#alcohol ban in lockdown

[originallandlockedmariner]

2023

Pickleball. Generative AI. Lula takes office in Brazil, Amazon Rainforest throws a party. Prince Harry refusing to stop talking about his frozen penis no matter how many times society begged him to stop. UFOs are real. Viral cat dubbed ‘largest cat anyone has ever seen’ gets adopted. Pee-Wee’s big adventure ends. Musk & X. Turkey-Syria earthquake kills thousands. India surpasses China as ‘country squeezing in the most peeps’. Tucker Carlson ousted. Miss USA and her 30 lbs moon costume. Wildfires in Kelowna and Hawaii. Macron tinkers with retirement age of the French. Paltrow can’t ski. Big Red Boots. Bob Barker leaves us. Alabama mom delivers 2 babies from her 2 uteruses in 2 days. Charles III. Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces as the war drags on. Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year. African ‘coup belt’. Flo-Jo dies in her sleep. Chinese spy balloon shot down. Hollywood writers strike. Human ‘nice mugshot’ Shitstain and his 91 indictments. Highest interest rates in 2 decades. The Bear’s Christmas episode. War in Gaza. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Alex Murdaugh. Ocean Cleanup removes 25 000 lbs of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Vase purchased for $3.99 sells for $100 000 at auction. Barbenheimer. A third of Pakistan is flooded. Lionel Messi is the GOAT. Travis Kelce. The Sphere opens in Las Vegas. Regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in two of the three largest bank failures in U.S. history. “The Woman In Me”. WHO declares COVID ain’t a thing no more. Titan sub sinks, rich people die. Matthew Perry drowns. Dumbledore Dies (again). Massive sales of ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags for jacked-up micro-dick trucks. Everything Everywhere All At Once. June-August was the hottest three-month period in recorded history across the Earth. Tina Turner dies. And the Beatles release a new song?! Wow… You got big shoes to fill 2024.

Archives for context:

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ���dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global a**hole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little b*tch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet (no one understands how?!) Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a c*nt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the sh*t on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the f*cking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

@daily-esprit-descalier

[not-that-blog]

I'm realising that I have to have one of those reality bubble conversations that I've always known would absolutely be a thing that comes up eventually but was hoping to avoid.

I am really good at playing the game of 'I'm fine' and like the csa was the worst of my childhood trauma.

Because in a healthier world, it would be.

But the actual reason it continued like it did and fucked me up how it did... is class warfare and poverty.

When you grow up knowing or at the very least being told, that it's lucky you have food on the table and that your abusers are the ones keeping you clothed in appropriate sized clothing, fed, making sure you have uniforms and shoes and doctors appointments and they're the only ones who actually ask about your injuries or help you with homework, etc... and you're already bullied for being poorer than the average demographic in your school at that time... and then when you leave that school to one with an even poorer demographic and you know that you're literally two-three bad months away from being in that level of poverty that is considered some of the worst in your state, at any given moment...

You at some point accept the abuse to both protect others because you'd rather it was you than them being hurt... and you don't speak up because you don't want your family to be even worse off.

And then as a teenager and young adult, I was homeless for random periods of time.

And yeah, I had a legal address and somewhere I could technically have gone back to and did during Covid lockdowns and I was lucky for that... but it was abusive, I went into psychosis, I self harmed, became an alcoholic again and tried to OD and got banned from certain prescription medications bc of it.

I was not okay. I would probably have been better on the street but had threats over my head to come back; mostly the threat of institutional violence meaning that regardless of my wants and needs, they could and would potentially take me back there and threaten me with using my disabilities against me to force me to stay.

And there were no wheelchair accessible shelters and I did not have the physical strength to fight anyone on it and thanks to covid no one else could take me.

So outside of that, I was homeless.

Part of my job is noticing the kids who are like I was, technically had a home, but home was so bad they were constantly wandering the streets or sleeping at friends and other family members places so they wouldn't be in danger or constantly feeling like they're under threat. Because I have to get them the resources that I didn't have and advocate for them.

I am stupidly proud of being able to at one point survive on less than $50 a fortnight.

But what goes unsaid there is; I ate next to nothing and brought next to nothing and relied on a lot of help to the point it was ruining friendships because they couldn't understand why I was always asking for help when I couldn't give it... and the reason was simply that I was poor and hungry and scared and exhausted and it almost killed me multiple times.

