Off to a good start.

There’s also video on the Meidastouch YouTube channel.

kii said:

Off to a good start.

:))))

kii said:

Off to a good start.

There’s also video on the Meidastouch YouTube channel.

Ha!

ruby said:

kii said:

Off to a good start.

:))))

Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.

Also the attack in New Orleans early on New Year’s day.
10 dead. Might be a terrorist out of Texas.

kii said:

ruby said:

kii said:

Off to a good start.

:))))

Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.

Oh.

That’s not good.

kii said:

Also the attack in New Orleans early on New Year’s day.
10 dead. Might be a terrorist out of Texas.

That’s not good.

Michael V said:

kii said:

ruby said:

:))))

Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.

Oh.

That’s not good.

No. :((((

Michael V said:

kii said:

ruby said:

:))))

Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.

Oh.

That’s not good.

There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Reports are saying that someone was in the vehicle. There was an explosion.

Oh.

That’s not good.

There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0

More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Michael V said:

Oh.

That’s not good.

There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0

More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1

insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0

More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1

insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side

One dead.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-02/tesla-cybertruck-explodes-outside-of-trump-las-vegas-hotel/104778394

https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329

Link

Bogsnorkler said:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329

Link

Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.

good plan, always knew that Super Bowl attendees were more valuable than general new year festives

SCIENCE said:

Bogsnorkler said:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/1-dead-vehicle-strikes-crowd-new-orleans-police/story?id=117246329

Link

Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.

good plan, always knew that Super Bowl attendees were more valuable than general new year festives

oh and also what do you gun control communists have to say now eh

Police Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. The truck used in the attack appeared to be a F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle.

you insisted that guns were the problem, you wanted to ban them and infringe our 1234567890sd amendments, well now you see how dangerous electric vehicles are you should ban those immediately, nobody ever did this with a coal powered carriage now did they

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

There’s a video here of the event from inside the hotel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2025/1/1/cybertruck-bursts-into-flames-outside-trump-hotel#flips-6366601825112:0

More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1

insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side

It’s the insidious deevs

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

More videos here https://www.threads.net/@insideevscom/post/DESwpgFv1-1

insideevs eh is that like a deevs of the dark side

It’s the insidious deevs

:)

kii said:

:)

kii said:

Indeed.

kii said:

Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?

Lol…no.

kii said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Are there any predictions in the US of hilarious escapades in Washington DC on 6 Jan., in the vein of those which occured the last time around?

Lol…no.

It could be sped up and have Benny Hill as the background music.

Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.

Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?

Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.

Two Bit da Vinci.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N92aRF-vAY

kii said:

Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.

What’s he going to do?

Make a present of a cybertruck to each of them?

kii said:

Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.

This does not surprise me one iota.

Spiny Norman said:

Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?

Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.

Two Bit da Vinci.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N92aRF-vAY

I’m still curious as to how the primary explosion seems to come out of underneath the car, and through the front window before it comes out the top. Maybe the actual explosive was laid on the rear passenger floor. I dunno, I guess we might find out eventually.

Kingy said:

Spiny Norman said:

Vegas Cybertruck Explosion – What Really Happened?

Early on New Years Day a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. The news media ran with the story and starting spreading misinformation I feel I should try to correct. So let’s figure out what really happened.

Two Bit da Vinci.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N92aRF-vAY

I’m still curious as to how the primary explosion seems to come out of underneath the car, and through the front window before it comes out the top. Maybe the actual explosive was laid on the rear passenger floor. I dunno, I guess we might find out eventually.

Yep. The battery seems to be otherwise fine though, so that’s good.
Perhaps there’s an under-floor compartment in the tray that had some kind of explosive sitting in it, and that burst through the bottom … ?

Michael V said:

kii said:

Apparently Musk is threatening media over the coverage of his truck incident.

This does not surprise me one iota.

The good news is that he will have a direct line to the Department of Justice now, he can basically get them on the bloz and list the indictments he needs.

She seems nice.

https://x.com/i/status/1874940284582396359

Spiny Norman said:

She seems nice.

https://x.com/i/status/1874940284582396359

No.

Trump has successfully sued the ABC (US) for defamation, with ABC agreeing to settle with a $16 million payment. This is in relation to George Stephanopoulos saying in an interview that Trump had been found liable for rape by injury. This was not quite correct: the jury found him liable for sexual abuse for forcing his fingers into her vagina without consent, and the judge in the case separately described it as being “rape” in common language.

dv said:

Trump has successfully sued the ABC (US) for defamation, with ABC agreeing to settle with a $16 million payment. This is in relation to George Stephanopoulos saying in an interview that Trump had been found liable for rape by injury. This was not quite correct: the jury found him liable for sexual abuse for forcing his fingers into her vagina without consent, and the judge in the case separately described it as being “rape” in common language.

Sweet hey

A reward for semantics really

Now to reap the whirlwind…

AussieDJ said:

Now to reap the whirlwind…

On 21 January, all their wishes will come true.

To nobody’s great surprise, it seems to Las Vegas Tesla bomber was a MAGA loyalist with a military background (in fact a still serving soldier). I am sure the choice of venue and vehicle is a political statement about the Trump movement being hijacked by the oligarchy. Only it didn’t do nearly as much booms as he was hoping. Authorities believe he killed himself in the car.

party_pants said:

To nobody’s great surprise, it seems to Las Vegas Tesla bomber was a MAGA loyalist with a military background (in fact a still serving soldier). I am sure the choice of venue and vehicle is a political statement about the Trump movement being hijacked by the oligarchy. Only it didn’t do nearly as much booms as he was hoping. Authorities believe he killed himself in the car.

The MAGA loyalists are really like Nazi brown shirts, perhaps less psychotic

AussieDJ said:

Now to reap the whirlwind…

Nods.

Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 2, 2025 (Thursday)

This evening, President Joe Biden awarded twenty Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Biden chose these particular individuals because he “believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others” and that “he country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Those twenty included civil rights leaders who fought to end racial segregation, promote Black voting, restore rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, legalize same-sex marriage, and defend women’s rights to equality, and reformers who advanced tax reform and the reform of financial markets, moved forward childcare policies, advanced common-sense gun-safety regulations, and promoted women’s health.

They included military personnel who perfected trauma care, ensured that female service members received the recognition they deserve, and worked to repair the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam; a war correspondent who recorded the experience of battle; a photographer and philanthropist who has advanced teacher training and micro-enterprise in developing countries, and an educator who has guided students toward the arts.

The recipients included both Democrats and Republicans, with Biden honoring Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) for example, for supporting abortion rights. “he stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone,” he said, “and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.”

And the recipients included the chair and vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, informally known as the January 6th Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). Biden praised Thompson for “defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” He praised Cheney for raising her voice and reaching across the aisle “to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” He added: “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”

Biden also offered a public message today in response to the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and wounding 30 others.

Before today’s Sugar Bowl playoff between Georgia and Notre Dame in New Orleans, Biden addressed the nation: “Today all America stands with the people of New Orleans. We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday’s attack. We are grateful… for the brave first responders who raced to save lives. We’re glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”

While Biden focuses on protecting civil rights and making progress together in a unified America, Trump and Elon Musk are doubling down on dividing Americans. Over the holiday, the fight between the original MAGA and the new tech billionaires taking over the Trump White House continued, and Trump and Musk appear to be trying to heal that rift by returning to culture war themes.

The fight began over immigration, which MAGA opposes and Musk champions for skilled workers, but spread as the Musk faction attacked the American culture MAGA celebrates. After rising to prominence by attacking immigrants, Trump sided with the Musk faction.

On New Year’s Eve, as President-elect Trump set out for a party at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked him why he had changed his mind on the H-1B visas that enable employers to bring skilled workers to the U.S. “I didn’t change my mind,” Trump answered. “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”

This is a dramatic change from Trump’s previous positions. On March 4, 2016, for example, Trump’s social media account posted: “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay…. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first…. No exceptions.” It is this stand on immigration that Trump’s MAGA base supports.

For his part, last Friday Musk told those opposed to H-1B visas to “ake a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face.” He said: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” But MAGA news sites Breitbart and Newsmax didn’t back down, reporting a story by Fred Lambert of Electrek, a site that follows the changeover from fossil-fuel to green vehicles, pointing out that Musk’s Tesla is a major user of H-1B visa workers and that it requested more than 2,400 such workers at the same time it was laying off U.S. workers early in 2024.

On New Year’s Eve, Musk changed his name on X to the name of a meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on an online meme, and changed his avatar to one using symbols favored by the far right. Some of his supporters saw the changes as a signal of his true beliefs, especially as he is strongly supporting the right-wing AfD party in Germany.

Trump also seemed to swing back to his MAGA base when he returned to his attacks on immigrants by echoing a mistaken report by the Fox News Channel. Trump falsely linked the New Orleans attack to “criminals coming in” from other countries and claimed that the U.S. has “open borders,” although in fact, encounters at the border have fallen to a four-year low, lower now than when Trump left office.

The abrupt elevation of culture wars echoes the formula Republicans have used for the past forty years to distract from the reality that between 1981 and 2021 their embrace of so-called supply-side economics moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Distracting voters with outrage over “welfare queens,” “Libtards,” and so on, kept the country focused on cultural issues rather than economic ones.

As Musk and Trump appear to be making up for their defense of immigration by courting the far right again, Anthony Adragna of Politico reported today that incoming House Republicans are also relying on culture wars to hold their coalition together. Adragna reports they are planning to make trans rights their “marquee fight” of 2025.

That focus is likely intended to distract Republican voters from the reality that Trump has promised to swing the country away from Biden’s investment in rebuilding the middle class. Biden’s focus on employment meant that unemployment dropped dramatically during his term, more people got access to affordable health care, labor unions showed historic growth, and real wages went up so much that according to economist David Doney, workers now have the highest real hourly wages since the 1960s.

Good news for workers was good news for everyone: the country’s economic growth was more than double that of any other country in the Group of 7 (G7) economically advanced democracies.

But Trump has been very clear that he rejects this system and intends to take the country back to supply-side economics, in which the government encourages the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy. Those who embrace this theory argue that wealthy investors will use their money more efficiently than they could under government regulation.
Trump has promised to fill his cabinet with billionaires, and top donors have been donating as much as $2 million to his inauguration fund (those at that level can get up to six tickets to events of the inaugural weekend). According to Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson of the New York Times, Trump’s promise to back Wall Street investors and corporate boardrooms has given them high hopes for the Trump administration.

And, of course, Musk, the world’s richest man, has eclipsed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance and sometimes even Trump himself as the face of the incoming administration.

Trump’s very public embrace of billionaires comes just weeks after the December 4, 2024, shooting of United Healthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson revealed a large American population that is desperately angry at wealthy and powerful executives. Across social media, posts have been defending and even praising Thompson’s alleged murderer since the shooting. Even those who avoided championing the shooter took exception to the fact that those defending Thompson’s industry and deploring his murder had little to say about those people who died after insurance companies denied their claims.

For decades now, Republicans have been able to keep class tensions at bay by hammering constantly on culture wars, and they appear to be trying that again to smooth over the fight between MAGA and the billionaires. But it is possible that the rumbling anger that flashed to the surface over the killing of an insurance CEO will reinforce the MAGA wing and keep class, rather than culture, uppermost.

If Trump does not bring down prices, as he promised and now has downplayed, if he imposes tariffs that will force poorer and middle-class Americans to pay for the tax cuts he has promised to the wealthy and corporations, if Republicans cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to balance the budget; all while Musk continues to pull down billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the rhetorical formula that worked for so long might finally break.

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 2, 2025 (Thursday)

This evening, President Joe Biden awarded twenty Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, which is given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Biden chose these particular individuals because he “believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others” and that “he country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Those twenty included civil rights leaders who fought to end racial segregation, promote Black voting, restore rights for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, legalize same-sex marriage, and defend women’s rights to equality, and reformers who advanced tax reform and the reform of financial markets, moved forward childcare policies, advanced common-sense gun-safety regulations, and promoted women’s health.

They included military personnel who perfected trauma care, ensured that female service members received the recognition they deserve, and worked to repair the relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam; a war correspondent who recorded the experience of battle; a photographer and philanthropist who has advanced teacher training and micro-enterprise in developing countries, and an educator who has guided students toward the arts.

The recipients included both Democrats and Republicans, with Biden honoring Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) for example, for supporting abortion rights. “he stood up for what she believed in even if it meant standing alone,” he said, “and she reached across the aisle to do what she believed was right.”

