More info: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-urges-house-to-kill-bill-that-could-give-trump-admin-power-to-crush-dissent-and-go-after-political-enemies

The California-based Raw Milk Institute called the warnings "clearly fearmongering." The institute's founder, Mark McAfee, told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that his customers are, in fact, specifically requesting raw milk from H5N1-infected cows. According to McAfee, his customers believe, without evidence, that directly drinking high levels of the avian influenza virus will give them immunity to the deadly pathogen.

By all means, drink up, morons, get the hell out of our gene pool, we've got enough troubles without your Dimwit DNA.

I think that's overly optimistic.

It’s difficult for Vetrini to see the rhetoric espoused by right-wing media and not feel hurt. Since going viral, Vetrini has been subject to vulgar and offensive comments from people who disagree with her perspective.

“Those comments are really hard to deal with, mentally. The hardest part is my dad feels the same way as these vitriolic commenters,” she said.

But she still recognizes the qualities in her father that remind her of Walz. Those are what keep her maintaining a “complicated” relationship with him.

After her TikTok went viral, Vetrini called her dad to tell him about it – hoping to hear it from her first rather than a news show.

“He responded exactly the way I would predict he would respond. Which was to remind me that socialism will ruin America,” she said.

The AF also contaminated the groundwater in a large residential area just west of Spokane, WA adjacent to the Fairchild AF base. Until recently they seemed to be accepting at least partial responsibility but I wonder if that's now going to come to an end. It's not generally a wealthy area, lots of apartments and discount stores and has what I think of as a "military town" vibe. Apparently residents are largely dependent on PFAS-loaded well water and if the AF tells them to FO and be happy they've got anything to drink, they're screwed unless some other entity with deep pockets will come in and clean up. https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024-news-stories/feb-21-west-plains-sampling-for-pfas

Spokaners do not drive across the border into Coeur d’Alene for cheaper groceries or a half-price Big Mac.

I actively boycott any and all ID businesses, because of the state's shitty labor and reproductive-rights laws and its nurture of Christofascism. They can Gilead all they want but it won't be with my financial support.

Just stay tuned for the show when/if the Orange Fascist gets into office again. Cuts to Medicare, SS, and a dismantling of the ACA will be top priorities, and then you're going to see huge increases in the numbers of homeless old folks. Grandpa and Grandma trudging their carts down the road, loaded with the sum or their earthly possessions, heading for the next place to sit next to traffic with a cardboard sign or heading for the nearest tent-city that hasn't been ripped apart by the cops. These income/benefits cuts (and similar - think Medicaid) will be savage for younger people too, but younger people can at least, usually, at minimum, get some kind of crappy job whereas older people, the vast majority of whom are on small, fixed incomes, will very often be unemployable due to illness or injury or (as should be obvious to anyone who pays attention) age discrimination. If that sub-minimum-wage job office job can be done by 20yo Sally or 70yo Sam, if that house-painting job can be done by 20yo Chad or 60yo Cindy, guess who's going to get the job and who's going to be unable to rent even a single-room flat because of no job, no income.

I point this out mainly because one seldom encounters articles that are sympathetic to the financial plights of older people - they're assumed to be all out playing golf at The Club all day, eating restaurant meals afterwards, taking long vacations whenever, just because, and living in comfortable, fully-owned houses with incomes that support their upkeep as well as the upkeep+use of that brand new gigantic RV parked outside. Oldster unemployment and poverty and medical debt and, ultimately Oldster homelessness, is just outside of the narrative.

You can be sure that these jailed homeless people will end up being forced into labor - enslaved - because you can't let dirt-cheap labor go to waste, and you can't let a poor person look like they're getting something for nothing - mooching, free-riding - even if it's not their choice. Handouts are legitimately only for the rich and their corporations after all. If someone's fined+jailed and won't work for some capitalist exploiter, what will be done? I would guess some kind of torture will be employed to change their minds, but wouldn't be surprised if they're simply executed, especially if they're non-white.

