OT: A GOP state Senator in VA introduced a bill that cuts off state funding to any medical facility that preforms an abortion under any circumstance. VA Dems call his bluff on his performative bullshit and force a vote on the measure with no amendments. It was crushed 95-1-2.
And I've watched her program before and cannot tolerate listening to her grating voice. It has replaced Barbara Wallace's annoying drone as a primary broadcast auditory assault on my ears. I'm wired strangely and my ears wince away in physical discomfort from various vocal characteristics. There are some voices whom I just cannot stand to listen to at all and it's not necessarily related to their politics.
The County officer responsible for elections in rural Renville County, MN, just quit for mysterious reasons. I'm guessing death threats had something to do with it.
This is happening across the country. I just happen to know Renville County very well, as I grew up not far away and have driven through it frequently for decades.
I worry more about stochastic terrorism in those rural areas, where everybody knows everybody and all about them.
Where I live, in a precinct that cast 1600 ballots (1400 Biden, 110 third-party and write-in, 90 Trump), I'm not too worried about it.
But out there? Renville County borders Redwood County, where the FBI just busted a Nazi who was armed to the teeth and making ghost guns to arm his imaginary White Supremacy militia.
I am very worried about election officials in rural areas. Not to mention pollworkers. I feel bad for progressives out in the hinterlands these days. It's getting scary.
We're absolutely going to have to deal with the rural/urban divide. There's no fixing it perfectly. Never has been. Cities and small towns, much less unincorporated rural areas, are different. Things have to be done differently. Just because of all the people packed in close in cities.
To me the big issue is that the Finance industry has no use for areas below a certain density of population and overall wealth; other than for resource extraction. There's not enough in it for Finance to take an interest, and it's much costlier per person to do anything in less-populated areas.
It's another aspect of the subsuming of every other part of our society by Finance.
I read an article not too long ago that as far back as the 1950s, Finance bigwigs were talking about long-term strategies to get everybody out of rural areas and into cities, for exactly these reasons. Well, we're 65 or so years along into that process, and this is what we get.
I knew all along, growing up in a rural area, there wasn't anything for me there and I'd leave as fast as I could. My family was originally a lot more urban-inclined anyway, so that was almost assumed. But over the past nearly-40 years since I left, society has deteriorated out there to the point of collapse.
I don't know what the answer is. But letting Finance run the nation is going to fail, disastrously, for a multitude of reasons. This being but one. If we don't start definancializing our systems, institutions, and overall culture; it's going to be very, very bad. Because it's going to happen. It's just a matter of whether we take an active role in the process, or take our hands off the steering wheel and cover our eyes while pressing the accelerator to the floor. Which is what what we're doing looks like to me.
One problem is that the government has ceded so much to Finance, as you put it. There is no reason that rural areas couldn't have had exceptional broadband 10 years ago. There is no reason they can't have thriving arts in their communities. But like you said, small towns were abandoned to resource extraction. That is a really good way of thinking about it.
Maybe it's not a good idea to isolate these cops from the community, and immerse them in the mindset that every single thing that happens is an attempt to murder them, personally and specifically, always and at all times.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is urging President Biden to declassify information related to a "serious national security threat."
"Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has made available to all Members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat," Turner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Wednesday
>I feel like someone's f*king with classified info, and it's not the White House.
OT: A tech company, Near Intelligence, tracked people's visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states, then gave that data to anti-abortion groups. "This is the largest targeting campaign we've seen to date against reproductive health clinics."
Honestly this just makes me want to stop by the Planned Parenthood that is on the way to my office so that I give false intelligence and they waste time following me.
There's nothing wrong with Werther's. I mean, almost anything chocolate is better, and I'm not going out of my way for Werther's, but if you're offering me one I'm not turning it down.
"1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas." Shortly thereafter, the first robo-calls were made in support of James Buchanan.
That the state has yet to connect itself to any sort of extraneous grid in order to provide the necessary voltage tells you that its' still intent upon remaining exclusive.
Ta, Evan.
The cretins of the White House Press Corpse should be sent to bed without their suppers.
Another unspeakably idiotic question.
OK, this East Palestine idiocy has gone on for weeks.