And the recipients included the chair and vice chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, informally known as the January 6th Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY). Biden praised Thompson for “defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth.” He praised Cheney for raising her voice and reaching across the aisle “to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency.” He added: “Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together.”

Biden also offered a public message today in response to the horrific New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans in which Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen and Army veteran from Texas, drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and wounding 30 others.

Before today’s Sugar Bowl playoff between Georgia and Notre Dame in New Orleans, Biden addressed the nation: “Today all America stands with the people of New Orleans. We pray for those killed and injured in yesterday’s attack. We are grateful… for the brave first responders who raced to save lives. We’re glad the game is back on for today, but I’m not surprised, because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. That’s also true of the spirit of America. We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity if we do it together. God bless New Orleans, and God protect our troops.”

While Biden focuses on protecting civil rights and making progress together in a unified America, Trump and Elon Musk are doubling down on dividing Americans. Over the holiday, the fight between the original MAGA and the new tech billionaires taking over the Trump White House continued, and Trump and Musk appear to be trying to heal that rift by returning to culture war themes.

The fight began over immigration, which MAGA opposes and Musk champions for skilled workers, but spread as the Musk faction attacked the American culture MAGA celebrates. After rising to prominence by attacking immigrants, Trump sided with the Musk faction.

On New Year’s Eve, as President-elect Trump set out for a party at Mar-a-Lago, a reporter asked him why he had changed his mind on the H-1B visas that enable employers to bring skilled workers to the U.S. “I didn’t change my mind,” Trump answered. “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in.”

This is a dramatic change from Trump’s previous positions. On March 4, 2016, for example, Trump’s social media account posted: “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay…. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first…. No exceptions.” It is this stand on immigration that Trump’s MAGA base supports.

For his part, last Friday Musk told those opposed to H-1B visas to “ake a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face.” He said: “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” But MAGA news sites Breitbart and Newsmax didn’t back down, reporting a story by Fred Lambert of Electrek, a site that follows the changeover from fossil-fuel to green vehicles, pointing out that Musk’s Tesla is a major user of H-1B visa workers and that it requested more than 2,400 such workers at the same time it was laying off U.S. workers early in 2024.

On New Year’s Eve, Musk changed his name on X to the name of a meme coin, a cryptocurrency based on an online meme, and changed his avatar to one using symbols favored by the far right. Some of his supporters saw the changes as a signal of his true beliefs, especially as he is strongly supporting the right-wing AfD party in Germany.

Trump also seemed to swing back to his MAGA base when he returned to his attacks on immigrants by echoing a mistaken report by the Fox News Channel. Trump falsely linked the New Orleans attack to “criminals coming in” from other countries and claimed that the U.S. has “open borders,” although in fact, encounters at the border have fallen to a four-year low, lower now than when Trump left office.

The abrupt elevation of culture wars echoes the formula Republicans have used for the past forty years to distract from the reality that between 1981 and 2021 their embrace of so-called supply-side economics moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Distracting voters with outrage over “welfare queens,” “Libtards,” and so on, kept the country focused on cultural issues rather than economic ones.

As Musk and Trump appear to be making up for their defense of immigration by courting the far right again, Anthony Adragna of Politico reported today that incoming House Republicans are also relying on culture wars to hold their coalition together. Adragna reports they are planning to make trans rights their “marquee fight” of 2025.

That focus is likely intended to distract Republican voters from the reality that Trump has promised to swing the country away from Biden’s investment in rebuilding the middle class. Biden’s focus on employment meant that unemployment dropped dramatically during his term, more people got access to affordable health care, labor unions showed historic growth, and real wages went up so much that according to economist David Doney, workers now have the highest real hourly wages since the 1960s.

Good news for workers was good news for everyone: the country’s economic growth was more than double that of any other country in the Group of 7 (G7) economically advanced democracies.

But Trump has been very clear that he rejects this system and intends to take the country back to supply-side economics, in which the government encourages the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy. Those who embrace this theory argue that wealthy investors will use their money more efficiently than they could under government regulation.
Trump has promised to fill his cabinet with billionaires, and top donors have been donating as much as $2 million to his inauguration fund (those at that level can get up to six tickets to events of the inaugural weekend). According to Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson of the New York Times, Trump’s promise to back Wall Street investors and corporate boardrooms has given them high hopes for the Trump administration.

And, of course, Musk, the world’s richest man, has eclipsed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance and sometimes even Trump himself as the face of the incoming administration.

Trump’s very public embrace of billionaires comes just weeks after the December 4, 2024, shooting of United Healthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson revealed a large American population that is desperately angry at wealthy and powerful executives. Across social media, posts have been defending and even praising Thompson’s alleged murderer since the shooting. Even those who avoided championing the shooter took exception to the fact that those defending Thompson’s industry and deploring his murder had little to say about those people who died after insurance companies denied their claims.

For decades now, Republicans have been able to keep class tensions at bay by hammering constantly on culture wars, and they appear to be trying that again to smooth over the fight between MAGA and the billionaires. But it is possible that the rumbling anger that flashed to the surface over the killing of an insurance CEO will reinforce the MAGA wing and keep class, rather than culture, uppermost.

If Trump does not bring down prices, as he promised and now has downplayed, if he imposes tariffs that will force poorer and middle-class Americans to pay for the tax cuts he has promised to the wealthy and corporations, if Republicans cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to balance the budget; all while Musk continues to pull down billions of dollars in taxpayer money, the rhetorical formula that worked for so long might finally break.

Ta. Looks bleak.

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

An oil well?

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

An oil well?

A wishing well.

Tau.Neutrino said:

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

An oil well?

A wishing well.

“I wish that these Yanquis would go home.”

Bogsnorkler said:

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true

The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

How does this all tie in with his war-ending mantra?

Tau.Neutrino said:

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

An oil well?

A wishing well.

an unwell

So typical of America.

Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.

Judge rules president-elect Donald Trump must be sentenced in ‘hush money’ trial.
“https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-04/judge-rules-trump-must-be-sentenced-for-hush-money-trial/104784094”:

kii said:

So typical of America.

Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.

exactly which just proves that USSA is a kind and forgiving nation

kii said:

So typical of America.

Since initially reported, the woman has now been given the time off. Paid.

FMD!

Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XH3cduaxI

Spiny Norman said:

Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XH3cduaxI

That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:

Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

I think the answer to that is likely no.

Michael V said:

Spiny Norman said:

Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XH3cduaxI

That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:

Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

I think the answer to that is likely no.

I agree. But it they did, I think it’s unlikely they’ll get a 2/4’s majority to allow Trump to continue.

Peak Warming Man said:

Bogsnorkler said:

Peak Warming Man said:

If you send $20 to PeterT Ministeries he’ll say a prayer to save Mexico and for an extra $20 he’ll drill a well in a Mexican village.

Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true

The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..

The Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes

Tau.Neutrino said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Bogsnorkler said:

Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true

The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..

The Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes

long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Peak Warming Man said:

The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..

The Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes

long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.

R. Sole.

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes

long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.

R. Sole.

yeah. but some of his word play was amusing.

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Peak Warming Man said:

The Girl With the Far Away Eyes is a classic of irreverence..

The Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes

long time ago ex boyfriend used to do a cover singing the girl with the far apart thighs.

LOL

Heather Cox Richardson
2m ·
January 3, 2025 (Friday)

Today a new Congress, the 119th, came into session. As Annie Karni of the New York Times noted, Americans had a rare view into the floor action of the House because the party in control sets the rules for what parts of the House floor viewers can see. Without a speaker, there is no party in charge to set the rules, so the C-SPAN cameras recording the day could move as their operators wished.

Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. All eyes were on the House, where Republicans will hold 219 seats. Initially, though, that number will be 218: The seat to which Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was elected will be empty since he resigned from the previous Congress and, after the House Ethics Committee released a report saying there was “substantial evidence” that Gaetz had broken state and federal laws, apparently decided to focus on his new media show rather than return to the House. When the clerk announced that Gaetz would not take a seat in the 119th Congress, applause broke out.

The Democrats hold 215 seats, and everyone showed up to opening day, including Dwight Evans (D-PA), who has been absent since suffering a stroke last May, and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who fell and broke her hip on a congressional trip to Luxembourg in mid-December. Scott MacFarlane reported that Pelosi, who received a hip replacement at the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, entered the chamber smiling. C-SPAN reported that she had replaced her trademark high heels with flats.

Notably, there are fewer women in the 119th Congress than in the previous one, and there will be no women chairing committees in the Republican-dominated House.

The first problem for the Republicans to solve was the election of a House speaker. It took 15 ballots to elect Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) when the Republicans took control of the House in 2023, and McCarthy had made so many concessions to the far right that they were able to remove him from office just ten months later, the first time in history that a party removed its own speaker in the middle of a session. Then they cycled through four candidates and four votes before settling on backbencher Mike Johnson (R-LA) for speaker. But while Johnson’s evangelical Christianity and support for Trump’s Big Lie about having won the 2020 presidential election indicated he was an extremist, Johnson immediately infuriated the far-right wing of the Republican Party by agreeing to fund the government without incorporating their extreme demands.

Far-right members want to use the need to fund government operations as leverage to get what they want. In a memo before today’s vote, they claimed that Trump and the Republicans hold a “historic mandate,” although in fact Trump won less than 50% of the vote in one of the smallest margins in U.S. history. They have said publicly they would not vote for Johnson as speaker again, likely to extract concessions that give them more power, but Johnson vowed not to make any concessions to them.

Trump was mad at Johnson for backing the passage just before Christmas of a continuing resolution to fund the government without getting rid of the debt ceiling as Trump demanded. But, likely recognizing that the House needs to be organized before it can count the electoral votes that will make him president, Trump endorsed Johnson on social media and worked the phones to support him before today’s vote.

In the first ballot today, all 215 Democrats voted for Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), with him and former House speaker Pelosi sharing a hug when she voted for him. A number of Republicans declined to vote initially, then 216 voted for Johnson while three others voted for someone else, leaving Johnson two votes short of the 218 he needed to be elected.

It was a dramatic rejection not only of Johnson, but also of Trump, who had posted that “ win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!!—A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!” But his candidate still could not get the votes he needed from within his own party to run the House.

Scenes like this explain why I remain astonished by the persistence of the narrative that the Democrats are divided while the Republicans are in lockstep.

After the initial vote but before it was gaveled to a close, Johnson went into his office with eight members of the far-right Freedom Caucus, while Trump and incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles called the holdouts. When they emerged, two of the members who had voted for people other than Johnson switched their vote to him, giving him the votes he needed to become the speaker of the 119th Congress. One of the holdouts, Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the man who urged Trump to declare “Marshall Law” on January 17, 2021, to keep President-elect Joe Biden from taking over the presidency.

As soon as they had voted for Johnson, eleven far-right representatives sent a letter to their colleagues saying they had voted for Johnson because they wanted to make sure they didn’t mess up the January 6 counting of Trump’s electoral votes. But they warned that if Johnson didn’t reduce the deficit by enacting “real” spending cuts, stop working with Democrats, and only entertain measures supported by a majority of Republicans, they would challenge his speakership.

For his part, Democratic leader Jeffries said to the House: “Our position is that it is not acceptable to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut veterans’ benefits, or cut nutritional assistance from children and families in order to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations.”

So Johnson is speaker again, but he’s already caught between the MAGAs demanding significant budget cuts and the Democrats’ promise to call attention to every one of those cuts. And popular anger at billionaires seems to be increasing daily: today Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post after her editor killed a cartoon criticizing the tech and media leaders who have been currying favor with Trump. “ditorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate,” she wrote, and after watching colleagues overseas “risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to…hold their countries’ leaders accountable,” she chose to leave so she could continue to speak truth to power.

This afternoon, Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump to report in person or virtually for sentencing in the election interference case in which a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies related to payments he made to film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public with the story of their sexual encounter before the 2016 election. Trump had tried to get the case dismissed because he had been elected president. His spokesperson called the sentencing order a “witch hunt.”

Merchan indicated he would not sentence Trump to serve time in jail.