Just lovely. Despite being a long-time Mint customer (and currently pre-paid for quite some time into the future) I fully expect to get screwed in some substantial way by this.

North Dakotan (rural values!, family values!), and of course Republican, enjoys gay sex with children. This is what they (Republicans) mean when they talk about how much they love kids.

And to cemeteries. Some of the cemeteries here are enormous and they keep them watered and green despite the fact that we've had hardly any rain for months and the cems get just a handful of visitors per day.

If only the rest of the military would Mann-up like this.

How in hell can your 10-14yo not go to school and nobody lifts a finger? School's not mandatory in W. VA? Somebody's been watching closely enough that they know how many times the girl left the house in four years, but nobody thought intervention was called for?

Where's the list of names of the AGs who took the grift?

And to be clear, this wasn't just some mistake, some lamentable error. The cops deliberately set her up in order to protect one of its own. Not a single cop or police force will pay any price for ruining this woman's life.

The review found that local police ignored evidence that directly pointed to one of their own officers - Michael Holman – who later went to prison for another crime and died in 2015.

Holman’s truck was seen in the area the day of the murder, his alibi could not be corroborated, and he used Patricia Jeschke’s credit card after claiming he found it in a ditch.

A pair of distinctive gold earrings identified by Ms Jeschke’s father were also found in Holman’s home.

None of this was disclosed to Ms Hemme’s defence team at the time, the review said.

Ms Hemme was interrogated by police several times under the influence of antipsychotic medication and a powerful sedative after being involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. She had been receiving occasional psychiatric treatment since she was 12 years old.

Her responses were “monosyllabic” and she was “not totally cognisant of what was going on”, court documents showed, and at times could barely hold her head up straight and was in pain from muscle spasms – a side effect of the medications.

Judge Horsman’s review noted that no forensic evidence linked Ms Hemme to the murder. She had no motive and there were no witnesses linking her to the crime.

TF. This scum should be rotting in some damp airless dark cell for at least 2x that term. Please tell me he won't be eligible for parole, or have access to the internet while on the inside.

Cowart was held on a $37,000 bond before being released from jail the same night.

TF, she walked free and presumably is free currently? I guess this behavior is no big deal in TN.

The assault was one of at least 439 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that defines mass shootings as incidents involving four or more victims.

Welp, I can see it's time to re-up as a member with the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and maybe a few more. I haven't been active in the Church:State fight since the early 2000s when GWB was kissing-up to Christofascists but the latter are really gaining momentum of late now that they have Their People in power from the SCOTUS on down to the lowliest municipal admin spot. We as a country are truly f*cked if we don't neutralize these people. I'll probably join TST too because I agree with them ideologically, they're doing some great women's health care work, and I want to make sure that I get on all the Christofascist's Lists as a certified Demonic influencer.

Absolutely, bring it. These LARPer pussies need to learn a lesson, one they're not getting from video games, firearm manufacturers, and their imbecile Discord blabberings. So funny to think that THEY think that everyone but them is quaking in fear of their 'civil war' talk and vague threats of violence. Nobody's afraid of them at all, nobody respects them at all, and that's not going to change, period.

I don't know what's in a rape kit but I'm guessing that there might be something that could (with luck) prevent conception in a female child who's raped. Idaho Christofascist Republicans WANT rape victims who get pregnant as a result of the rape to be forced to carry the fetus to term. That's how they exercise power and control over women, and that's one of the main things that they get off on in life. This news post is absolutely repulsive but nothing surprises me about that Christofascist hellscape called Idaho anymore.

I swear he comes across as even more senile each and every day. But ...

The rich would support this - they can only consume so much after all, and most of that would be discretionary. No more income taxes on vast incomes, stop buying imported shit, huge win for them. The chowderheads supporting Drumpf would probably be enthusiastic about such an idea too - imagining their small paychecks without that hated tax deduction box and imagining no more paying every year for that scary tax return software. And then, they lose their jobs because countries that we export to retaliate with their own tariffs. Prices on pretty much everything goes through the roof (because even domestic products have foreign supply chains), and most of the cheap shit they used to be able to afford (like electronics from China, bulk foods from overseas and (fast-)foods made with it) they can't afford now.