That I've gotten into more fights than I care to admit. That I starved. That I lived on near expired food and learned to keep things ultra clean because you can't afford an exterminator when you're poor and you can't afford the judgment even more.

That I know some weird life hacks and common sense and also that I find it really easier to find the fighters who are neglected in a crowd because it's so familiar to me.

And that's part of why I'm good at my job.

And the part that gets me is I was saying to someone that idk if I can afford a pet. Specifically two of the kittens I rescued the other night and delivered to the AWL and that I would love to adopt because I am so smitten with them and miss them already.

And the response that I was given was about food and litter.

And I couldn't find the words at the time to explain that's not the kind of poor I am.

I can find and will always be able to find the money so everyone else gets fed and clean.

But there's vet bills, medications, water bills, rental costs, time costs, potential lost shifts and babysitters and a whole host of other costs that when you're poor you're always aware and afraid of.

I haven't been to the dentist in years because I can't afford it.

I will never have the thousands of dollars in my account for that.

A vet bill can cost just as much.

My friend has spent the last three years paying off a vet bill for a cat he no longer has. (Kitty is alive, the ex just has them)

It's a lot of costs in preventive care and maintenance and time and effort... and still having emergency money because cats are dumb sometimes.

Because teeth and grooming and clipped nails and furniture protectors and scratching pads and trees and litter boxes with mats and enzyme cleaners and changing products because I use a lot of tea tree products atm, and baby gates and all these little things....

It adds up.

And when you have to carefully calculate groceries because you're too poor not to... it breaks you.

Like I fight with my housemate over the leftovers issue bc we both come from a level of severe poverty. I'm 'everyone else gets fed first' he's 'don't touch it until given or everyone might starve' so I don't eat if he's not eating but he panics at the idea of touching what I cook unless it's specifically told it's his.

We're both struggling with the cost of food waste bc of this and how it fucks with my brains understanding of how much food to have when hosting.

I also know how to host but am used to help, he's not used to it and avoids everything out of fear.

We both have severe poverty trauma with different results but we understand each other bc of it.

Trying to explain to someone who I don't think has ever had a complete lack of support system that I come from a level of poverty that was so severe that I ignored all basic instincts to protect my siblings from it and still to this day know that I'm literally one or two missed paychecks from homelessness and being at risk of abused again?

That's terrifying.

Because I know it'll fundamentally change how they see and treat me and I have worked so hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

I just want to hide in a little bubble of 'no one knows' forever.

Because no one should know how scary it was and still is. I'd rather just be weird to them than deal with the knowledge they see me differently because of it.

I know I need to tell them, I know I need to talk about it... but I really don't want to because it hurts and it sucks and I hate thinking about how scary money actually is and how close to poverty I actually am at any second.

And I really don't look forward to having the 'hon, you come from a very different financial world than I do. Because I was raised in a family that was using middle class life as a threat and telling me how much I would get none of it if I didn't play their game and then eventually I chose not to. Meanwhile, I don't think anyone has ever told you that you've grown up in a higher income bracket than you realise and I didn't grow up with any of that. I got it when my sister got money and she got raised with money I didn't have because it was her other side of the family and her kids having that meant I could start fighting my abusers. So I know what it's like, but I have never ever had it.'

I grew up in poverty through a mix of neglect and abuse.

And I am fully aware of what money can and can't buy.

But I also am very aware how quickly savings go and I know that I don't have a single backup plan right now.

[head-post]

Chinese scammers follow Squid Game’s model to prey on debtors

Squid Game-trained Chinese scammers prey on financially disadvantaged people by promising prize money, debt restructuring and other schemes, according to Reuters.

However, unlike the South Korean TV series, the second season of which is released on Netflix on Thursday, Chinese players do not risk their lives if they lose. Nevertheless, Chinese courts have concluded that some participants in “isolation challenges” fall victim to fraud.

Following the rules, they pay hundreds of dollars to spend several days in a room and win up to 1 million yuan ($140,000).

According to the rules, participants can take bathroom breaks for no more than 15 minutes and touch the alarm clock no more than twice a day. Many players are outraged at not surviving the first day because of violations recorded by security cameras, which they dispute.

In October, a court in the eastern province of Shandong ordered the organiser to refund 5,400 yuan (US$740) of the entry fee to a player surnamed Sun. The court ruled that the contract “violated public order and good morals.”