Meanwhile, at the White House today, President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to five Korean War veterans who may have been denied the nation’s highest award for military valor because of their race or ethnicity, and upgraded awards of the Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor for two veterans of the Vietnam War. Specialist Fourth Class Kenneth J. David was the only one of the men who could receive the honor personally. Biden also awarded fourteen individuals with the National Medal of Science and nine people and two organizations with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He also awarded the Medal of Valor to eight public safety officers for acting above and beyond the call of duty. The awards went to officers who ran toward gunfire to save children during the Nashville Covenant School shooting, swam through freezing water to save a drowning woman, and rushed into burning buildings to rescue women and children.

Biden honored the military personnel for their bravery, and the scientists for their “discoveries that are helping us meet the climate crisis, treat crippling disease, create lifesaving vaccines, pioneer the way we communicate, and significantly improve our understanding of the universe and our place within it.” But it was his remarks about the eight public safety officers awarded the Medal of Valor for acting above and beyond the call of duty that stood out.

He called in the press and said: “Folks, I wanted you to come in because…I think it’s very important that the public see them and know who they are…. There’s a lot fewer empty chairs around the kitchen table and dining room table because of what these guys did.” Biden thanked their families, “because if you’re the spouse of a firefighter or a police officer, you always worry about that phone call,” and told the award recipients: “You’re the best America has to offer.”

Yesterday, Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, given to those “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” to twenty Americans including former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who served on the January 6 committee. Today, Trump attacked Cheney and others who investigated the events of January 6, 2021, as “dishonest Thugs.”

Cheney responded: “Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us. Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened? Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you. Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember. And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic—to protect the America we love from you.”

Spiny Norman said:

Michael V said:

Spiny Norman said:

Can Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel. Anthony Davis reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XH3cduaxI

That’s probably not the right question to ask. Better perhaps:

Will Congress block Trump from taking office under the 14th Amendment?

I think the answer to that is likely no.

I agree. But it they did, I think it’s unlikely they’ll get a 2/4’s majority to allow Trump to continue.

anyone else find this egregious narrative distortion framing more than a bit jarring

“much more right wing group of clowns means right wing plans aren’t all that likely to proceed”

“Good news ¡ If you play roulette with 5 bullets in a 6 barrel then death isn’t certain ¡”

So Johnson is speaker again, but he’s already caught between the MAGAs demanding significant budget cuts and the Democrats’ promise to call attention to every one of those cuts. And popular anger at billionaires seems to be increasing daily: today Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonist Ann Telnaes left the Washington Post after her editor killed a cartoon criticizing the tech and media leaders who have been currying favor with Trump. “ditorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate,” she wrote, and after watching colleagues overseas “risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to…hold their countries’ leaders accountable,” she chose to leave so she could continue to speak truth to power.

The Las Vegas truck explosion guy appears to have had a TBI from his military service. Also reported as being a trump supporter.
With all the shit that trump has said about the military and the disrespect shown he has shown (photo ops for the campaign in a sacred military cemetery), one has to wonder what tipped him over the edge.
The Musk and Ramaswamy proposed cuts to Veterans health care?
Blowing up a Musk truck outside a trump hotel seems legit.

Very good of his old secret service agents to do that.

Spiny Norman said:

Very good of his old secret service agents to do that.

They would probably have been lifelong friends almost.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

dv said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

Should buy a few slabs for the party.

And a couple of favours, afterwards.

dv said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.

Michael V said:

dv said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.

Couldn’t happen here.

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.

Couldn’t happen here.

Yeah, right.

democracy at work

SCIENCE said:

democracy at work

Yeah. Roll your own, buy your own. Buy and own.

Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Donating $1 Million to Donald Trump’s Inauguration Fund

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1-million-trump-inauguration-1236265079/

A true philanthropist

Well, it means he and his businesses will also get special consideration.

Couldn’t happen here.

Didn’t Federal Parly just pass a law before the Christmas break specifically about corporate donations and the money influence of people like Clive Palmer…?

So no, it probably couldn’t.

Besides which, we don’t do inauguration ceremonies, the PM and cabinet are sworn in at the G-Gs office in the day or so after the election result is called.

dv said:

Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.

team sports

show over substance

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

Not sure why everything has to be a song and dance for these Americans. When we get a new PM they sign a couple of documents with the GG, maybe have a photo taken.

team sports

show over substance

Likely.

BBC News:

“….another White House run…”

Not for the Democrats, she won’t.

The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.

Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.

A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.

A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.

A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.

And he beat both of them.

It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.

captain_spalding said:

BBC News:

“….another White House run…”

Not for the Democrats, she won’t.

The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.

Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.

A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.

A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.

A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.

And he beat both of them.

It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.

She should probably just wash her hands and accept a lucrative private sector position. There’s no helping the US electorate.

captain_spalding said:

BBC News:

“….another White House run…”

Not for the Democrats, she won’t.

The Dems have put up two female candidates for the Presidency.

Both of them were beaten by Donald Trump.

A man who makes George W. Bush look smart.

A man who makes Richard Nixon look like a paragon of honesty.

A man who makes Bill Clinton look like a model of marital fidelity.

And he beat both of them.

It’s going to be a long time before the phrase ‘woman for President’ has any currency in the Democratic Party.

GofC might be doable.

What about just moving to the Bahamas or US Virgin Islands for a while and relaxing by the beach?

party_pants said:

GofC might be doable.

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

‘Goverbnor’.

Nice new word. Could be useful.

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

GofC might be doable.

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

GofC might be doable.

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

GofC might be doable.

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?

Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.

Peak Warming Man said:

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.

Yeah, well, there is that, i suppose.

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?

Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.

No, i meant parachuting her into N. Dakota, or (somewhere more civilised) Vermont or somewhere.

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?

Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.

she also appears to be someone who wants to make changes so a do nothing job wouldn’t suit I don’t think.

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

What, you can’t just parachute in a candidate, like they do here?

Hardly parachuting in. She was AG of California for a while (elected office) and then a Senator for California. Kinda well-known already over there before becoming VP.

No, i meant parachuting her into N. Dakota, or (somewhere more civilised) Vermont or somewhere.

I don’t see the point. I don’t think running for the Whitehouse again is a good idea, but California seems the logical next step.

I don’t know what the big local or state issues are in California, or where she stands on those issues. But she’s got the netorks and the supporter and donors etc to have a decent crack at it.

Peak Warming Man said:

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

Wouldn’t Goverbnor of (e.g.) North Dakota be a better gig?

No-one really expects the Governor of North Dakota (or similar) to actually do anything.

She’s not from North Dakota, she’s from California. A state which voted for her pretty strongly, like 58-38 or something like that. She’d be a chance at winning it.

SHE’S AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AND SHE WOULD HAVE LET IN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS OF FELLOW TRAVELLERS IF SHE’D WON.

You really seem to hate Indian immigrants

SCIENCE said:

Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.

SCIENCE said:

Not for me.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.

And many more, besides.

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

Enjoy Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.

And many more, besides.

we will definitely enjoy observing this

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.

Cymek said:

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.

I just saw it on Instagram with a meidastouch link.

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Might give Trump that impetus he needs…

Michael V said:

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Might give Trump that impetus he needs…

And then a great platform to annex Greenland.

Michael V said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Might give Trump that impetus he needs…

And then a great platform to annex Greenland.

Only Dirty Russians Casually Acquire Neighbouring Territory With Veiled Thre… Ve… T… Very Fine Tariffs ¡

From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.

buffy said:

From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.

Its a pity he isn’t an NPC

buffy said:

From my sister’s Facebook. The sign is in Georgia.

Nice.

:)

Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)

Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.

He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.

His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”

“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”

The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.

No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.

Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”

Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.

Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.

That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.

The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.

In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.

As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.

What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.

When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.

As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”

But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.

Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”

But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.

Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”

In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.

And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.

But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionaires

Trump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.

“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”

He sounds like a fully paid up victim of fox “news” and US military propaganda.

Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.

No, wait, I’ll kill myself in a stunt in a cybertruck outside trump tower, that’ll learn ‘em.

The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.

‘Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.’

Like fucking for virginity.

‘The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.’

What makes you think that it’s much better here? Not just for ex-service people. Got problems? Well, help is available…as long as you have plenty of money. Sure, there’s ‘public health’ mental health services, but they’re choked with treating drug addicts, because drug-additcion is seen as a ‘mental health’ issue, so there’s no room for the likes of you and me. And drug addicts don’t have money, so they’re not going to go ‘private’. And there’s a lot of them.

For peasants like you and me, there’s no help, no matter what the pamphlets say.

captain_spalding said:

‘Also, “get the billionaires out of government by voting for trump” is just as fucking stupid as it gets.’

Like fucking for virginity.

‘The guy served his country and risked his life for the likes of trump, he needed help, and help is not what you get from the US Govt when you need help.’

What makes you think that it’s much better here? Not just for ex-service people. Got problems? Well, help is available…as long as you have plenty of money. Sure, there’s ‘public health’ mental health services, but they’re choked with treating drug addicts, because drug-additcion is seen as a ‘mental health’ issue, so there’s no room for the likes of you and me. And drug addicts don’t have money, so they’re not going to go ‘private’. And there’s a lot of them.

For peasants like you and me, there’s no help, no matter what the pamphlets say.

suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.

sarahs mum said:

suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.

When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:

‘Are you hearing voices?’

‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’

‘Do you consider suicide?’

‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’

If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.

After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.

captain_spalding said:

sarahs mum said:

suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.

When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:

‘Are you hearing voices?’

‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’

‘Do you consider suicide?’

‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’

If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.

After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.

I spoke to my doc a few years ago about the fact that I had several symptoms of depression.

He asked me if I had thought about killing myself.

I said no, I want to live forever, that’s why I’m here.

Kingy said:

captain_spalding said:

sarahs mum said:

suicidal ideation. that’s the ticket. drug addiction and depression and all won’t get you no where. threaten to top yourself and you get a shrink.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Qld Health’s MH facilities are filled tothe brim with addicts, so they may be getting more consideration here than elsewhere.

When you have an interview/assessment with a MH person here, you can count on hearing certain questions:

‘Are you hearing voices?’

‘Are you ‘seeing things’?’

‘Do you consider suicide?’

‘Do you have any plan for suicide?’

If the answer is ‘no’ to all of those, and if you’re feeling particularly perceptive, you can actually watch the interest fade from the MH person’s eyes.

After that, all you get is the ‘live’ version of a recorded message: ‘go and see your GP’.

I spoke to my doc a few years ago about the fact that I had several symptoms of depression.

He asked me if I had thought about killing myself.

I said no, I want to live forever, that’s why I’m here.

I said no, but there’s a few people i wouldn’t mind knocking off.

Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.

captain_spalding said:

Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.

but we like football.

sarahs mum said:

captain_spalding said:

Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.

but we like football.

Bread and circuses, that’s what they like.

And, you can even be economical with the bread, if the circuses are sufficiently distracting.

sarahs mum said:

captain_spalding said:

Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.

but we like football.

How do you feel about meat pies, kangaroos and Holdens…?

Cymek said:

kii said:

Trudeau might resign this week.
Possible conflict about the tariffs etc.

Best place to check is in the Just In tab on the ABC news.

Trudeau resignation.

sarahs mum said:

captain_spalding said:

Well, SM was talking about the Tasmanian health system, which, by all accounts, is about a quarter of a very thin hair’s breadth away from total collapse, anyway.

but we like football.

:(

There is a lot being posted today about January 6 2021, but this arsehole’s misogynistic and ugly behaviour from last week just makes me so fucking angry.

Men, do better. Call it out. Stop accepting it.
At least be civil.

kii said:

There is a lot being posted today about January 6 2021, but this arsehole’s misogynistic and ugly behaviour from last week just makes me so fucking angry.

Men, do better. Call it out. Stop accepting it.
At least be civil.

That guy is a rude deadshit.

Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
January 6, 2025 (Monday)

In less than 40 minutes today in snow-covered Washington, D.C., a joint session of Congress counted the certified electoral votes that will make Republican Donald Trump president of the United States at noon on January 20. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the session in her role as president of the Senate, announcing to Congress the ballot totals. The ceremony went smoothly, without challenges to any of the certified state ballots. Trump won 312 electoral votes; Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president, won 226.

The Democrats emphasized routine process and acceptance of election results to reinforce that the key element of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Before the session, Harris released a video on social media reminding people that “he peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”

But at the session, the tableau on the dais itself illustrated that Republicans have elevated lawmakers who reject that principle. Behind the vice president sat the newly reelected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA), who was a key player in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election: he lied about fraud; recruited colleagues to join a lawsuit challenging the election results from the key states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia; and, after the January 6 riot, challenged the counting of certified votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

After the session concluded, Harris told reporters: “Well, today was…obviously, a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

“And today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included, today, performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine, then, the outcome of an election.

