate them about what kind of accommodations they're expected to provide. There should be inspectors regularly checking out businesses before there are complaints, showing them where they went wrong and fining them if they don't get into compliance.
It doesn’t apply to every waste improvement because we don’t have these complaints for every waste improvement. Plastic bag restrictions, for example, passed without a peep.
Your world of preventative inspections sounds great. We don’t live in that world. We live in one where disabled people are pooped on from all corners and they have to fight like heck all the time just to get the insufficient accommodations they do now.
When you pass straw bans, you make life worse for disabled people. There isn’t any way around this.
I'm ok with this.
I find that to be a more respectable stance than all the diversions and gaslighting.
...you could make the law also require restaurants to have a small stock of straws to be provided to people with disabilities.
It does!
e: er, ok, rather it only allows restaurants to supply straws if asked, so some restaurants may have no straws at all
but this is already the case anyway
Aioua on
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
0
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Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
I am legit having difficulty understanding how having to say "can I have a straw" is an insurmountable burden for anyone, disabled or otherwise.
Wasn't there a ruling on the ACA where having to fill out a form requesting exemption to the requirement to provide service was ruled as being unduly burdensome?
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
People I know keep bitching about those straw and soda "bans" and it's like omigod, you are not being denied ANYTHING AT ALL. Like, this literally does not prevent you from doing anything you want to do! Just say "Hey dude, can I have a straw?" seriously how hard is that dgfdsfhfdhgdf
Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
You don’t believe that anybody finds it a burden because you don’t?
I do find it a burden. My younger son went through a phase of throwing a fit if a restaurant didn't have a straw for his cup. Many restaurants do not provide them. To address my minor need for a straw, I began bringing them with because if you need a straw you cannot count on a restaurant to provide one.
If there had been a law saying restaurants had to provide straws, this would be a change which would hurt the disabled. There is no such law. As such, no-one who needs a straw is counting on restaurants having them, so there is no additional burden on them.
But they are telling you it is an additional burden. Explicitly. I linked a few disability advocates up above talking about it.
Telling a disadvantaged group they’re wrong when they explain their problems is a really bad look.
Many restaurants have no straws. Many restaurants make no effort to provide or replenish straws. Straws provisioned by restaurants are of varying lengths, diameters, and strengths. They can be bendy, or not. Long or short etc. they might meet your needs, or not. If you need a straw you cannot, under any circumstances, count on a restaurant to provide one. No law requires restaurants to provide them.
I am legit having difficulty understanding how having to say "can I have a straw" is an insurmountable burden for anyone, disabled or otherwise.
In an ideal world, the question would be “what are we gaining by taking away an accessibility feature?” and not put the burden of proof the other way around.
But recognizing we don’t live in that world, the answers are gatekeeping and non-compliance.
You can write a waiver into the law, but what will happen and is already happening is restaurants will simply stop stocking them. And if they do stock them, you have to hope that the staff knows that and doesn’t decline reflexively.
And then among those who do, they’ll want to know why you want one. Theyll tell you they don’t look disabled. They’ll want to know your personal medical information. They’ll want to know why you can’t use the reusable straw that their friend’s cousin’s nephew used.
Straw bans, plain and simple, make life worse for disabled people.
I have to think that you are talking about something different from what California is doing. Those articles are talking about plastic straws being banned. But plastic straws have not been banned in California. The state law that went into effect bars restaurants from automatically giving people straws, and requires that customers ask before they get them.
None of the articles you linked explain why requiring a customer - disabled or not - to ask for a straw they need is so burdensome. What I'm gathering, given the rhetoric i'm seeing, is that not having access to a restaurant-provided single use plastic straw is literally a matter of life and death, but that for some reason having to ask for it is so troublesome that disabled people will just quietly die rather than go to the tremendous effort of saying "Hi, can i have a straw?"
You say that disabled people will be interrogated and not provided a straw unless they explain why they need one, which leads me to think you believe that only disabled people are allowed to have them? Which isn't the case; anyone can have a straw if they ask.
I continue to be confused.
Though even if there was a total ban on straws in restaurants, it seems to me that if the situation is so apparently dire that not having a plastic straw onhand at a moment's notice is a death sentence, that maybe disabled folks should carry a backup straw with them, i dunno.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
Every bit of not making disabled people’s lives harder also helps
Don't know what this has to do with the point. Nothing is cost free. Especially when it comes to fighting pollution. There's always someone who was depending on that polluting activity for anything from convenience to their entire livelihood. That's why the polluting activity exists in the first place after all. That's not a reason to not do anything though. And the cost associated with "having to ask for a straw" is basically zero.