Meanwhile, with the economy crashing, federal receipts (both tax and tariffs) dry up and it's Government Shutdown time. All working according to the Plan. Grandma and Grandpa lose their incomes and health care and have to move in with unemployed, impoverished JimBob and the wife, which is darn near intolerable what with all the hillbilly kids being home all the time now that the schools have been shut down. Kids that are wailing about being hungry all the time just like the oldsters.

It would be fun to see what carve-outs to the tax/tariff policy they'd have, to try to keep the MIC funded. Borrowing is of course the preferred way to fund it, but nobody's going to be touching the bonds issued by an actively collapsing national government.

Explosives were fascinating when I was, like, 10 years old. Now, as an adult, they're just stupid, but we have an ever-growing population of people who derive their sense of self-worth from producing maximally loud, obnoxious, pathetic spectacles (think street-racers, coal-rollers, rap-blasters to name a few), so there you have it. When you're a nobody and have no attributes that anyone would look up to, well, at least you can force people to pay attention to you and do it on the cheap (important because you're poor). Boom boom pop pop.

A "quick haircut" sort of place (kind of a barber, sort of , but super-high-volume and just one worker, the owner) that I've been using for a while now has a super-annoying dark-pattern in their payment flow. They book appointments, and take in-person payments using Square. After your cut, when you're paying via their hand-held kiosk with a card, the screen shows you a bunch of huge "tip amount" buttons, and it's implied that the customer has to choose one of them, while the provider looks on, in order to finish the transaction and leave (probably not true - they've already got your CC info by that point). Guess which button is highlighted/pre-selected and front-and-center! That's right, 20%. If you want to select another tip, or no tip, you have to select another button while she watches you do so. The owner lists all prices on her square website, and it's those prices you think you'll be paying when you book an appointment online, but she still feels the need to be tipped. You KNOW that the provider/barber has configured Square to present that UI to the customer. Not quite the same as the restaurant fees scam, but it's actually more manipulative though, in my view.

When Arizona passed the legislation that allowed for private school vouchers, the program was projected to cost $65 million in 2024 and $125 million in 2025. But the most recent estimates put that cost at a staggering $940 million per year, more than 1,000 percent of the initial estimate.

The Christofascists won't be satisfied until every school is a 100% Christian-run, 100% taxpayer-funded, stone-age-war-god-ideology fascist brainwashing center.

Whatever the case, when a church closes as a religious institution, I hope that it can be repurposed to some other activity that is still community-building?

There's one church a few blocks away from here that went out of business a few years ago and is now being used as a homeless shelter by an area non-profit. I walk by it all the time and have seen the before/after. The property is finally being put to a use that helps humanity and the the neighborhood is much better off for it.

I don't understand what the word "certified" is supposed to mean in his rant. Is this some new teen-speak redefinition that he's trying to appropriate? "power certified"? Huh?

“both sides” BS to not vote

I have an acquaintance, a "formerly" rabid-right-wing, anti-union, global-warming-isn't-real, they-hate-our-freedom, wealthy, fossil-fuel-family Reactionary from the western US who is doing this now. Apparently now with grown daughters and an immigrant son-in-law, Trump, formerly touted to me by this guy as "a really smart guy" and "doing some great things" (at the time, the great thing was withdrawing from the Paris accords), is not quite as palatable as before. But rather than focusing on Trump's shortcomings, it's better in the Reactionary's view to fixate instead on Biden's genocide support (while ignoring Trump's and the GOP's enthusiasm for the practice), assert that "both sides" are just a "uni-party", and throw up his hands and claim to be not voting this time around, or voting for some hopeless brain-worrmed third party candidate. Anything, anything at all, except for showing one iota of opposition to old Doddering Donald, anything but admit that you, the Reactionary, made disgusting wrong choices in the past and are about to, for all intents and purposes, make them again. The bottom line aim is that taxes remain low, dividends and capital gains remain high, and regulations, whether it be on the Environment or child labor, remain minimal. Voting for Trump directly is preferred to achieve these aims, but both-sides-ing him into office again is fine too if you need the plausible deniability because of pressure from your misguided Communist family members.