“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it—every single person, their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis.

“And today, America’s democracy stood.”

Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again.

It did not seem initially as if any such a resurrection was possible. While MAGA lawmakers and influencers tried to insist that “Antifa” or FBI plants had launched the riot that made congress members hide in fear for their lives while Secret Service agents rushed Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, to a secure location, that left at least seven people dead and at least 140 police officers wounded, and that did about $3 million of damage to the Capitol as rioters broke windows and doors, looted offices, smeared feces on the walls, and tore down an American flag to replace it with a Trump flag, there was little doubt, even among Trump loyalists, as to who was to blame.

All four living presidents condemned Trump and his supporters; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all suspended him; members of his cabinet resigned in protest; corporations and institutions dropped their support for Trump.

Indeed, it seemed that the whole Trump ship was foundering. Trump advisor Hope Hicks texted Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff that the Trump family was now “royally f*cked.” “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boy’s chapter,” Hicks wrote. “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad & upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now.” “Not being dramatic, but we are all f*cked.”

Even then–Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a blistering account of Trump’s behavior and said: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”

But McConnell appeared reluctant to see Trump impeached. He delayed the Senate trial of the House’s charge of “incitement of insurrection” until Biden was president, then pressed for Trump’s acquittal on the grounds that he was no longer president. Even before that February 2021 acquittal, then–House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—who had had a shouting match with Trump on January 6 in which he allegedly begged Trump to call off his supporters and yelled that the rioters were “trying to f*cking kill me!”—traveled to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago to get him to support Republican candidates in the 2022 election.

Their hunger to keep Trump’s voters began the process of whitewashing Trump’s attempt to overturn our democracy. At the same time, those Republicans who had either participated in the scheme or gone along with it continued to defend their behavior. As time passed, they downplayed the violence of January 6. As early as May 2021, some began to claim it was less a deadly attack than a “normal tourist visit.”

When the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol began to collect testimony and evidence, Trump and fellow Republicans did all they could to discredit it. As it became clear that Trump would win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they worked to exonerate him from wrongdoing and accused the Democrats of misleading Americans about the events of that day.

In February 2021, McConnell defended his vote to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection by promising the courts would take care of him. “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen,” he said, “still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”

But while more than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes associated with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and many of Trump’s lawyers and advisors have been disbarred or faced charges, Trump has managed to avoid legal accountability by using every possible means to delay the federal case brought against him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

And now, with the help of a compliant Supreme Court stacked with three of his own appointees, he has gained the immunity McConnell said he did not have. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down the aptly named Donald Trump v. United States decision, establishing that sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within the scope of their official duties. Before the new, slimmer set of charges brought after this decision could go forward, voters reelected Trump to the presidency, triggering the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

As Republicans whitewashed January 6 and the legal system failed to hold Trump to account, the importance of Trump’s attack on our democracy seemed to fade. Even the Trump v. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which undermined the key principle that all Americans are equal before the law by declaring Trump above it, got less attention than its astonishingly revolutionary position warranted, coming as it did just four days after President Joe Biden looked and sounded old in a televised presidential debate.

As the 2024 election approached, Trump rewrote the events of January 6 so completely that he began calling it “a day of love.” He said those found guilty of crimes related to January 6 were “political prisoners” and vowed to pardon them on his first day in office. Dan Barry and Alan Feuer noted in the New York Times today that Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, referring to “the Left’s fear mongering over January 6th,” claims that “the mainstream media still refuses to report the truth about what happened that day.”

And yet, today, Trump’s lawyers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he prevent the public release of the final report written by special counsel Jack Smith about Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They say it would disrupt the presidential transition by “giving rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism” and interfere with presidential immunity by diverting Trump’s time and energy.

Having reviewed the two-volume report, the lawyers objected to its claim that Trump and others “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,” that Trump was “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” that he hatched a “criminal design,” and that he “violated multiple federal criminal laws.” They also took issue with the “baseless attacks on other anticipated members of President Trump’s incoming administration, which are an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings.”

They conclude that releasing Smith’s report “would not ‘be in the public interest.’”

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)

Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.

He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.

His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”

“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”

The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.

No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.

Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”

Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.

Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.

That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.

The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.

In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.

As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.

What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.

When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.

As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”

But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.

Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”

But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.

Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”

In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.

And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.

But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionaires

Trump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.

Ta. She writes a good essay. Day after day. It’d take me month or more to write an essay like that.

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
10m ·
January 6, 2025 (Monday)

In less than 40 minutes today in snow-covered Washington, D.C., a joint session of Congress counted the certified electoral votes that will make Republican Donald Trump president of the United States at noon on January 20. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the session in her role as president of the Senate, announcing to Congress the ballot totals. The ceremony went smoothly, without challenges to any of the certified state ballots. Trump won 312 electoral votes; Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president, won 226.

The Democrats emphasized routine process and acceptance of election results to reinforce that the key element of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Before the session, Harris released a video on social media reminding people that “he peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”

But at the session, the tableau on the dais itself illustrated that Republicans have elevated lawmakers who reject that principle. Behind the vice president sat the newly reelected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA), who was a key player in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election: he lied about fraud; recruited colleagues to join a lawsuit challenging the election results from the key states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia; and, after the January 6 riot, challenged the counting of certified votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

After the session concluded, Harris told reporters: “Well, today was…obviously, a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

“And today, I did what I have done my entire career, which is take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included, today, performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine, then, the outcome of an election.

“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it—every single person, their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis.

“And today, America’s democracy stood.”

Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again.

It did not seem initially as if any such a resurrection was possible. While MAGA lawmakers and influencers tried to insist that “Antifa” or FBI plants had launched the riot that made congress members hide in fear for their lives while Secret Service agents rushed Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, to a secure location, that left at least seven people dead and at least 140 police officers wounded, and that did about $3 million of damage to the Capitol as rioters broke windows and doors, looted offices, smeared feces on the walls, and tore down an American flag to replace it with a Trump flag, there was little doubt, even among Trump loyalists, as to who was to blame.

All four living presidents condemned Trump and his supporters; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all suspended him; members of his cabinet resigned in protest; corporations and institutions dropped their support for Trump.

Indeed, it seemed that the whole Trump ship was foundering. Trump advisor Hope Hicks texted Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff that the Trump family was now “royally f*cked.” “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local proud boy’s chapter,” Hicks wrote. “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad & upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now.” “Not being dramatic, but we are all f*cked.”

Even then–Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a blistering account of Trump’s behavior and said: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”

But McConnell appeared reluctant to see Trump impeached. He delayed the Senate trial of the House’s charge of “incitement of insurrection” until Biden was president, then pressed for Trump’s acquittal on the grounds that he was no longer president. Even before that February 2021 acquittal, then–House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—who had had a shouting match with Trump on January 6 in which he allegedly begged Trump to call off his supporters and yelled that the rioters were “trying to f*cking kill me!”—traveled to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago to get him to support Republican candidates in the 2022 election.

Their hunger to keep Trump’s voters began the process of whitewashing Trump’s attempt to overturn our democracy. At the same time, those Republicans who had either participated in the scheme or gone along with it continued to defend their behavior. As time passed, they downplayed the violence of January 6. As early as May 2021, some began to claim it was less a deadly attack than a “normal tourist visit.”

When the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol began to collect testimony and evidence, Trump and fellow Republicans did all they could to discredit it. As it became clear that Trump would win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they worked to exonerate him from wrongdoing and accused the Democrats of misleading Americans about the events of that day.

In February 2021, McConnell defended his vote to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection by promising the courts would take care of him. “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen,” he said, “still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”

But while more than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes associated with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and many of Trump’s lawyers and advisors have been disbarred or faced charges, Trump has managed to avoid legal accountability by using every possible means to delay the federal case brought against him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

And now, with the help of a compliant Supreme Court stacked with three of his own appointees, he has gained the immunity McConnell said he did not have. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court handed down the aptly named Donald Trump v. United States decision, establishing that sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within the scope of their official duties. Before the new, slimmer set of charges brought after this decision could go forward, voters reelected Trump to the presidency, triggering the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

As Republicans whitewashed January 6 and the legal system failed to hold Trump to account, the importance of Trump’s attack on our democracy seemed to fade. Even the Trump v. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which undermined the key principle that all Americans are equal before the law by declaring Trump above it, got less attention than its astonishingly revolutionary position warranted, coming as it did just four days after President Joe Biden looked and sounded old in a televised presidential debate.

As the 2024 election approached, Trump rewrote the events of January 6 so completely that he began calling it “a day of love.” He said those found guilty of crimes related to January 6 were “political prisoners” and vowed to pardon them on his first day in office. Dan Barry and Alan Feuer noted in the New York Times today that Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, referring to “the Left’s fear mongering over January 6th,” claims that “the mainstream media still refuses to report the truth about what happened that day.”

And yet, today, Trump’s lawyers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he prevent the public release of the final report written by special counsel Jack Smith about Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They say it would disrupt the presidential transition by “giving rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism” and interfere with presidential immunity by diverting Trump’s time and energy.

Having reviewed the two-volume report, the lawyers objected to its claim that Trump and others “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort,” that Trump was “the head of the criminal conspiracies,” that he hatched a “criminal design,” and that he “violated multiple federal criminal laws.” They also took issue with the “baseless attacks on other anticipated members of President Trump’s incoming administration, which are an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings.”

They conclude that releasing Smith’s report “would not ‘be in the public interest.’”

Heck.

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
1h ·
January 5, 2025 (Sunday)

Investigators found two letters on a phone inside the remains of the rented Tesla Cybertruck that active-duty Green Beret Master Sergeant Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded outside the Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump hotel on New Year’s Day. It appears that Livelsberger wrote them to explain why he was performing what he called “a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” Aside from his personal need to forget about the violence of his military career, he wrote, he wanted to “WAKE UP” servicemembers, veterans, and all Americans.

He wrote that the U.S. is “headed toward collapse,” and he listed as reasons Americans’ moral failings and boredom, diversity programs, an economy that has permitted the top 1% to leave everyone else behind, and a weak and corrupt government.

His solution was to “ocus on strength and winning. Masculinity is good and men must be leaders,” he wrote. “Strength is a deterrent and fear is the product.” He called for “eed out those in our government and military who do not idealize” that masculinity and strength, and urged military personnel, veterans, and militias to “move on DC starting now.”

“Occupy every major road along fed buildings and the campus of fed buildings by the hundreds of thousands. Lock the highways around down with semis right after everybody gets in. Hold until the purge is complete. Try peaceful means first, but be prepared to fight to get the Dems out of the fed government and military by any means necessary. They all must go and a hard reset must occur for our country to avoid collapse.”

The vision of the U.S. as a hellscape that can only be fixed by purging the government of Democrats does not reflect reality. As Peter Baker recorded in the New York Times today, the country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.

No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.

Baker quoted chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi, who said: “President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.”

Livelsberger’s notes reflect not reality but rather the political rhetoric in which many Americans have marinated since the 1950s: the idea that a government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights crushes the individualism on which America depends.

Ronald Reagan made that argument central to American political debate in the 1980s. Joining those who claimed that the modern American state was creeping toward communism, he warned that the federal government was the current problem in the nation. He championed a mythological American cowboy who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone.

That cowboy myth arose after the Civil War, when former Confederates complained that federal protection of Black rights cost white tax dollars. They contrasted the “socialism” in Washington, D.C., with the western cowboys in the cattle industry, portraying the cowboys as hardworking white men who dominated the land and the peoples of the West and enforced the law themselves with principles and guns.

The cowboy image of the post–World War II years served a similar function: to undermine a government that, in the process of regulating business and providing a social safety net, defended the rights of minorities and women. After 1980, Republicans increasingly insisted that regulations, taxation, and a social safety net were socialism, and they attracted white male voters by warning that the real beneficiaries of the government were racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities and women.

In 1972 the Republican platform had called for gun control to restrict the sale of “cheap handguns,” but in 1975, as he geared up to challenge President Gerald R. Ford for the 1976 presidential nomination, Reagan took a stand against gun control. In 1980 the Republican platform opposed the federal registration of firearms, and the National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate—Reagan—for the first time.