Sun tried to win 250,000 yuan by surviving a 30-day lockdown with rules prohibiting smoking, using electronic devices, drinking alcohol and contact with anyone outside the room. On the third day of the challenge, organisers claimed Sun covered his face with a pillow, breaking a ban that prohibited players from hiding their faces.

Isolation challenges, often advertised on Douyin, the Chinese name for TikTok, have gained popularity this year as the world’s second-largest economy falters. China’s economic woes have prompted politicians to pledge new measures to bolster household incomes.

The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) warned the public on Tuesday not to succumb to “debt intermediaries.” Praising their services over the phone and in advertisements, the scammers claim they can help obtain new loans or provide temporary funds. However, the regulator warns such services charge high fees.

Intermediaries charge up to 12 per cent of the loan as “service fees,” according to local media. Another scheme involves charging hefty charges to help debtors recover their credit histories. According to the central bank, loans to Chinese households totalled 82.47 trillion yuan ($11.3 trillion) in November.

Read more HERE

[tallmantall]

#JamesDonaldson On #MentalHealth – #China Sees #Suicide Rise Among Young Facing #School Pressure

- Nation’s disease control center urges tailored intervention - China’s young deal with fierce competition academically Photo by Seng Lam Ho on Pexels.com By Yihui Xie and Xiao Zibang #China has seen an increase in #suicides among young people in recent years, prompting researchers to call for a special program to help them deal with academic pressure. The number of #children aged five to 14 that died by #suicide jumped nearly 10% annually from 2010 to 2021, according to a recent study from the #Chinese #CenterforDiseaseControlandPrevention. The figure for people aged 15 to 24 fell 7% through 2017 then posted a nearly 20% increase the next four years.  The increase is small in absolute numbers yet it contrasts with a decline of 5.3% annually in the 2010-2021 period among all age groups in the country, a drop the researchers said was due to a nationwide #mentalhealthprogram. They said that #children and #adolescents have faced severe #mentaldisorders and elevated #suiciderisks from intense competition to do well at #school. Half of people suffering from #depressivedisorder in #China are #students, according to a 2022 national survey.  The researchers called on the government to prioritize developing programs targeting #children and #adolescents that adopt best practices from abroad and allow for the early identification of #suicidalbehavior. Young people in #China have long engaged in fierce competition to get ahead in #school and get good jobs upon graduation. Three years of the #Covid-19 #pandemic — which in #China meant snap lockdowns, including many imposed on #college campuses — and record #youth unemployment have also piled pressure on #youth. Earlier this year, the apparent #suicide of a boarding #school #student named Hu Xinyu gained widespread attention in #China, both because the 15-year-old boy had expressed concern beforehand about his grades and how the #police handled their investigation.  Also, many people took to #Chinese #socialmedia Thursday to express sadness over the death of #HongKong-born singer and songwriter #CocoLee. The 48-year-old had been suffering from #depression for several years, her sisters said in a statement posted on #Facebook. One person wrote on Weibo that “Coco’s passing is also a wake-up call for us to take our #mentalhealth seriously.” #James Donaldson notes:Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticleFind out more about the work I do on my 501c3 non-profit foundationwebsite www.yourgiftoflife.org Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,#CelebratingYourGiftofLife: From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy www.celebratingyourgiftoflife.com In 2021, #Beijing unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its education tech sector, banning companies that teach the #school curriculum from making profits. Many #parents complained that pressure to engage private tutors caused excessive #anxiety at home. The researchers at the #CenterforDiseaseControl&Prevention also warned that the widespread belief among #parents and #teachers that getting good scores trumps anything else risks obscuring #mentalhealthissues plaguing #children. Photo by Seng Lam Ho on Pexels.com Read the full article

[newsaryavart]

लॉकडाउन: नशे की ऐसी लत, बार की छत तोड़कर पी जमकर शराब Shefali Srivastava | टाइम्स न्यूज नेटवर्क | Updated: 17 Apr 2020, 03:39:00 PM IST सांकेतिक तस्वीर

[bloodsvcker]

actually destiel is a social experiment to see how far the bigots are willing to go to defend these characters' heterosexuality. like normally these people think men who express their feelings are gay no matter how subtle it is. with destiel the same people think castiel's happiest moment ever was telling dean how much he loved him for four minutes platonically. I'm %100 sure at this point if a destiel kiss happened people would say things like "he's not gay. who doesn't wanna give their buddies a little smooch every once in a while!" then have an internal crisis for their fragile masculinity when they accidentally touch a friend's hand while passing the salt.