I am legit having difficulty understanding how having to say "can I have a straw" is an insurmountable burden for anyone, disabled or otherwise.
In an ideal world, the question would be “what are we gaining by taking away an accessibility feature?” and not put the burden of proof the other way around.
But recognizing we don’t live in that world, the answers are gatekeeping and non-compliance.
You can write a waiver into the law, but what will happen and is already happening is restaurants will simply stop stocking them. And if they do stock them, you have to hope that the staff knows that and doesn’t decline reflexively.
And then among those who do, they’ll want to know why you want one. Theyll tell you they don’t look disabled. They’ll want to know your personal medical information. They’ll want to know why you can’t use the reusable straw that their friend’s cousin’s nephew used.
Straw bans, plain and simple, make life worse for disabled people.
I have to think that you are talking about something different from what California is doing. Those articles are talking about plastic straws being banned. But plastic straws have not been banned in California. The state law that went into effect bars restaurants from automatically giving people straws, and requires that customers ask before they get them.
None of the articles you linked explain why requiring a customer - disabled or not - to ask for a straw they need is so burdensome. What I'm gathering, given the rhetoric i'm seeing, is that not having access to a restaurant-provided single use plastic straw is literally a matter of life and death, but that for some reason having to ask for it is so troublesome that disabled people will just quietly die rather than go to the tremendous effort of saying "Hi, can i have a straw?"
You say that disabled people will be interrogated and not provided a straw unless they explain why they need one, which leads me to think you believe that only disabled people are allowed to have them? Which isn't the case; anyone can have a straw if they ask.
I continue to be confused.
Though even if there was a total ban on straws in restaurants, it seems to me that if the situation is so apparently dire that not having a plastic straw onhand at a moment's notice is a death sentence, that maybe disabled folks should carry a backup straw with them, i dunno.
All of your confusion and several of your questions were in fact addressed in the links.
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
Every bit of not making disabled people’s lives harder also helps
Don't know what this has to do with the point. Nothing is cost free. Especially when it comes to fighting pollution. There's always someone who was depending on that polluting activity for anything from convenience to their entire livelihood. That's why the polluting activity exists in the first place after all. That's not a reason to not do anything though. And the cost associated with "having to ask for a straw" is basically zero.
Pretending that any and every attempt to fight pollution will be met with these complaints is disingenuous. The only complaint being made is about this specific movement.
In this case, the anti-pollution gains are negligible. A marginalized people are explaining why this would make their lives more difficult in ways that, if we actually cared about them in a meaningful way, would cause the balance to easily be in their favor against negligible gains.
But just like society is racist and sexist, society is ablist. When disabled people speak up, they get gaslit and told that it isn’t a real problem. And when you finally cut through all that, the truth comes out: disabled people just don’t matter to society at large.
When there are multiple disabled activist voices saying “this is a real hardship for us,” repeatedly saying that you can’t see how it is a hardship is just gaslighting.
We've already answered the question of what is to gain: less pollution.
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
Every bit of not making disabled people’s lives harder also helps
Don't know what this has to do with the point. Nothing is cost free. Especially when it comes to fighting pollution. There's always someone who was depending on that polluting activity for anything from convenience to their entire livelihood. That's why the polluting activity exists in the first place after all. That's not a reason to not do anything though. And the cost associated with "having to ask for a straw" is basically zero.
Pretending that any and every attempt to fight pollution will be met with these complaints is disingenuous. The only complaint being made is about this specific movement.
In this case, the anti-pollution gains are negligible. A marginalized people are explaining why this would make their lives more difficult in ways that, if we actually cared about them in a meaningful way, would cause the balance to easily be in their favor against negligible gains.
But just like society is racist and sexist, society is ablist. When disabled people speak up, they get gaslit and told that it isn’t a real problem. And when you finally cut through all that, the truth comes out: disabled people just don’t matter to society at large.
When there are multiple disabled activist voices saying “this is a real hardship for us,” repeatedly saying that you can’t see how it is a hardship is just gaslighting.
But those disabled voices are talking about criticisms of a complete ban on straws. A situation where we transition from straws being sometimes available and sometimes useful on request, to one where all straws useful to them are banned, even from private purchase. I 100% agree that there are disabled people who need straws to drink in Restaurants, but right now restaurants don't have to provide straws, and they certainly don't have to provide straws which meet any kind of ADA requirement for 'utility'. And they certainly aren't providing straws in a way where the disabled can access and use them without requesting assistance.