As cuts to regulation, taxation, and the social safety net began to hollow out the middle class, Republicans pushed the idea that the country’s problems came from grasping minorities and women who wanted to work outside the home. More and more, they insisted that the federal government was stealing tax dollars and destroying society, and they encouraged individual men to take charge of the country.

What in the 1980s was a rhetorical image of individuals destroying the federal government was turning into action by the 1990s. “Taxes are a joke,” a former Army gunner, Timothy McVeigh, wrote to a newspaper in 1992. “Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.” On April 19, 1995, McVeigh set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children younger than six, and wounded more than 800.

When the police captured McVeigh, he was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” the same words John Wilkes Booth shouted after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They mean “thus always to tyrants” and are the words attributed to Brutus after he and his supporters murdered Julius Caesar.

As wealth continued to move upward, the idea that individuals and paramilitary groups must “reclaim” America from undeserving Americans who were taking tax dollars became embedded in the Republican Party. By 2014, Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) called Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters “patriots” when they showed up armed to meet officials from the Bureau of Land Management who tried to impound Bundy’s cattle because he owed more than $1 million in grazing fees for running cattle on public land. Democrat Harry Reid, also of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, warned, “We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it.”

But the idea of reclaiming the country for white men by destroying the federal government grew stronger. In 2016, Trump insisted that his Democratic opponent belonged in jail and that he alone could save the country from the Washington, D.C., “swamp.” Winning the election through the electoral college, he first attacked the government over the FBI’s investigation of the ties between his campaign and Russian operatives, and then, after his first impeachment, went after any official who tried to hold him accountable to the law. Although many of his critics were Republicans, including his own appointees, he called anyone who crossed him a Democrat.

Republican lawmakers began to pose their families for Christmas cards with everyone holding a semi-automatic weapon. As Joshua Kaplan reported in ProPublica yesterday in a deep dive into the world of a mole who embedded himself in the world of today’s right-wing paramilitaries, leaders in that system now include “doctors, career cops and government attorneys.” “Sometimes they were frightening, sometimes bumbling,” Kaplan wrote, but “always heavily armed. It was a world where a man would propose assassinating politicians, only to spark a debate about logistics.”

But voters kept protesting cuts to the social safety net, and in November 2020 they elected a Democratic president, Joe Biden, by a popular majority of more than 7 million votes and an electoral college win of 306 votes to 232. Trump supporters believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had won, it simply meant the vote was illegitimate.

Trump told his supporters that “emboldened radical-left Democrats” had stolen the election and that Democratic policies “chipped away our jobs, weakened our military, threw open our borders, and put America last.” Biden would be an “illegitimate president,” “voted on by a bunch of stupid people.” “ou’ll never take back our country with weakness,” Trump told them. “You have to show strength and you have to be strong…. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Radicalized individuals fantasized that they were imitating the American Founders, about to start a new nation. Newly elected representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) wrote on January 5, 2021: “Remember these next 48 hours. These are some of the most important days in American history.” On January 6 she wrote: “Today is 1776.”

In fact, it was not 1776 but 1861, when insurrectionists tried to overthrow the government in order to establish minority rule. They wanted to take away the right at the center of American democracy—our right to determine our own destiny—in order to make sure the power of elite white men could not be challenged. It was no accident that the rioters carried a Confederate battle flag.

And now voters have reelected Trump, who last night held a party at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate those who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has called the January 6 rioters “patriots” and promised to pardon those who have been convicted of crimes in relation to the event as soon as he takes office.

But this would be a deeply unpopular move. More than 60% of Americans oppose such pardons.
In the late nineteenth century, former Confederates regained control of their states as Americans across the country accepted the argument that a government that protected civil rights would usher in socialism. Today’s Americans have heard the same argument since at least the 1980s, but rather than a redistribution of wealth downward, between 1981 and 2021 $50 trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Now the incoming president has openly tied himself to billionaires

Trump continues to vow that he will dismantle the federal government, but the four years from 2021 to 2025 challenged Reagan’s claim that the government is the problem. Those years demonstrated that the federal government could work for all Americans, although not quickly enough to undo damage of the previous forty years and satisfy those left behind, many of whom voted for Trump and some of whom have resorted to violence.

Ta. She writes a good essay. Day after day. It’d take me month or more to write an essay like that.

she does. she weaves it together so nicely. but that is her day job.

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

Bubblecar said:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,

She stole that.

Bubblecar said:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

Interesting, ta.

Peak Warming Man said:

Bubblecar said:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,

She stole that.

Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Bubblecar said:

Heather Cox Richardson (born October 8, 1962) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Richardson has authored seven books on history and politics. In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson focuses on the health of American democracy. The newsletter accrued over one million subscribers, making her, as of December 2020, the most successful individual author of a paid publication on Substack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson

>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,

She stole that.

Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.

Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.

Peak Warming Man said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Peak Warming Man said:

>> In 2019, Richardson started publishing Letters from an American,

She stole that.

Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.

Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.

You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Maybe it’s a tribute to ‘Letters from America’ formerly on the BBC.

Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.

You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/23/bbc.usnews

The bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose legendary Letter from America became one of the BBC’s most treasured dispatches, were stolen shortly before his cremation, it was alleged yesterday.
As his life’s work drew tributes from both sides of the Atlantic, a criminal gang allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and other orthopaedic procedures, according to the New York Daily News.

wookiemeister said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Yes, I was an avid listener of Alaistair Cooke’s Letter From America.

You can catch a body of his work here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yqjy8

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/23/bbc.usnews

The bones of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke, whose legendary Letter from America became one of the BBC’s most treasured dispatches, were stolen shortly before his cremation, it was alleged yesterday.
As his life’s work drew tributes from both sides of the Atlantic, a criminal gang allegedly surgically removed his bones and sold them for more than $7,000 (£4,000) to a company supplying parts for use in dental implants and other orthopaedic procedures, according to the New York Daily News.

That’s a bit rude, but I suppose he wasn’t going to use them anyway.

Kingy said:

Clever

Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US

US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.

Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.

“It is not worth the risks.”

In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.

“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”

Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.

For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.

The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.

The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.

Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.

At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.

The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.

After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.

She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.

Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.

Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.

“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”

An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.

It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.

Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o

& Meidas Touch commentary

BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link

AussieDJ said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o

& Meidas Touch commentary

BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link

was he wearing jeans though

kii said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Michael V said:

kii said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

Trump supporters crash car while live streaming.

Lololol 😆

kii said:

Trump supporters crash car while live streaming.

Lololol 😆

But the idiots could’ve killed others.

No more fact-checking at Meta. Another crumbles under pressure. I shouldn’t read this stuff. It makes me worried. Especially as it likely emboldens Dutton.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/meta-ends-factchecking-appoints-dana-white-mark-zuckerberg-says/104793862

kii said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/trump-refuse-rule-military-force-panama-canal-greenland/104794196

Michael V said:

No more fact-checking at Meta. Another crumbles under pressure. I shouldn’t read this stuff. It makes me worried. Especially as it likely emboldens Dutton.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-08/meta-ends-factchecking-appoints-dana-white-mark-zuckerberg-says/104793862

from my Canadian cousin…

Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. Zuckerberg acknowledged more harmful content will appear on the platforms now. I tried to post a link to the CNN story about this announcement. Fecebook would not allow me to share that link.
So, if Zucherberg is really concerned about making Meta/Facebook a space for free speech, it is well past time that he stop the throttling of Canadian users sharing items from news publications.
Facebook content police even stopped me from sharing the published obituary of a former work colleague, and threatened my with stronger consequences if I continued to try working around their censorship of Canadian sources.

—
I posted the abc story on his link fine.
I am now attempting to share my free speech comment without the actual link.

kii said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Michael V said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.

nah go on, you know you want to ..

party_pants said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I have my opinion of Morrison, but dare not share it, lest i commit the sin of hubris by parading my own saintliness in some way.

nah go on, you know you want to ..

Get thee behind me, Satan!

Junior is in Greenland.

kii said:

Junior is in Greenland.

Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.

party_pants said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

Well, it can be.

You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.

The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Junior is in Greenland.

Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?

Lots of weed

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?

Well, going with his current theme…New America!

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

Well, it can be.

You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.

The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.

Their is no rest of the world, only the USA

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Junior is in Greenland.

Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?

Lots of weed

Well, rubbing marijuana on your gums to get you through to when you can next get a good nose-full is not quite as effective.

party_pants said:

While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.

There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.

Almost all the world goes metric.

US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.

Rest of the world ignores the US.

US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’

Rest ofthe world…

While we’re at it, let rename every public toilet as a “Trump” and change all the signage.

kii said:

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?

Well, going with his current theme…New America!

A New America would be nice.

This one seems to have had the scnitz.

party_pants said:

While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.

That is no lie either.

What a smart and sensible way to measure things

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

captain_spalding said:

What’s New Mexico’s new name goingto be?

Well, going with his current theme…New America!

A New America would be nice.

This one seems to have had the scnitz.

Trou de Merde?

Trying to capture the Panama canal in military fashion doesn’t seem a very good idea.

I can’t imagine it would take much to wreck it so no one could use it

kii said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I noticed in the news that he was there.

captain_spalding said:

kii said:

Junior is in Greenland.

Much of a drug market there, or did he have to take his own supply?

Plenty of snow in Greenland…

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.

There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.

Almost all the world goes metric.

US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.

Rest of the world ignores the US.

US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’

Rest ofthe world…

Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.

Rest of the world…

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

While Trump’s in full stupid, it might be time for someone to mention how great the metric system is.

There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.

Almost all the world goes metric.

US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.

Rest of the world ignores the US.

US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’

Rest ofthe world…

Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.

Rest of the world…

Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Trump sentencing still on for Friday

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.

Almost all the world goes metric.

US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.

Rest of the world ignores the US.

US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’

Rest ofthe world…

Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.

Rest of the world…

Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Yes.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

captain_spalding said:

There’san example of how the US doesn’t always wield quite the influence that it thinks it does.

Almost all the world goes metric.

US says, nah, can’t be bothered with that – we’ll stick with feet and inches and stuff, and ‘cause we’re the world’s biggest economy, all the rest of you will have to go along with us.

Rest of the world ignores the US.

US says ‘it’s the Gulf of America now!’

Rest ofthe world…

Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.

Rest of the world…

Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Are the Israelis of the same opinion?

buffy said:

Trump sentencing still on for Friday

Lol

buffy said:

kii said:

Michael V said:

Dunny Rump, Poo-tin. They both want to take over the world. Either by force or by association.

Trudeau’s going, Dunny Rump can make it into the USA’s 51st state. Musk can buy it for the US. (The US has a history of buying land cheap.) That’s a great platform to get to Greenland, and by association, Denmark.

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

sarahs mum said:

buffy said:

kii said:

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

Perhaps he was here plus one.

buffy said:

sarahs mum said:

buffy said:

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

Perhaps he was here plus one.

here=her

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Trump says the Israel capital is Jerusalem now.

Rest of the world…

Yes.
“On December 6, 2017, President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Are the Israelis of the same opinion?

Yes. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as the capital, while internationally the capitals are taken to be Tel Aviv and Ramalah respectively.

party_pants said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

According to Trump, it can.

sarahs mum said:

buffy said:

kii said:

Morrison was at trump’s NYE party. He’s planning something.
Fuck the patriarchy and fuck the Christians.

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

Cymek said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

It can’t be renamed just like that.

Well, it can be.

You can call it ‘the Gulf of Disneyland’, if you wish.

The hard part is getting the rest of the world to go along with you.

Their is no rest of the world, only the USA

That’s the USA way.

Michael V said:

party_pants said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

According to Trump, it can.

The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL

party_pants said:

While we’re at it, let rename every public toilet as a “Trump” and change all the signage.

LOL

I endorse this!

:)

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

buffy said:

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Cymek said:

Michael V said:

party_pants said:

It can’t be renamed just like that.

According to Trump, it can.

The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL

I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.

sarahs mum said:

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

also Gina.

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

Spiny Norman said:

Cymek said:

Michael V said:

According to Trump, it can.

The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL

I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.

DSA perhaps? The Divided States of America.

Spiny Norman said:

Cymek said:

Michael V said:

According to Trump, it can.

The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL

I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.

That sounds too much like trump’s name-calling. I often call it “that shithole country”.

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

Cymek said:

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.

If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

Cymek said:

The United States of Hypocrisy and Lies. USoHaL

I label it the (U)USA – the (Un)United States of America.

DSA perhaps? The Divided States of America.

Like.