[its-me-schlossi]

It's my birthday today and I don't have any wine because of the alcohol ban..

[janeflowersart]

South Africa COVID-19 Easter Lockdown Fears On Travel

South Africa COVID-19 Easter Lockdown Fears On Travel

South Africa COVID-19 brought a lockdown on March 26, 2020. Now, another lockdown likely comes exactly a year later. Originally meant to last for two weeks, the first lockdown long overran that and it didn’t lift for long before another lockdown came over the Christmas period. Not as draconian as the first one, it still banned alcohol. So, will alcohol limitations return over the proposed Easter…

[sachwlang]

The Brewing Industry Has Lashed Out At The Government's "Ludicrous And Unjustified” Ban On Pubs Selling Takeaway Alcohol During The Lockdown

The Brewing Industry Has Lashed Out At The Government’s “Ludicrous And Unjustified” Ban On Pubs Selling Takeaway Alcohol During The Lockdown

[ad_1]

Pubs will no longer be able to serve takeaway drinks during the second national lockdown (PA)

4 min read01 November

The decision to ban pubs and bars from selling takeaway pints in the second lockdown has been described as “ludicrous and unjustified” by the brewing industry.

Many hospitality businesses relied on the ability to serve alcohol for drinking…

[originallandlockedmariner]

For three years running…

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global asshole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little bitch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet. Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a cunt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the shit on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the fucking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

[itsdneo]

Not been South African gotta suck🤣🤣🤣

[arko006-blog]

Lakhs of litres of beer may go down the drain; liquor worth Rs 700 crore 'stuck' in northern states - ET Retail

Lakhs of litres of beer may go down the drain; liquor worth Rs 700 crore ‘stuck’ in northern states – ET Retail

[ad_1]

As the coronavirus-forced lockdown stretches out, the 250-odd microbreweries across the country are staring at a loss of around eight lakh litres of fresh beer, according to industry experts.

Not only this, around 1.2 million cases of Indian-Made Foreign Liquorworth Rs 700 crore are “stuck”in northern states, except Delhi, as with the start of the new financial year, the sellers need the…

[rodolfo9999]

There was heavy rain in the mainland, but the rain in Hokkaido had stopped. It was hot at the time of the Olympics and the players were sorry, but on that day the temperature was 21 degrees Celsius, which was the original coolness of Hokkaido. 

My golf has evolved a little. All the drivers flew in front of me, I hit 3w so well, and all the bunker shots came out in one shot. Lockdown was declared and drinking was banned at restaurants, but alcohol was served at the golf course. 

However, it was boring, so I rounded up my vacation and went home. This is how my week-long summer vacation ended.

[joekitchen]

IT'S PROHIBITION TIME AGAIN!!!

So, South Africa has yet been slapped with yet another total alcohol ban. The buying, selling and transporting of alcohol is now illegal. This is the third or fourth alcohol ban since lockdown started! Here are some sketches I did to help me through these trying times.

[skypalacearchitect]

[Source only allows 1 free article per month, so I’m copying it all here]:

Date: May 27, 2020, 10:47 AM

On Nov. 25, 2019, while thousands of women took to the streets of Mexico City to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Abril Pérez was shot to death by a hitman. The 48-year-old executive of a Mexican online retail store and mother of three was on her way to the airport to return home to Monterrey after a custody hearing. She’d recently divorced Juan Carlos García, a former Amazon Mexico CEO and the father of her children, whom she had accused of attempted murder 11 months prior for allegedly creeping into her home in the middle of the night and beating her with a baseball bat. The gunman and his driver were arrested in March, but García, the suspected mastermind behind Pérez’s death, has reportedly fled to the United States.

What remains an open question is what role the United States played in the murder itself. As coronavirus-related lockdowns worsen the threat of domestic violence for women around the world, women in Mexico face an additional danger: the flood of American guns into the country. “The U.S. talks about how drugs and migrants cross the border from Mexico,” said Maura Roldán, a researcher on gun violence from Mexico City. “But it hasn’t recognized its role in the rise in violence in Mexico. It doesn’t mention the fact that it’s providing the guns.”