Mid morning happiness: my oldest and my little biscuit kitten, beatified by filter. 😁
https://substack.com/@bluepnwcats/note/c-49548660?r=gc3ns
Beautiful photo. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! I've always loved it. ☺️
OT: A GOP state Senator in VA introduced a bill that cuts off state funding to any medical facility that preforms an abortion under any circumstance. VA Dems call his bluff on his performative bullshit and force a vote on the measure with no amendments. It was crushed 95-1-2.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-slap-in-the-face-dems-force-virginia-republicans-to-reject-member-s-anti-abortion-bill/ar-BB1id4nZ
Nice times? Yay.
“Democrats keep winning elections by large margins, but for how long” - NYT pitchbot
OT: does Andrea Mitchell always have a halting and fragmented delivery?
(I have never watched her before, and it's driving me nuts!)
Some here have referred to her as Meandrea.
Affirmative.
And I've watched her program before and cannot tolerate listening to her grating voice. It has replaced Barbara Wallace's annoying drone as a primary broadcast auditory assault on my ears. I'm wired strangely and my ears wince away in physical discomfort from various vocal characteristics. There are some voices whom I just cannot stand to listen to at all and it's not necessarily related to their politics.
And now, in my mind, you are a human, but with big ol cat ears with the tufts on top. And the world is perfect.
I get this.
To me, Wolf Blitzer has an unbearable monotone, and I can't understand why others don't seem to hear it.
I hear it. Thank you for saying it.
I'm not alone!
Haven't watched CNN for years, since WB is on 24/7.
She's gone way downhill. I can't listen to her anymore.
Yes. Has for a long time. She's also, for a long time, been as useless as her husband, Alan Greenspan.
Yes she does and it's highly annoying. I literally just yelled "PUT THE WORDS TOGETHER IN YOUR HEAD BEFORE YOU START TALKING!" at her on TV.
OMG FINISH THE SENTENCE!
OT:
'𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵': 𝗙𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 '𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴' 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
https://www.rawstory.com/2024-election-threat-environment/
The County officer responsible for elections in rural Renville County, MN, just quit for mysterious reasons. I'm guessing death threats had something to do with it.
This is happening across the country. I just happen to know Renville County very well, as I grew up not far away and have driven through it frequently for decades.
Oh look. Stochastic terrorism is winning.
I worry more about stochastic terrorism in those rural areas, where everybody knows everybody and all about them.
Where I live, in a precinct that cast 1600 ballots (1400 Biden, 110 third-party and write-in, 90 Trump), I'm not too worried about it.
But out there? Renville County borders Redwood County, where the FBI just busted a Nazi who was armed to the teeth and making ghost guns to arm his imaginary White Supremacy militia.
I am very worried about election officials in rural areas. Not to mention pollworkers. I feel bad for progressives out in the hinterlands these days. It's getting scary.
We're absolutely going to have to deal with the rural/urban divide. There's no fixing it perfectly. Never has been. Cities and small towns, much less unincorporated rural areas, are different. Things have to be done differently. Just because of all the people packed in close in cities.
To me the big issue is that the Finance industry has no use for areas below a certain density of population and overall wealth; other than for resource extraction. There's not enough in it for Finance to take an interest, and it's much costlier per person to do anything in less-populated areas.
It's another aspect of the subsuming of every other part of our society by Finance.
I read an article not too long ago that as far back as the 1950s, Finance bigwigs were talking about long-term strategies to get everybody out of rural areas and into cities, for exactly these reasons. Well, we're 65 or so years along into that process, and this is what we get.
I knew all along, growing up in a rural area, there wasn't anything for me there and I'd leave as fast as I could. My family was originally a lot more urban-inclined anyway, so that was almost assumed. But over the past nearly-40 years since I left, society has deteriorated out there to the point of collapse.
I don't know what the answer is. But letting Finance run the nation is going to fail, disastrously, for a multitude of reasons. This being but one. If we don't start definancializing our systems, institutions, and overall culture; it's going to be very, very bad. Because it's going to happen. It's just a matter of whether we take an active role in the process, or take our hands off the steering wheel and cover our eyes while pressing the accelerator to the floor. Which is what what we're doing looks like to me.
One problem is that the government has ceded so much to Finance, as you put it. There is no reason that rural areas couldn't have had exceptional broadband 10 years ago. There is no reason they can't have thriving arts in their communities. But like you said, small towns were abandoned to resource extraction. That is a really good way of thinking about it.
Shitfuckpiss. This is gonna be one long-ass year.
It's already been about ten months. Seems so, anyway.