Bogsnorkler said:

Shopped.

Spiny Norman said:

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.

If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.

Yeah, Abbott, T. can tell you about that.

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

Cymek said:

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

the libs own the media.

Spiny Norman said:

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

There’s a pretty reasonable chance he won’t win his seat again, I believe there’s a local election due there soon. Ali France from the ALP is running against him and there’s a lot of strong campaigning going on for her and against him.
I’m doing what I can for her and against him as well.

If he doesn’t win his seat, he cannot be PM and that’s a very good thing.

I’m not holding my breath.

sarahs mum said:

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

the libs own the media.

We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.

sarahs mum said:

Michael V said:

sarahs mum said:

How to buy Dutton a prime ministerial role.

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

the libs own the media.

Or possibly the other way around…

kii said:

Tops!

:)

party_pants said:

sarahs mum said:

Michael V said:

Once that happens, we’re rooted.

the libs own the media.

We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.

much campaigning against them by the lib media.

sarahs mum said:

party_pants said:

sarahs mum said:

the libs own the media.

We still have the AB-frigging-C and Sex before Soccer alternatives.

much campaigning against them by the lib media.

News Ltd are not the be all and end all of Australian Media.

AussieDJ said:

Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US

US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.

Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.

“It is not worth the risks.”

In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.

“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”

Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.

For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.

The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.

The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.

Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.

At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.

The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.

After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.

She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.

Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.

Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.

“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”

An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.

It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.

Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o

& Meidas Touch commentary

BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link

Link to actual moment that trump finds out.

Kingy said:

AussieDJ said:

Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US

US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America’s coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

The ban covers the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump has vowed to revoke the ban “immediately” when he takes office, but he may find it difficult to reverse under US law.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in a bid to lower gas costs, despite the US already seeing record high extraction rates.

Announcing the new drilling ban, Biden said: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.

“It is not worth the risks.”

In a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.

“I’ll unban it immediately,” he said. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”

Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies.

For the new drilling ban, Biden is taking the action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which allows US presidents to withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling.

The law does not grant presidents the legal authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling. It means a reversal would likely require an act of Congress, which is now controlled by Trump’s Republicans.

The law also does not allow presidents to revoke any areas already leased for offshore drilling.

Trump – despite being in favour of more oil and gas exploration and repeatedly deploying his tag line “Drill, baby, drill” during campaigning – has used the law himself to protect waters off the coast of Florida in 2020.

At the time, this was seen as an effort to garner votes from the state ahead of the 2020 US election, and the protection was due to expire in 2032. Biden’s decision will protect the same area with no expiry date.

The new offshore drilling ban covers more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of waters.

After it was reported last week that Biden would introduce the policy, Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a disgraceful decision”.

She said the move was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices”.

Environmental groups, however, welcomed the move.

Joseph Gordon, from conservation organisation Oceana, said: “This is an epic ocean victory.

“Our treasured coastal communities are now safeguarded for future generations.”

An oil and gas industry trade group said Biden’s decision would harm American energy security and should be reversed by Congress.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said: “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump tried to reverse former President Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres (50.6 million hectares) of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Two years later, a US District Court ruled that the act did not allow a president to reverse decisions of previous administrations – meaning Trump could not revoke Obama’s protections.

It is expected that Trump – whose inauguration ceremony takes place on 20 January – will still seek to challenge Biden’s move. A final legal decision could be made by the Supreme Court, which currently has a majority of Republican judges.

Environmentalists and Democrats had been calling on Biden to introduce the ban because of concerns that any new drilling would threaten US ambitions to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global oil and gas demand needs to fall by 5% annually to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, which is seen as crucial to help avoid the most damaging impacts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o “ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg6dg30vq0o

& Meidas Touch commentary

BOOM! Biden CHECKMATES Trump with PERMANENT TRAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOawfYdVn0Q
Link

Link to actual moment that trump finds out.

I particularly liked his “unban” response as per the above quote. Such a petulant little man.

Heather Cox Richardson
41m ·
January 7, 2025 (Tuesday)

Today, President Joe Biden signed proclamations that create the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, protecting 848,000 acres (about 3,430 square kilometers) of land in southern California’s Eastern Coachella Valley. Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the president can designate national monuments to protect areas of “scientific, cultural, ecological, and historic importance.”

Yesterday, Biden protected the East Coast, the West Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea—an area that makes up about 625 million acres or 2.5 million square kilometers—from oil and natural gas drilling. While there is currently little interest among oil companies in drilling in those areas, the new designation will protect them into the future. Noting that nearly 40% of Americans live in coastal communities, Biden said the minimal fossil fuel potential was not worth the risks that drilling would bring to the fishing and tourist industries and to environmental and public health.

The White House noted that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have “conserved more lands and waters”—more than 670 million acres of them—and have “deployed more clean energy, and made more progress in cutting climate pollution and advancing environmental justice than any previous administration.” At the same time, oil and gas production is at an all-time high, demonstrating that land protection and energy production can coexist.

While oil executives blasted Biden’s proclamation protecting the coastal waters, Democratic lawmakers on the newly protected coasts cheered his action, recognizing that oil spills devastate the tourism and fishing on which their constituents depend: the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, killed 11 people, closed 32,000 square miles (82,880 square kilometers) of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing, and has cost more than $65 billion in compensation alone.

Biden protected the oceans under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which enables presidents to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development but does not say that future presidents can revoke that protection to put those waters back into development, meaning that Trump—who similarly protected coastal waters when he was president—will have a hard time overturning Biden’s action.

Nonetheless, Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Biden’s decision “disgraceful” and claimed it was “designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”

Journalist Wes Siler, who writes about the outdoors, environment, and the law, notes that there is a major effort underway among Republicans to privatize public lands to benefit oil and gas industries, as well as other extractive industries, just as Project 2025 outlined. Melinda Taylor, senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, told Bloomberg Law in November: “Project 2025 is a ‘wish list’ for the oil and gas and mining industries and private developers. It promotes opening up more of our federal land to energy development, rolling back protections on federal lands, and selling off more land to private developers.”

In September, Siler wrote in Outside that politicians in Utah have designed a lawsuit to put in front of the Supreme Court. It argues that all the land in Utah currently in the hands of the Bureau of Land Management—18.5 million acres—should be transferred to the control of the state of Utah.

Those eager to get their hands on the land use the words “unappropriated lands” from the 1862 Homestead Act to claim that the federal government is holding the land “without any designated purpose.”

But, as Siler notes, in 2023, BLM-managed land supported 783,000 jobs and produced $201 billion in economic output, and in Utah alone the use of BLM land created more than 36,000 jobs and $6.7 billion in economic output as more than 15 million people visited the state’s public lands. Utah realized hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on that activity, and while it’s true that states cannot tax federal government lands—as lawmakers say—the government pays the state in lieu of taxes: $128.7 million in 2021.

Transferring that land to the state would sacrifice these funds, and because the state constitution requires the state both to balance its budget and to realize profits from state land, that transfer would facilitate the land’s sale to private interests.

Twelve states have now joined Utah’s lawsuit, arguing that federal control of “unappropriated” land within states impinges on state sovereignty, and they are asking the Supreme Court to take up the case as part of its original jurisdiction. As Siler noted in a May article in Outside, Chief Justice John Roberts has expressed an eagerness to revisit the legality of the Antiquities Act the presidents use to protect land—as Biden did today—suggesting he would be willing to side with the states against the federal government. Project 2025 also calls for Congress to repeal the Antiquities Act.

In Wes Siler’s Newsletter yesterday, Siler noted that the new rules package adopted for the 119th Congress makes it easier to transfer public lands to state control. The rules strip away the need to justify the cost of such a transfer and to offset it with budget cuts or increased revenue elsewhere.

In a press conference today, Trump said he would rescind Biden’s policies and “put it back on day one,” and complained that the 625 million acres Biden protected feels “like the whole ocean,” although the Pacific Ocean alone is almost 38 billion acres more than Biden protected.

Also today, Trump announced that a developer from Dubai, DAMAC Properties, will invest at least $20 billion in the U.S. to create new data centers that support artificial intelligence and cloud services. Trump claimed that the company’s chief executive officer, Hussain Sajwani, is investing in the U.S. “because of the fact that he was very inspired by the election,” but DAMAC has been connected to Trump for a while.

Sajwani attended Trump’s first inauguration, and a company tied to chair and current board member of DAMAC Farooq Arjomand paid $600,000 to the key witness for the House Republicans seeking to dig up dirt on President Biden. That man was Alexander Smirnov, who in December 2024 pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI when he claimed Biden had taken bribes from the Ukrainian company Burisma.

Data centers are notoriously high users of energy. They consume 10 to 50 times as much energy per floor space as does a typical commercial office building, which might have something to do with why Trump’s team is so eager to increase American energy production even as it is already at an all-time high. Trump has promised companies that invest a billion or more dollars in the U.S. that they will get expedited approvals and permits, including those covering environmental concerns.

But if the larger story of this moment is the plunder of our public resources for private interests, Trump’s press conference in general seemed to have a different theme. It was what CNN perhaps euphemistically called “wide ranging,” as he abandoned his “America First” isolationism to suggest using force against China as well as U.S. allies Denmark, Panama, Mexico, and Canada, which would destabilize the globe by rejecting the central principle of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that countries must respect each other’s sovereignty. He wildly suggested that the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah was part of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and that his people were part of the negotiations for the return of the Israeli hostages.

Trump’s performance was reminiscent of his off-the-wall press conferences during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, which tanked his popularity enough to get his team to stop him from doing them.

Trump might have chosen to speak today to keep attention away from the arrival of the casket carrying former president Jimmy Carter to Washington, D.C., where it was transported by horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol, where Carter will lie in state in the Rotunda until his Thursday funeral at Washington National Cathedral. The snow and frigid weather were not enough to keep mourners away, and Trump has already expressed frustration that Carter’s death will mean that flags will be at half-staff for his own inauguration.
But he also might have been trying to demonstrate that the transition from Biden’s administration to his own is taking his time and energy in order to add heft to the argument his lawyers made yesterday. They demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland prevent the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report about his investigation into Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election because making Trump respond to the media frenzy the report will stir up would take his attention away from the presidential transition.

Trump managed to defang most of the legal cases against him by being elected president, but he apparently still fears the release of Smith’s report. Today, Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed to the bench and who dismissed the charges against Trump in his retention of classified documents, issued an order preventing the Department of Justice from releasing the report. Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe noted that the order “has no legal basis and ought to be reversed quickly—but these days nobody can be confident that law will matter.”

The presidential immunity on which Trump apparently is relying has also failed to protect him from being sentenced in the election interference case in which a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. In Civil Discourse, legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained that Trump wants to stop the sentencing process because it triggers a thirty-day period for Trump to appeal. “Once the appeal is concluded,” she explains, “the conviction is final.” Trump was apparently hoping to hold off that process and buy four years to come up with a way out of a permanent designation as a felon.

It didn’t work. Today, appeals court judge Ellen Gesmer rejected his attempt to stop the sentencing. It will go forward on Friday as planned.

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

buffy said:

I noticed in the news that he was there.

also Gina.

The elite planning a NWO even more unfair than the current one.

No Deep State Here, oh no of course there isn’t

Michael V said:

party_pants said:

kii said:

Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

It can’t be renamed just like that.

According to Trump, it can.

The language, it evolves.

SCIENCE said:

Michael V said:

party_pants said:

It can’t be renamed just like that.

According to Trump, it can.

The language, it evolves.

only if everyone is on board with it

party_pants said:

SCIENCE said:

Michael V said:

According to Trump, it can.

The language, it evolves.

only if everyone is on board with it

wait we didn’t realize that was a requirement

They say Trump is just a titular head; but Bill Clinton was definitely a titular head and still young enough to do something about it.

Peak Warming Man said:

They say Trump is just a titular head; but Bill Clinton was definitely a titular head and still young enough to do something about it.

Refrains from obvious joke about Clinton and ….

Apparently in winter there’s good news for coal enthusiasts.

A fast-moving wildfire in Los Angeles has destroyed homes and sparked evacuations. The blaze, whipped up by “life-threatening” winds, has consumed thousands of hectares and created a plume of smoke across the city.

thank fuck for La Niña here anyway

Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?

After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.

Neophyte said:

Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?

After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.

We thought they are the deep state.

Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?

Neophyte said:

Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?

After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.

They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.

They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.