For example, a common reason to require straws for drinking is a highly diminished grip strength or hand mobility, preventing you from easily lifting a cup. So you might want a straw, however, nearly every chain restaurant which provides straws (your most likely 100% certain to have a straw destination) provides those straws inside plastic or paper wrap, which is a challenge to open even with conventional drip strength. So the disabled are either forced to ask someone to open their straw for them, or bring their own straw, or bring scissors. And since we still have the whole bendy straw situation to deal with (where some people may definitely need a bendy straw due to poor neck mobility or the need to place the beverage in a holder before drinking and others may have conditions which require the exact opposite) we're an even worse state. Add to that the fact that the dispenser of straws is often a recessed hole (requiring good grip control), or one of those push down levering things (requires ability to exert force at height greater than wheelchair height, and again, good grip control to get the thing out) restaurant provided straws are just not a solution for more than a fraction of the disabled community who need them. People in these articles talk about using bendy straws for hot beverages, and I can tell you that as an abled person who also sometimes uses straws for hot things due to occasional bouts of sensitivity in my teeth, only CERTAIN bendy straws of standard length work for that. Your 'very slightly cheaper than normal' plastic straw (as you will see at every cheap diner or restaurant) is too thin walled to resist collapse at high temperatures when you suck the liquid, and will not return to its previous shape once it has collapsed. Meaning you either must wait for your hot beverage to cool, or use a different straw.
It would seem that the 'right' path forward for considering the disabled here is to ban the automatic provision of single use plastic straws, but in the same law insist that all restaurants have an inventory of reasonable plastic straws which should meet the needs of the largest possible group of the disabled. A complete ban is indeed wrong, there are many people for whom 'generic bendy straw + someone to help me open it' is the right choice, but the overall harm from single use plastic straws is more than enough to justify that no able bodied person should use one again.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, arguing that the death penalty overwhelmingly discriminates against racial minorities and the poor, will sign an order Wednesday placing a moratorium on executions in California, according to his office. The move serves as an immediate reprieve for hundreds of prisoners currently housed on the nation’s largest Death Row.
Newsom’s executive order, to be signed Wednesday morning, withdraws California’s lethal injection protocol and immediately mandates the closure of the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison, in Marin County. While the governor’s order will be a reprieve for 737 prisoners sentenced to death — including 24 who have exhausted all legal appeals — Newsom’s office stressed that his order would not provide for the release of any inmates or alter their convictions or sentences.
California has the largest number of condemned prisoners in the nation, representing one out of every four Death Row inmates in the United States.
Good on him stopping the state's machinery of death.
Is there some particular reason he couldn't commute all of their sentences to life imprisonment? Unless I'm missing something this is just a 4-year renewable reprieve.
Is there some particular reason he couldn't commute all of their sentences to life imprisonment? Unless I'm missing something this is just a 4-year renewable reprieve.
Probably would (arguably rightly) be viewed as executive overreach given we just had a prop a couple years ago to remove the death penalty entirely and it failed.
Is there some particular reason he couldn't commute all of their sentences to life imprisonment? Unless I'm missing something this is just a 4-year renewable reprieve.
Probably would (arguably rightly) be viewed as executive overreach given we just had a prop a couple years ago to remove the death penalty entirely and it failed.
I see that there's apparently some ability for the court to block commutations and pardons for people with multiple felonies, so I suppose this isn't quite as reviewable... but unless that applies to most of them it would seem like a better option to at least take both options.
The wife of indicted Republican U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misuse campaign funds, including for an Italy trip that cost more than $10,000.
Margaret Hunter, who worked as her husband’s campaign manager, had previously pleaded not guilty to corruption charges alleging the couple used more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal trips, hotel rooms and shopping sprees.
But on Thursday she withdrew that plea in U.S. court in San Diego and pleaded guilty to a single count carrying a sentence of up to five years in prison.
The misuse of campaign funds spanned from 2010 to the end of 2016.
The move suggests she is cooperating with the prosecution and might even testify against her husband. His trial is scheduled for September.
His attorney, Gregory Vega, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Margaret Hunter’s guilt should have no impact on his client’s case.
Don't piss on our legs and say it's raining, Greg. When the spouse suddenly pleads guilty, it's usually because they were flipped. And that's never a good sign for the other spouse.