The lunatic weather patters of the past year graphically demonstrate THAT to be terrifying true.
And if you're not scared shitless you haven't been paying adequate attention.
Demonstration only valid for people who are not paralyzed from the nose up.
OT: Good guys with guns, chap. 458,782,697
Florida cop empties his gun & runs for cover after acorn falls on car:
https://jalopnik.com/florida-cop-empties-his-gun-runs-for-cover-after-acorn-1851255383
Of course he had to shoot. It was a black oak acorn!
Holy crap, there was a guy in the car. I can't believe he wasn't killed or injured.
Local squirrels die laughing... behind the oak tree.
Obviously, it was one of those gottdamn assault acorns with the extended magazine.
Maybe it's not a good idea to isolate these cops from the community, and immerse them in the mindset that every single thing that happens is an attempt to murder them, personally and specifically, always and at all times.
Just sayin'.
suspended with pay for two weeks.........has to recover mentally, in fear for life, medal ceremony in early March
Pretty soon I am going to start screaming.
And I am NOT going to be able to stop.
If it makes you feel better: The cop resigned. Says so at the end of the linked article.
Soon we will all be screaming and none of us will need a cracked rib to do it.
I think someone might need a little touch of PTSD intervention.
Sounds about right.
"Biden prefers Werther's Originals, Trump loves Mentos............Why Trump is now The Freshmaker"
- NYT Pitchbot
Like he'd spare the coke for that...fhuuuttttpt
Maybe he puts his Mentos in his ketchup.
THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!!!
We already know he uses them for suppositories.
Right before a speech.
Mentos in one end, Diet Coke in the other.....
And ketchup is hurled.
(FauxSnooze):
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is urging President Biden to declassify information related to a "serious national security threat."
"Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has made available to all Members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat," Turner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Wednesday
>I feel like someone's f*king with classified info, and it's not the White House.
I anxiously await additional details...
I read that as "debris" and I thought, that's about right :)
I can't wait to hear the definition of "information" in that statement.
Also, "serious".
Definitely not Claude Shannon's definition of information. (Information Theory joke. Sue me.)
Great, now I need to go back to school to learn this stuff. Is Simba teaching the intro course or LF?
That's more Simba's bailiwick.
Good. LF's dope slap is kinda sharply delivered. He does not like stupid questions and dog knows I have a ton of them.
House Intelligence Committee -- Nominated for Oxymoron Of The Century
Sorry, my "OT" disappeared.
OT: A tech company, Near Intelligence, tracked people's visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states, then gave that data to anti-abortion groups. "This is the largest targeting campaign we've seen to date against reproductive health clinics."
𝗔 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝟲𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘀, 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/13/planned-parenthood-location-track-abortion-ads-00141172
Well that is horrible news. We need a constitutional right to privacy, stat.
And then some.
PLEASE publish he membership list of Near Intelligence. In each state.
Gilead, you say?
So near intelligence, and yet so far.
Honestly this just makes me want to stop by the Planned Parenthood that is on the way to my office so that I give false intelligence and they waste time following me.
I'm for stopping by, then swinging by the nearest gay bar, just to fuck with 'em.
My wife and I will be waiting with drinks.
(She loves gay bars. Men don't bother her.)
Plus the drinks are generally stronger.
Their actions are a NEGATION of intelligence, those regressive prats.
“What Biden’s choices of hard candy reveal about his mental state” - NYT cuisine section
It's Werther's isn't it?
My god we are sunk.
Werther's?
It's Curiously Strong Altoids all the way for Dark Brandon, baby.
And have you seen the price of penny candy these days??
There's nothing wrong with Werther's. I mean, almost anything chocolate is better, and I'm not going out of my way for Werther's, but if you're offering me one I'm not turning it down.
"1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas." Shortly thereafter, the first robo-calls were made in support of James Buchanan.
Shocked that Texas allowed someone from out of state to string wire carrying electric current into their pure territory.
That the state has yet to connect itself to any sort of extraneous grid in order to provide the necessary voltage tells you that its' still intent upon remaining exclusive.
“Biden won Souzzis district by 8 points in 2020 but Souzzi only won by 7.9 as the “Biden drag” continues to hurt Democrats nationwide” - Politico
I'm sorry, they're quibbling over a tenth of a percentage?
Fake headline. It’s getting kind of scary that the msm is so bad that I have to mark these as made up.