While it’s impossible to know the provenance of the murder weapon in Pérez’s case—Mexican homicide databases do not include this information—what is certain is that a steady stream, or torrent, of American firearms since the early 2000s has contributed to a spike in gun-related deaths in Mexico, in turn transforming and exacerbating gender violence. Seventy percent of guns recovered as part of a criminal investigation in Mexico are traced back to the United States, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

That influx of guns has taken a toll on women’s safety. Ten women were killed each day in 2018, according to Mexico’s national statistics agency. Roldán and a handful of other researchers and activists, almost all women, point to another statistic: In 2018, six in 10 of those women were fatally shot.

“The proliferation of guns, the huge presence of guns, including in homes, is changing the nature of domestic violence,” said Ana Pecova, the director of the human rights organization Equis. “In the past, a fight would descend into punches. Now, a gun gets pulled out, and a woman ends up dead.”

Not only has gender violence become more lethal, but it has also spilled out of homes and into the streets. Since 2009, more women have been killed in public spaces than in domestic settings, according to a 2015 report by Data Civica. While fewer women than men die of gun violence, the rates at which women are dying from firearms are growing faster: Between 2007 and 2018, gun violence rates for women rose 357 percent (compared to 311 percent for men), and 500 percent in public spaces (347 percent for men), according to Estefanía Vela Barba, one of the authors of the Data Civica report who continues to research the link between gun violence and femicide. Gun-fueled gender violence in public spaces is multifaceted. It can be outsourced intimate partner violence, as is suspected in Pérez’s case. Or it can be cartel messaging.

The scale of violence in Mexico, which abets both forms of public gender violence, comes down to the country’s drug war and the militarization of public security, local experts and activists said. Then-President Felipe Calderón’s mission to uproot organized crime in Mexico has, since its start in 2006, spectacularly failed, fracturing and multiplying cartels, and leading to soaring levels of violence, the most prominent evidence of which is the disappearance of some 61,000 people. While the violence can be blind to gender—stray bullets are indiscriminate—it is often targeted. There are clues in the swirl of statistics: rape, mutilations such as cut off breasts, or shots to the genital region all point to violence against women specifically. But many bodies are hidden or destroyed, or mistabulated. While government registries counted 1,012 femicides last year, activists say the number is likely much higher.

The data in Mexico correlates neatly with a short history of increasingly relaxed gun control laws in the United States and the steady growth of both a legal and illegal firearm trade. The 2004 expiration of the assault weapon ban in the United States ramped up the production and sale of military-grade weapons. By the time Mexico declared its drug war two years later, American manufacturers were ready to pump these high-grade weapons into Mexican military arsenals. Organized crime responded by ratcheting up its own caches, buying more weapons through its own channels: third-party straw purchases; buying on the extensive black market, which lately consists of bringing gun parts in piecemeal fashion across the border and assembling them in Mexico; and even obtaining weapons directly from Mexican security forces. Some 20,000 firearms were reported lost or stolen from state and federal police between 2006 and 2017.

Citizens, caught in the middle of a bloody turf war, armed themselves too. Though Mexico boasts some of the world’s strictest gun control laws, 16.8 million firearms were estimated to be in civilian hands in 2017, according to the Small Arms Survey. Only a small fraction of these were registered. Due to the vast illegal trade, it’s impossible to know exactly how many American guns are sold into Mexico. But the numbers are large enough that Mexican authorities are concerned—and even more so recently.

A slump in domestic sales since 2017 has further turned U.S. gun manufacturers’ attention toward Mexico. In a bid to support the industry, the Trump administration recently moved firearm export oversight from the State Department to the Commerce Department, in what John Lindsay-Poland, the director of Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico, said is designed to loosen oversight and increase the number of firearm exports. “For the U.S., I contend that the assault weapons ban is a foreign-policy issue,” said Lindsay-Poland. “U.S.-sourced assault weapons are used in many more crimes in Mexico than in the U.S.”

In addition to reinstating the assault weapons ban, Eugenio Weigend Vargas, the associate director for gun violence prevention at the Center for American Progress think tank, said the United States should implement universal background checks and ensure stricter regulation of American gun stores. “The measures we advocate for won’t just reduce violence in the U.S., but will also reduce gun traffic to Mexico and Central America,” Vargas said. “The more guns there are, the more domestic violence.”

Meaghan Beatley is a journalist based in Barcelona. She has written for the Nation, the New Statesman, National Geographic and others.