Paper straws are not a viable replacement for plastic straws. They don’t hold up to hot drinks and can cause cuts on the inside of the mouth for people who have trouble holding the straw still. They are also a choking hazard for people with poor jaw control.
I have never had a paper straw that was in any way sharp. Generally they are heavily waxed so they hold up in fluids so cutting yourself on it should be very hard to do as they are in general duller than normal plastic straws are and also more likely to crumple than to cut. Hot drinks I can see being a problem though as the heat would soften the wax on them.
I remember back when I was younger all fast food places always used waxed paper straws almost none of them used plastic ones and it worked well enough.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
The wife of indicted Republican U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misuse campaign funds, including for an Italy trip that cost more than $10,000.
Margaret Hunter, who worked as her husband’s campaign manager, had previously pleaded not guilty to corruption charges alleging the couple used more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal trips, hotel rooms and shopping sprees.
But on Thursday she withdrew that plea in U.S. court in San Diego and pleaded guilty to a single count carrying a sentence of up to five years in prison.
The misuse of campaign funds spanned from 2010 to the end of 2016.
The move suggests she is cooperating with the prosecution and might even testify against her husband. His trial is scheduled for September.
His attorney, Gregory Vega, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Margaret Hunter’s guilt should have no impact on his client’s case.
Don't piss on our legs and say it's raining, Greg. When the spouse suddenly pleads guilty, it's usually because they were flipped. And that's never a good sign for the other spouse.
Oh yes, it's utterly absurd that the campaign manager was cooperating with the candidate.
Federal prosecutors have accused Rep. Duncan Hunter of improperly using campaign funds to pursue numerous romantic affairs with congressional aides and lobbyists, according to a new court filing late Monday night.
The Justice Department alleged that Hunter (R-Calif.) and his wife Margaret Hunter illegally diverted $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including to fund lavish vacations and their children’s school tuition. Monday’s court filings also spell out allegations that Hunter routinely used campaign funds to pay for Ubers, bar tabs, hotel rooms and other expenses to fund at least five extramarital relationships.
Prosecutors argue persuasively if rather archly that they must introduce evidence of Hunter’s affairs because otherwise Hunter might argue that the expenses were tied to his work in Congress. As they note, each girlfriend was tied either to Congress or political work in general. So tying the meetings to his campaign is not inherently implausible unless you know they were having sex.
So for instance, while noting that an lobbyist identified as “individual 17″ was a lobbyist who had organized events and fundraisers for Hunter, prosecutors make clear that certain meetings were clearly not tied to his campaign:”That night, however, was not about business: at around 11:00 pm, Hunter and I-17 departed the Hamilton together for her home, where they engaged in intimate personal activities unrelated to Hunter’s congressional campaign or duties as a member of Congress.”
The filing includes numerous examples like this with five separate individuals.
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Most of the disability advocates I follow consider these bans to be prejudicial against people with disabilities. It’s an accessibility issue.
Non-plastic straws are not always viable options for a variety of reasons. Asking the staff is awkward, leads to gatekeeping and frequently denials.
These bans are well-intentioned but make disabled people’s lives worse for no tangible environmental improvement (industrial plastic use is causing the problem, not individual use).
These complaints are largely ignored by the larger left, which isn’t unusual for disability issues.
And now a collection of PG&E stuff.
Federal prosecutors say they may have violated probation
Attorney General says company may be charged with murder
PG&E looking into selling off gas assets
Also looking into bankruptcy as an option
Starting to look like executives may be trying to split the gas and electric portions, declare bankruptcy on the electric (and have the state take it over, and thereby also the liability) and take over the gas and try to get away that way.
I'm going to be pissed as hell if someone doesn't go to jail for criminal negligence.
There is no law saying a restaurant must provide straws, and not all restaurants do. I'm a parent, I've asked and frequently (even long before the ban) been told we don't have straws. As such, I don't believe that anyone who needs a straw isn't bring their own one.
You don’t believe that anybody finds it a burden because you don’t?
In an ideal world, the question would be “what are we gaining by taking away an accessibility feature?” and not put the burden of proof the other way around.
But recognizing we don’t live in that world, the answers are gatekeeping and non-compliance.
You can write a waiver into the law, but what will happen and is already happening is restaurants will simply stop stocking them. And if they do stock them, you have to hope that the staff knows that and doesn’t decline reflexively.
And then among those who do, they’ll want to know why you want one. Theyll tell you they don’t look disabled. They’ll want to know your personal medical information. They’ll want to know why you can’t use the reusable straw that their friend’s cousin’s nephew used.