It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.

captain_spalding said:

Neophyte said:

Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?

After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.

They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.

They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.

It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.

Steady.

Peak Warming Man said:

captain_spalding said:

Neophyte said:

Will they still be able to blame The Deep State for everything/anything after January 20th?

After all, they’re in charge of just about everything – there’ll be no-one to be scapegoat.

They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.

They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.

It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.

Steady.

You know that i’m right.

Spiny Norman said:

Patrick is, at least, a likeable chap.

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

captain_spalding said:

They’ll claim that there’s ‘Biden operatives’ still installed in ‘key positions’ throughout the government structure, ‘covertly’ operating to ‘undermine’ all of the good thingsthat the new Trump government wants to do.

They’ll use that to justify the dismissal of any who they think won’t give them total co-operation in whatever bullshit scheme they have in mind to cement themselves into power, and to plunder the nation.

It’ll be a combination of McCarthyist ‘Reds-under-the-bed’ and the Night of the Long knives.

Steady.

You know that i’m right.

oh come on everyone knows that it isn’t fascism

party_pants said:

Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?

the deep state used to be known as they.

Opus They

Bogsnorkler said:

party_pants said:

Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?

the deep state used to be known as they.

I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.

SCIENCE said:

Opus They

LOL

party_pants said:

Bogsnorkler said:

party_pants said:

Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?

the deep state used to be known as they.

I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/secret-seven-sisters/

Would they be part of the deep state

Its not unbelievable

Especially as government is elected and can be gone in less than four years.

I suppose an example might be alien technology / contact hidden from the elected government and leaders.

party_pants said:

Bogsnorkler said:

party_pants said:

Who is the Deep State, and what is their objective?

the deep state used to be known as they.

I am none the wiser.
I suspect you’re hiding something from me.

in seriousness again though it may be instructive to look at the linguistic context and then we realise there will always be finger pointing at the deep state because it is simply a term used to describe professionally regulated giants shouldered experts by the casual armchair self educated own researchers so we know where this is going to end up because you know another cuntry that did this and more recently than national socialist land

កម្ពុជា

why is censorship the bogeyman

SCIENCE said:

why is censorship the bogeyman

For some people “government” is the bogeyman, in whatever form it manifests.

well just drop something else then

fuk Tik Tok

wait

fascists are friends

only communists foreign interfere

SCIENCE said:

fuk Tik Tok

wait

FMD.

2m ago
18.29 GMT
President-elect Donald Trump blamed the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, for the “virtually apocalyptic” fires raging through the Los Angeles area, arguing he should have signed a declaration to pump more water through the state to prevent the situation.

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now the ultimate price is being paid.”

“I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”

kii said:

kii said:

Just a bit Dunning Kruger there.

kii said:

Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.

roughbarked said:

kii said:

Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.

maybe the firetrucks need this info.

Men come from Cooper’s Crossing,
And Darwin in the south
From the dusty plains of Innisfail
To the Murrumbidgee’s mouth
Through bush fires, snakes and tinea,
Drizzle, drought and flood
None of those will hold them back,
When someone cries out ‘Mud!’
(Oh) Mud, boys, mud;
We’ll give our sweat and blood
Though our backs may break,
Our beards are fake
We’ll all pretend the sets don’t shake…
Mud, boys, mud;
We’ll deck them with a thud,
The fires may burn,
the floods may drench
But we’ll still have a buxom wench
And keep on shouting ‘Mud!’

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/08/los-angeles-wildfires-water-firefighters/77556547007/

Link

water problems.

kii said:

Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.

roughbarked said:

kii said:

Yeah like it isn’t as if everyone has truckloads of wet sand hanging about in case of a fire. Let alone the hands or equipment to slather it all over the house in time.

I’ve just come up with a new sideline for my earthworks company :)

Michael V said:

kii said:

Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.

is that a verbatim quote of Elon?

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

kii said:

Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.

is that a verbatim quote of Elon?

No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

Thanks for your valuable insight, Pedo Guy.

is that a verbatim quote of Elon?

No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.

Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

is that a verbatim quote of Elon?

No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.

Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?

I wouldn’t go that far.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

No, but “Pedo Guy” is a common insult in Pretoria apparently, and not defamatory, according to Musk, his lawyers and a US jury.

Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?

I wouldn’t go that far.

But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

Practically a term of fraternal affection, perhaps?

I wouldn’t go that far.

But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?

Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

I wouldn’t go that far.

But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?

Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.

Then, lay on, Macduff,

And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?

Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.

Then, lay on, Macduff,

And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”

They used to talk funny in those days.

captain_spalding said:

Michael V said:

captain_spalding said:

But, certainly, nothing at which Elon could possibly take offence?

Well, Musk has testified in court to that effect.

Then, lay on, Macduff,

And damned be him that first cries “Hold! Enough!”

:)

Nice.

The scale and spread of the blazes amid a water shortage have stretched exhausted firefighting crews beyond their capacity.

“We’re doing the very best we can,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.

“But no, we don’t have enough fire personnel in LA County between all the departments to handle this.”

Water shortages hit Pacific Palisades the hardest, causing some hydrants to run dry in the upscale neighborhood, officials said.

“We pushed the system to the extreme,” Janisse Quinones, chief executive of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told a press conference.

“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems.”

Pacific Palisades relies on three tanks that hold 3.78 million liters each, and the demand for water to fight fires at lower elevations is making it difficult to refill water tanks at higher elevations, she said.

By Wednesday afternoon, local time, all three of those tanks and all 114 reservoirs throughout the city were refilled, Quinones said in a later press conference.

The fires have struck at an especially vulnerable time for Southern California, which has not seen significant rainfall for months.

to be honest those pictures remind us of gaza or donbas

SCIENCE said:

to be honest those pictures remind us of gaza or donbas

Trump said it is all the Californian Governor’s fault.

While California has always experienced what it calls wildfires, climate change is exacerbating the conditions they need to thrive.

“Climate change, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires not only in California but also all over the world,” the California Air Resources Board states.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, California is becoming drier and hotter, and so drought and “fire conditions” are increasing.

Researchers have found that parts of Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington now experience fire weather more than twice as often compared to 1973. Drier winters, early onset spring and less snowpack melt are also attributed to rising temperatures and can exacerbate fire conditions.

“Climate change has changed fire seasons worldwide. Places like Australia and California that have always burned — are burning more. The fire seasons are longer,” Mullins said.

With fire seasons starting earlier and finishing later in both hemispheres, Mullins says it makes it harder to share resources and crews between Australia and other regions.

“This is one of the critical risks of climate change,” he said.

“The critical assets like large firefighting assets, we share . So at the moment we have aircraft on lease in Australia from Canada and America that they could be using over there but they can’t because we have them.

This is a reality of climate change. How do you help each other when you’re both burning?

sarahs mum said:

SCIENCE said:

sarahs mum said:

Northern Territory
More than 1% of Northern Territory population imprisoned as record jail numbers predicted to climb
Watch houses repurposed as long-term prison cells as Country Liberal government claims ‘such is the nature of the mess we have inherited’

Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Ella Archibald-Binge
Thu 9 Jan 2025 01.00 AEDT
Share
Police watch houses in the Northern Territory are being repurposed as long-term prison cells as record imprisonment numbers push the system to breaking point.

There were 2,613 people locked up in the NT on Tuesday – more than 1% of the territory’s population of 255,100, according to the Department of Corrections.

By contrast, in Western Australia – the state with the next highest imprisonment rate – about 0.2% of the population is behind bars. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the NT incarceration rate is more than five times the national average.

If the NT were a country it would have the second-highest incarceration rate in the world, according to data compiled by the World Prison Brief project.

New laws were enacted on Monday to ensure young people and adults who breach bail conditions, commit serious offences or repeatedly offend are not granted bail.

More than 250 people are being held in NT police watch houses, spilling over from overcrowded prisons unable to cope with a surge that is only expected to grow as tough new bail laws take effect this week.

Clancy Dane, the principal lawyer at Territory Criminal Lawyers, said conditions in police watch houses were “appalling”.

“Police watch houses are overcrowded, they’re oppressive, the lights stay on, the noise is constant,” he said. “Prisoners complain that they don’t have privacy when they go to the toilet.

“That’s going to traumatise people … and it’s not going to make us any safer.”

more….
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/09/northern-territory-prison-population-watch-houses

LOL

Location Rates Number
El Salvador 1 659 109,519
Cuba 794 90,000
Rwanda 637 89,034
Turkmenistan 576 35,000
United States of America 541 1,808,100
American Samoa (USA) 538 301
Panama 522 23,798
Tonga 516 557
Guam (USA) 475 820
Uruguay 449 15,767

The California prison system has now deployed nearly 800 incarcerated firefighters to fight the devastating blazes in the Los Angeles area, officials said on Thursday afternoon.

The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said it had 783 imprisoned firefighters out in the field responding to the emergencies. That figure has doubled from the day prior.

The incarcerated crews are embedded with the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire).

The CDCR operates more than 30 “fire camps” across the state where people serving state prison sentences are trained in firefighting and support authorities as they respond to fires, floods and other disasters.

The wages are meager, but are considered high-paying jobs behind bars, with CDCR firefighters earning between $5.80 and $10.24 a day and an additional $1 per hour when responding to active emergencies. When responding to disasters, they may earn $26.90 over a 24-hour shift.

well that’s something we suppose

⚠ this quote chain does not imply that any of the above are direct responses to any other of the above, and is merely to include relevant preceding information in currently raised matters

Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

President Joe Biden is supporting state and local responses to the fire with federal resources. Today, he approved a major disaster declaration, which enables people and towns to access funds immediately in order to jump-start their recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for some of the costs of fighting the fires. Five U.S. Forest Service large air tankers and ten federal firefighting helicopters have been deployed to support the local firefighters; ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are joining them. California governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard, and the Nevada National Guard is standing by.

Canada, too, has sent water-dropping helicopters and a pair of planes, which are part of a firefighting contract with California that’s been in place for 14 years.

At a fire station in Santa Monica, Biden stood beside Newsom and said: “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”

In contrast to federal support for California under Biden, in the midst of the ongoing crisis President-elect Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the fires, suggesting he had put the needs of fish over the people of California. He posted: “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” “Let this stand as a symbol of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newsom duo,” Trump posted. “January 20th cannot come fast enough!”

Newsom’s office responded: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

Trump is apparently claiming that water that could be used to fight the fires has been diverted to protect the endangered Delta smelt. But the water systems in California are complicated, and importing water from northern California would make no difference for the wildfires.

Los Angeles water doesn’t come from northern California. It comes from an aqueduct east of the Sierra Nevada, from groundwater, and from the Colorado River. Right now, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has more water stored than it has ever had before, according to Mark Gold, a board member. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire,” he told Alastair Bland of CalMatters. “It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”
Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick told Taryn Luna, Liam Dillon, and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times that Trump’s linking of water policy to the raging fires was “blatantly false, irresponsible and politically self-serving.”

The two different responses of the current president and the incoming one reveal dramatically different approaches to the presidency.

Yesterday the Biden administration announced the finalization of a new rule that will remove medical debt from all credit reports. Until now, medical debt has meant that consumers could be denied mortgages, car loans, or small business loans. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that funds from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats shortly after Biden took office in 2021, have enabled the elimination of more than $1 billion in medical debt for 700,000 Americans. Jurisdictions are on track to eliminate about $15 billion in medical debt for nearly 6 million Americans, the White House said.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said.

While Biden and Harris are working to solve problems for regular Americans, Trump has simply gone on the offensive, attacking Democrats for what he claims is their mismanagement without offering any ideas of his own. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he posted. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”

By now, we know that Trump goes on offense to hide his own shortcomings. As Judd Legum of Public Notice pointed out, “The largest wildfire in California history—the August Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres—occurred during the Trump administration.”

That pattern of going on offense to hide his own behavior was also on display today when CNN’s Hadas Gold reported that someone inside the Fox News Channel (FNC) gave the Trump team the questions that Trump would be asked at an Iowa town hall last January just before the Iowa caucus. A forthcoming book by Alex Isenstadt of Politico details the close relationship between Trump and people within FNC. It says that after Trump refused to prepare for that town hall, someone inside Fox texted the questions to a senior Trump aide, enabling them to prep him with answers.

After Trump fell apart during his debate with Vice President Harris, he accused her of knowing the questions ahead of time and said the debate was “rigged.”

