I 
me some snow … where’s the inner kid in you??? Beautiful scenery, so much fun to take the car for a spin (literally), it makes the cold a lot more bearable too when all the moisture in the air freezes. Our usual winters are just above freezing temperatures, windy and humid and that cold goes through anything straight to your bones.
It seems we skipped winter though, it went straight from autumn to spring. Insects and other animals are coming out of hibernation already, pretty soon we’re expecting the first leaves on the trees again. I already had to chase away the first mosquitos in 2020 
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not here… its 35 degrees and I found my fuzzy blanket… all I need now is the snow… Where I am moving to this summer, I will be lucky is I see snow in my lifetime… so if it is going to do just that… it’s got 4 months to make a nice snow pile for me 
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Snow!!! you keep that cold where you are Mister!!! 
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How bout I just send some down to ya🤪
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bwahaha Please!!! 
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My Dad began smoking in the mid 1950’s. By then the tobacco companies knew that smoking was dangerous to your health yet stifled reporting of such. While no one has a crystal ball and no one knows how time would have progressed in an alternate scenario, nonetheless today is the 20 year ‘anniversary’ of losing him to lung cancer. He is greatly missed every day. Of course I wonder how things would have gone if he quit back then.
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Im sorry @anon70102222… I know what you go thru at times like this. My dad’s been going now, almost a year… I never figured we’d be orphans at this stage… I always figured we’d [I] would have more time with my parents… what I would give now for just one more day. 
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Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg on Tuesday said he would ban the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes and raise taxes on traditional cigarettes if he wins the White House.
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, said he would also push to reduce the amount of nicotine in traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to “nonaddictive levels.”
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Booooooooo
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Hmm I am not sure but I think you have missed a crucial bit of information it is all to line his own pocket.
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Just a few observations corresponding with your bullets
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I really hate the attitude that we will be fine because dIy stays as is (I don’t think that will be the case) What about all the people who are still smoking it is not like they will just start vaping and diying on the same day.
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The Australian government have been doing this for years - every year analogues go up by 12.5% the cost of a packet of smokes is going to hit $50 this year - it had a big impact at first dropping the smoking rate from 23% to 17% but in the last 3 years it has barely moved 0.6% meaning those truly addicted that are in a lower socio economic group are buying their cigarettes before they buy food for their kids - yes this is actually happening. Our government currently collects 15.5 billion dollars in sin tax off a population of just over 25 million people.
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Is the only point were we agree
I assure you nothing good will come from Bloomberg in relation to vaping ever.
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All it is boils down to election cycle lip service. He has zero interest in public health or supporting vaping as a smoking cessation method. Typical politician double-speak.
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It is getting late here and i need a minute or two sleep so I will be brief.
Banning of anything is not a good alt at all - you know full well that a given inch will be a mile in no time.
Taxes don’t hurt the Tobacco companies as much as they hurt smokers. Punitive sin tax doesn’t work either by itself or in conjunction with other measures.
I am not in a position to argue American politics since I am not an American but from the outside looking in he is just another self serving billionaire with only his own self interests at heart.
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No.
That’s insane.
If it were not for a Watermelon Mint flavored eliquid from a vape shop (along with a decent device), I would probably still be smoking cigarettes. I smoked for over 40 years.
#vapingflavorsavedmylife
And I KNOW there are thousands of others that testify the same as I. Just check out some of the testimonies on this site alone.
Prohibition of just about anything causes more undue harm to everyone.
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Remember, the government was poisoning alcohol to control bootlegging back in the Prohibition days. It was done not to intentionally hurt people, but rather to make it harder to convert industrial alcohol into potable liquor, but still. I call that undue harm for sure!
And hey @Mikser, we’re not ganging up on you. Just pointing out that a (partial) ban is a really bad idea.
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I get what you’re saying. Proper regulation isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that proper regulation with our BS government just isn’t possible. So let’s just have the politicians stay the hell out of our affairs.
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Not getting into, or addressing, who’s mouth this came out of, as I honestly and genuinely DON’T CARE (as long as the point of origin is a politician). With that said…
Even the concept of “dropping” the nicotine is nothing but lip-service IMO. There is long standing and indisputable evidence that they have been using other chemical products to boost the effects of both addiction and the effects of nicotine. So even if they lower it (which I’m sure they probably will) and the general public feels all warm and fuzzy about it…it still falls to address the combustion factor, or the thousands of other chemical Additives.
So why anyone would want to believe any of the entities in league with politics, the pharmaceutical industry, or the tobacco industry is…“easily led astray” or at the very least, getting snowed by the intentional redirection of the subjects that matter. Again, just my opinion.
It’s “not bad” ONLY for the states or government, or medical industry, that continue to benefit financially.
It’s bad for damned near everyone and everything else. Those addicted don’t get help. Those who lose years of time being spent with their loved one don’t get that time, etc, etc.
If ANY politician has/had the audacity to take a stand and say “cigarettes should be banned”, only one thing would happen. Those in power (who control the media, etc) who have coverage stopped on the individual brave enough to speak to the truths of the matter, and then add a smear campaign to paint them as “some crazy extremist”.
And that’s the reality of it.
No support (or concern) for the smokers. Only more money to the folks who already control it. If there was genuine concern, you’d be seeing money allocated by them to help smokers actually quit (the same way they earmark it for other projects).
The ONLY control a smoker has is to make the decision to quit. FULL STOP
After that decision is made is where the rest comes into play.
So talk about lowering nic in cigarettes is bullshit IMO. As they can always add more chemicals to offset the decrease in nic.
Smokers need safer VIABLE ways to quit.
While Polacrilex gum has worked for some, though not many. The same for Chantix and lozenges.
All of the above should stay on the market IMO, because even if they only help a small segment of the smokers quit, that’s a benefit…
The whole “problem with vaping” (from a political perspective) arises with the fact that it’s more effective as a smoking cessation mechanism, as well as the fact that it’s putting money into channels they don’t yet control.
The only other “problem” is with the nic salts, and and we still haven’t seen that being addressed in any scale large enough to have an impact on the “decision makers”.
I think salts have their place too. But don’t believe for a second it’s a good thing to have flavors banned even on those. The flavors were never the issue. The “buzz” was. Not to mention, the added bonus of it being small enough to “hide” in plain site (looking like a usb stick).
As for the politics of it all:
If people really care about the situation, they’ll be writing to, or talking with their elected representatives. Not only “listening” to them.
After all, they can’t represent YOU if they haven’t heard from YOU. 
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What I really hate is the damn capitalism prevailing throughout the world. Multinationals, transnationals, pressure lobbies, workers’ rights cuts, and above all the fragmentation of the working class and the loss of class consciousness.
Do not stone me.
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