Straw bans, plain and simple, make life worse for disabled people.
Here’s some good reading on the subject:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/11/627773979/why-people-with-disabilities-want-bans-on-plastic-straws-to-be-more-flexible
http://cdrnys.org/blog/disability-dialogue/grasping-at-straws-the-ableism-of-the-straw-ban/
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/19/17587676/straws-plastic-ban-disability
A negligible amount. It’s been admitted that this isn’t a serious attempt to lower pollution so much as it is publicity for the need to reduce plastic use.
But we see again how the world treats disabled people and their issues: disposable at the slightest convenience
Every bit helps.
But hey, digging up and burning coal employs a bunch of people so I guess we can't stop doing that either.
Every bit of not making disabled people’s lives harder also helps
The argument feels kind of hollow because it's going to apply to every single instance of regulating away some wasteful or polluting convenience. I would think that most things that are useful for people who aren't disabled can be very useful or even needful for some people who are disabled. I understand that something going from being in common use to being a special exception means accessibility goes into the toilet but like, should we just never make any improvements to our wasteful culture? Because any new restriction to our American excess is going to put some disabled person somewhere in a pinch.
Instead we should be advocating for greater laws protecting the disabled and punishing businesses who do not provide accommodation. There should be programs that work with business to educate them about what kind of accommodations they're expected to provide. There should be inspectors regularly checking out businesses before there are complaints, showing them where they went wrong and fining them if they don't get into compliance.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I do find it a burden. My younger son went through a phase of throwing a fit if a restaurant didn't have a straw for his cup. Many restaurants do not provide them. To address my minor need for a straw, I began bringing them with because if you need a straw you cannot count on a restaurant to provide one.
If there had been a law saying restaurants had to provide straws, this would be a change which would hurt the disabled. There is no such law. As such, no-one who needs a straw is counting on restaurants having them, so there is no additional burden on them.
But they are telling you it is an additional burden. Explicitly. I linked a few disability advocates up above talking about it.
Telling a disadvantaged group they’re wrong when they explain their problems is a really bad look.
It doesn’t apply to every waste improvement because we don’t have these complaints for every waste improvement. Plastic bag restrictions, for example, passed without a peep.
Your world of preventative inspections sounds great. We don’t live in that world. We live in one where disabled people are pooped on from all corners and they have to fight like heck all the time just to get the insufficient accommodations they do now.
When you pass straw bans, you make life worse for disabled people. There isn’t any way around this.
I'm ok with this.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I find that to be a more respectable stance than all the diversions and gaslighting.
It does!
e: er, ok, rather it only allows restaurants to supply straws if asked, so some restaurants may have no straws at all
but this is already the case anyway
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Wasn't there a ruling on the ACA where having to fill out a form requesting exemption to the requirement to provide service was ruled as being unduly burdensome?
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Many restaurants have no straws. Many restaurants make no effort to provide or replenish straws. Straws provisioned by restaurants are of varying lengths, diameters, and strengths. They can be bendy, or not. Long or short etc. they might meet your needs, or not. If you need a straw you cannot, under any circumstances, count on a restaurant to provide one. No law requires restaurants to provide them.
I have to think that you are talking about something different from what California is doing. Those articles are talking about plastic straws being banned. But plastic straws have not been banned in California. The state law that went into effect bars restaurants from automatically giving people straws, and requires that customers ask before they get them.
None of the articles you linked explain why requiring a customer - disabled or not - to ask for a straw they need is so burdensome. What I'm gathering, given the rhetoric i'm seeing, is that not having access to a restaurant-provided single use plastic straw is literally a matter of life and death, but that for some reason having to ask for it is so troublesome that disabled people will just quietly die rather than go to the tremendous effort of saying "Hi, can i have a straw?"
You say that disabled people will be interrogated and not provided a straw unless they explain why they need one, which leads me to think you believe that only disabled people are allowed to have them? Which isn't the case; anyone can have a straw if they ask.
I continue to be confused.
Though even if there was a total ban on straws in restaurants, it seems to me that if the situation is so apparently dire that not having a plastic straw onhand at a moment's notice is a death sentence, that maybe disabled folks should carry a backup straw with them, i dunno.
Don't know what this has to do with the point. Nothing is cost free. Especially when it comes to fighting pollution. There's always someone who was depending on that polluting activity for anything from convenience to their entire livelihood. That's why the polluting activity exists in the first place after all. That's not a reason to not do anything though. And the cost associated with "having to ask for a straw" is basically zero.