Trump apparently went on the offensive yesterday when he called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hours before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court asking it to stop Manhattan judge Juan Merchan from sentencing Trump Friday in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. Alito told reporters that they talked only about a job opportunity for one of Alito’s law clerks and did not discuss the case, but it is highly unusual for a president or president-elect to talk with a Supreme Court justice when that official has business before the court. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said such a thing was “almost unheard of.”

As legal analyst Quinta Jurecic observed, though, someone leaked news of this inappropriate contact astonishingly quickly. Such news usually “has taken a while to dribble out,” Jurecic noted, but “this happened THIS MORNING. omebody was smug or pissed off enough to go to the press right away.”
Trump’s accusations that Biden committed a crime more likely to be chalked up to Trump himself—taking bribes from a foreign company—was also in the news today. Alexander Smirnov, the key witness for the House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about the alleged bribery and to tax evasion.

Julia Ainsley and Carol E. Lee of NBC News today reported another way in which Trump is threatening to go on offense: by conducting a very visible raid targeting undocumented immigrants in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as he takes office. While Presidents Barack Obama and Biden have targeted employers who violate labor laws, Trump wants to demonstrate “shock and awe” by raiding workplaces and sweeping up migrants who are in the U.S. without documentation, regardless of their criminal status. His transition team has been talking with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the logistics of such raids.

And then, of course, there are Trump’s frequent references to taking over other countries. Don Jr. traveled to Greenland this week with right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk, ostensibly to record a podcast, but Trump Sr. followed the trip with posts saying “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” That idea is getting traction among MAGA leaders, even though—or perhaps because—it is a direct affront to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to which both the U.S. and Denmark belong.

Over the New York Post’s map of the “Donroe Doctrine” in which Canada is labeled “51st state,” Greenland is labeled “our land,” the Gulf of Mexico is labeled “Gulf of America,” and the Panama Canal is labeled “Pana-Maga Canal,” the Republican majority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted today: “Our country was built by warriors and explorers. We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon. President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams.” Journalist Jamie Dupree screenshotted the tweet before the committee deleted it.

Behind all the offense, though, things that matter deeply to the American people are going largely unnoticed.
MAGA representatives have been introducing a slew of measures to the new Congress, many of which incorporate the plans of Project 2025 into legislation. They call for turning over immigration to the states, privatizing veterans’ healthcare, and repealing the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools.

Other measures would revoke security clearances for “certain former members of the intelligence community,” introduce a constitutional amendment to cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, and cut off federal funding to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (the office that successfully charged Trump with election interference) and the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney’s Office (the office that has charged Trump with criminal conspiracy).

And MAGA Republicans have proposed a bill to impose a national abortion ban, along with a bill urging Congress to support a consortium of antiabortion doctors for women because, the bill says, “health care should emphasize the whole woman, including her physical, mental, and spiritual wellness,” and “health care for women should also address the needs of men, families, and communities.”

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

President Joe Biden is supporting state and local responses to the fire with federal resources. Today, he approved a major disaster declaration, which enables people and towns to access funds immediately in order to jump-start their recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse California for some of the costs of fighting the fires. Five U.S. Forest Service large air tankers and ten federal firefighting helicopters have been deployed to support the local firefighters; ten Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets are joining them. California governor Gavin Newsom has deployed the California National Guard, and the Nevada National Guard is standing by.

Canada, too, has sent water-dropping helicopters and a pair of planes, which are part of a firefighting contract with California that’s been in place for 14 years.

At a fire station in Santa Monica, Biden stood beside Newsom and said: “We’re prepared to do anything and everything for as long as it takes to contain these fires.”

In contrast to federal support for California under Biden, in the midst of the ongoing crisis President-elect Donald Trump blamed California governor Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the fires, suggesting he had put the needs of fish over the people of California. He posted: “Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” “Let this stand as a symbol of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newsom duo,” Trump posted. “January 20th cannot come fast enough!”

Newsom’s office responded: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration—that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

Trump is apparently claiming that water that could be used to fight the fires has been diverted to protect the endangered Delta smelt. But the water systems in California are complicated, and importing water from northern California would make no difference for the wildfires.

Los Angeles water doesn’t come from northern California. It comes from an aqueduct east of the Sierra Nevada, from groundwater, and from the Colorado River. Right now, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has more water stored than it has ever had before, according to Mark Gold, a board member. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire,” he told Alastair Bland of CalMatters. “It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”
Hydroclimatologist Peter Gleick told Taryn Luna, Liam Dillon, and Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times that Trump’s linking of water policy to the raging fires was “blatantly false, irresponsible and politically self-serving.”

The two different responses of the current president and the incoming one reveal dramatically different approaches to the presidency.

Yesterday the Biden administration announced the finalization of a new rule that will remove medical debt from all credit reports. Until now, medical debt has meant that consumers could be denied mortgages, car loans, or small business loans. In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that funds from the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats shortly after Biden took office in 2021, have enabled the elimination of more than $1 billion in medical debt for 700,000 Americans. Jurisdictions are on track to eliminate about $15 billion in medical debt for nearly 6 million Americans, the White House said.
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Harris said.

While Biden and Harris are working to solve problems for regular Americans, Trump has simply gone on the offensive, attacking Democrats for what he claims is their mismanagement without offering any ideas of his own. “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,” he posted. “THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”

By now, we know that Trump goes on offense to hide his own shortcomings. As Judd Legum of Public Notice pointed out, “The largest wildfire in California history—the August Complex Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres—occurred during the Trump administration.”

That pattern of going on offense to hide his own behavior was also on display today when CNN’s Hadas Gold reported that someone inside the Fox News Channel (FNC) gave the Trump team the questions that Trump would be asked at an Iowa town hall last January just before the Iowa caucus. A forthcoming book by Alex Isenstadt of Politico details the close relationship between Trump and people within FNC. It says that after Trump refused to prepare for that town hall, someone inside Fox texted the questions to a senior Trump aide, enabling them to prep him with answers.

After Trump fell apart during his debate with Vice President Harris, he accused her of knowing the questions ahead of time and said the debate was “rigged.”

Trump apparently went on the offensive yesterday when he called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hours before Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the court asking it to stop Manhattan judge Juan Merchan from sentencing Trump Friday in the election interference case in which a jury found him guilty of 34 felonies. Alito told reporters that they talked only about a job opportunity for one of Alito’s law clerks and did not discuss the case, but it is highly unusual for a president or president-elect to talk with a Supreme Court justice when that official has business before the court. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said such a thing was “almost unheard of.”

As legal analyst Quinta Jurecic observed, though, someone leaked news of this inappropriate contact astonishingly quickly. Such news usually “has taken a while to dribble out,” Jurecic noted, but “this happened THIS MORNING. omebody was smug or pissed off enough to go to the press right away.”
Trump’s accusations that Biden committed a crime more likely to be chalked up to Trump himself—taking bribes from a foreign company—was also in the news today. Alexander Smirnov, the key witness for the House Republicans’ investigation into Biden, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about the alleged bribery and to tax evasion.

Julia Ainsley and Carol E. Lee of NBC News today reported another way in which Trump is threatening to go on offense: by conducting a very visible raid targeting undocumented immigrants in the Washington, D.C., area as soon as he takes office. While Presidents Barack Obama and Biden have targeted employers who violate labor laws, Trump wants to demonstrate “shock and awe” by raiding workplaces and sweeping up migrants who are in the U.S. without documentation, regardless of their criminal status. His transition team has been talking with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials about the logistics of such raids.

And then, of course, there are Trump’s frequent references to taking over other countries. Don Jr. traveled to Greenland this week with right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk, ostensibly to record a podcast, but Trump Sr. followed the trip with posts saying “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!” That idea is getting traction among MAGA leaders, even though—or perhaps because—it is a direct affront to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to which both the U.S. and Denmark belong.

Over the New York Post’s map of the “Donroe Doctrine” in which Canada is labeled “51st state,” Greenland is labeled “our land,” the Gulf of Mexico is labeled “Gulf of America,” and the Panama Canal is labeled “Pana-Maga Canal,” the Republican majority on the House Foreign Affairs Committee posted today: “Our country was built by warriors and explorers. We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon. President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams.” Journalist Jamie Dupree screenshotted the tweet before the committee deleted it.

Behind all the offense, though, things that matter deeply to the American people are going largely unnoticed.
MAGA representatives have been introducing a slew of measures to the new Congress, many of which incorporate the plans of Project 2025 into legislation. They call for turning over immigration to the states, privatizing veterans’ healthcare, and repealing the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Bills call for withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization; increasing oil and gas production on federal lands; abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); allowing states to spend federal education money on private school vouchers; and removing the protection of transgender rights from schools.

Other measures would revoke security clearances for “certain former members of the intelligence community,” introduce a constitutional amendment to cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, and cut off federal funding to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office (the office that successfully charged Trump with election interference) and the Fulton County (GA) District Attorney’s Office (the office that has charged Trump with criminal conspiracy).

And MAGA Republicans have proposed a bill to impose a national abortion ban, along with a bill urging Congress to support a consortium of antiabortion doctors for women because, the bill says, “health care should emphasize the whole woman, including her physical, mental, and spiritual wellness,” and “health care for women should also address the needs of men, families, and communities.”

Make America Go Away.

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

Make America Go Away.

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

Make America Go Away.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2b6a30a3c53915949e07b13453a01eb61085e29c/0_100_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none!
!

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

sarahs mum said:

Heather Cox Richardson
17h ·
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)

At least four wildfires tearing across Los Angeles have killed at least five people and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 more, and have flattened about 42 square miles (109 square kilometers). The fires are being driven by unusually high winds with gusts of up to 98 miles per hour (158 km per hour). Although January is typically part of California’s wet season, conditions are terribly dry. Downtown Los Angeles has received just 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) of rain since May 6, 2024, and the summer was unusually hot.

Make America Go Away.

I imagine the amount of energy in the fires would be equivalent to a nuke

sarahs mum said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Make America Go Away.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2b6a30a3c53915949e07b13453a01eb61085e29c/0_100_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none!
!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Well, if they decide to start burning those ‘responsible’ at the stake…

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

SCIENCE said:

I imagine the amount of energy in the fires would be equivalent to a nuke

Didn’t some fella once say they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind, but anyway yous all already know our position on this as yous can see there’s plenty enough suffering and harm out there we don’t get why our souls want to cause more on each other, but since they insist on doing it to one another, have it your way Hosea.

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

reporting on a report from FOX.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

He is, this is a screen shot from the video linked in the post.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

Wakka wakka

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.

Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.

Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires

That’s a good point.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Cymek said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.

Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires

That’s a good point.

They need to get wet.

I mean they need rain.

Rain.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

Nothing like a good bard dance.

Peak Warming Man said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

sarahs mum said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8w8gWVF8nc

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

Nothing like a good bard dance.

barn

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Apparently Pakman is “progressive”, so I’m hoping that is satire.

Nothing like a good bard dance.

barn

Thanks for the correction.

Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Cymek said:

See you could turn that comment into something a bit crude.
I’m attempting to be funny not make fun of lesbians.

Tell them to use lube so friction doesn’t start fires

That’s a good point.

They need to get wet.

I mean they need rain.

Rain.

QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.

Tamb said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

That’s a good point.

They need to get wet.

I mean they need rain.

Rain.

QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.

Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Nothing like a good bard dance.

barn

Thanks for the correction.

Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…

Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

They need to get wet.

I mean they need rain.

Rain.

QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.

Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.

Shakes fist.

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

Peak Warming Man said:

barn

Thanks for the correction.

Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…

Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.

Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.

Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.

Shakes fist.

Runs away.

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

They need to get wet.

I mean they need rain.

Rain.

QEII must have been a lesbian as people were always saying long my she reign.

Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.

QE I never married. Read into that what you will.

Bill’s here and the church fallen down.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Those…………..those women taking our women.
It’s not right.

Shakes fist.

Runs away.

grins like Jack Nicholson
And forces you to play a game called ‘Balls on Chin’
And whatever happens next is all a blur
But you remember

Peak Warming Man said:

Bill’s here and the church fallen down.

What do you think of his statue ?

Peak Warming Man said:

Tamb said:

captain_spalding said:

Thanks for the correction.

Visions of poets taking their partners for the foxtrot…

Bit progressive. More like the Pride of Erin or the Canadian 3 step.

Forget how to do the Pride of Erin, but it was pretty progressive.

It was indeed.