All of your confusion and several of your questions were in fact addressed in the links.
Pretending that any and every attempt to fight pollution will be met with these complaints is disingenuous. The only complaint being made is about this specific movement.
In this case, the anti-pollution gains are negligible. A marginalized people are explaining why this would make their lives more difficult in ways that, if we actually cared about them in a meaningful way, would cause the balance to easily be in their favor against negligible gains.
But just like society is racist and sexist, society is ablist. When disabled people speak up, they get gaslit and told that it isn’t a real problem. And when you finally cut through all that, the truth comes out: disabled people just don’t matter to society at large.
When there are multiple disabled activist voices saying “this is a real hardship for us,” repeatedly saying that you can’t see how it is a hardship is just gaslighting.
PG&E CEO resigns, company may declare bankruptcy this week due to billions in liabilities.
But those disabled voices are talking about criticisms of a complete ban on straws. A situation where we transition from straws being sometimes available and sometimes useful on request, to one where all straws useful to them are banned, even from private purchase. I 100% agree that there are disabled people who need straws to drink in Restaurants, but right now restaurants don't have to provide straws, and they certainly don't have to provide straws which meet any kind of ADA requirement for 'utility'. And they certainly aren't providing straws in a way where the disabled can access and use them without requesting assistance.
For example, a common reason to require straws for drinking is a highly diminished grip strength or hand mobility, preventing you from easily lifting a cup. So you might want a straw, however, nearly every chain restaurant which provides straws (your most likely 100% certain to have a straw destination) provides those straws inside plastic or paper wrap, which is a challenge to open even with conventional drip strength. So the disabled are either forced to ask someone to open their straw for them, or bring their own straw, or bring scissors. And since we still have the whole bendy straw situation to deal with (where some people may definitely need a bendy straw due to poor neck mobility or the need to place the beverage in a holder before drinking and others may have conditions which require the exact opposite) we're an even worse state. Add to that the fact that the dispenser of straws is often a recessed hole (requiring good grip control), or one of those push down levering things (requires ability to exert force at height greater than wheelchair height, and again, good grip control to get the thing out) restaurant provided straws are just not a solution for more than a fraction of the disabled community who need them. People in these articles talk about using bendy straws for hot beverages, and I can tell you that as an abled person who also sometimes uses straws for hot things due to occasional bouts of sensitivity in my teeth, only CERTAIN bendy straws of standard length work for that. Your 'very slightly cheaper than normal' plastic straw (as you will see at every cheap diner or restaurant) is too thin walled to resist collapse at high temperatures when you suck the liquid, and will not return to its previous shape once it has collapsed. Meaning you either must wait for your hot beverage to cool, or use a different straw.
It would seem that the 'right' path forward for considering the disabled here is to ban the automatic provision of single use plastic straws, but in the same law insist that all restaurants have an inventory of reasonable plastic straws which should meet the needs of the largest possible group of the disabled. A complete ban is indeed wrong, there are many people for whom 'generic bendy straw + someone to help me open it' is the right choice, but the overall harm from single use plastic straws is more than enough to justify that no able bodied person should use one again.
And now they're declaring bankruptcy:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc7news.com/amp/business/pg-e-to-file-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-ceo-resigns/5073774/
I hope the state of california claws back income and just takes over the damned company.
Good on him stopping the state's machinery of death.
Probably would (arguably rightly) be viewed as executive overreach given we just had a prop a couple years ago to remove the death penalty entirely and it failed.
I see that there's apparently some ability for the court to block commutations and pardons for people with multiple felonies, so I suppose this isn't quite as reviewable... but unless that applies to most of them it would seem like a better option to at least take both options.
Don't piss on our legs and say it's raining, Greg. When the spouse suddenly pleads guilty, it's usually because they were flipped. And that's never a good sign for the other spouse.
I have never had a paper straw that was in any way sharp. Generally they are heavily waxed so they hold up in fluids so cutting yourself on it should be very hard to do as they are in general duller than normal plastic straws are and also more likely to crumple than to cut. Hot drinks I can see being a problem though as the heat would soften the wax on them.
I remember back when I was younger all fast food places always used waxed paper straws almost none of them used plastic ones and it worked well enough.
Oh yes, it's utterly absurd that the campaign manager was cooperating with the candidate.
Five affairs? You are so fucked, Duncan.
Edit: TPM has more:
That's a new strategy for hiding your affairs.