Wow, the thing just falls out of the sky.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2024/aug/09/plane-goes-into-a-spiral-descent-before-crashing-in-brazil-video

O’Brien also outlined evidence that was withheld that pointed to Michael Holman — a former police officer, who died in 2015. Evidence showed that Holman’s pickup truck was seen outside Jeschke’s apartment, that he tried to use her credit card, and that her earrings were found in his home.

The appellate court’s ruling said the record “strongly suggests” that police buried their investigation into Holman.

One of the appellate court judges noted particular concern about what happened when Holman, the discredited police officer, couldn’t be ruled out as the source of a palm print detected on a TV antenna cable found next to the victim’s body.

The FBI asked for clearer prints, but police didn’t follow up. Jurors never heard about that or other evidence because the police never informed prosecutors.

Archive link: https://archive.is/Qsioy

At the scene, multiple people pulled over in a car and fired with at least one automatic weapon at one person before getting back into the vehicle and fleeing the scene, Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond said in an update Sunday morning. More than 100 shell casings were collected at the scene, among other pieces of evidence, and bystanders were caught in the crossfire.

Thurmond said the shooting was not random and may have stemmed from an alleged murder-for-hire against an individual in the Five Points South entertainment district at the time. No one is in custody, but police are asking for businesses and witnesses to report any information they have.

City and police officials believe a switch — a small device that can convert a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon — may have been used in the shooting.

https://wbhm.org/2024/birmingham-police-4-dead-dozens-injured-in-five-points-south-mass-shooting/

Welcome, life is good here. Stay the hell out of ID though - it might give you flashbacks.

My thoughts exactly. Somehow, year after year, we can always come up with $800B+ for the offense budget ($842B FY2024) and that never gets seriously questioned, despite the US not being technically at war with any other major or minor powers. The offense budget is always a "must pass" proposition, whereas spending that actually helps Americans, like Medicare, Medicaid, and SS, are treated/portrayed as some sort of obscene "entitlements" that only the most profligate and immoral nations would ever direct tax money to. Those, and any kind of non-military infrastructure, are just examples of coddling the undeserving citizenry. Investing in the means to kill "foreigners", in contrast, is money well spent!

The whole "standing army" paradigm needs to be scrapped and the sooner the better.

Rouge: noun, A red or pink cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips.

You want that stuff all over the net? And just who is going to clean it all up when you're done? The bot surely won't - it'll just claim that it hasn't been trained on cleaning.

"Bloomberg reported the memo indicated a “newer” first officer was flying at the time and inadvertently pushed forward on the control column."

So, is this another "pilot tries to crash the plane" incident? It's hard to imagine how a pilot could "inadvertently" shove the controls forward, especially at that altitude when both would totally dialed-in to flying the plane and doing their checklists and whatnot (vs. say, getting up to go to the toilet or something). Fortunately, "the event was addressed appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement" said SW, so now I feel better.

... and over the fact that article mentions the universe being billions of years old, which we know to be false because some old book says so, supposedly, not that any of them have read that book. Ban all Webb data, keep that stuff out of our libraries and schools!

Knowing you are the reason your kid is dead. Or maimed. Christ how do you live with that?

Yeah, I guess they forgot to appoint a Christian King.

Those accounts provide about $6,600 per student to attend any school, including private or home schools

This "act" is all about funneling public tax money into the pockets of religious grifters, and hell, it sounds like you don't even need to be an organized business grifter any more. You can just open your house/trailer/shack for a few hours a day as a "home school", do a little praying at minimum, and collect $6600/head/yr. Sweet deal. But it's not welfare. Nope, not at all, not if you're a Christian taking the grift.

Good. From another article posted here today, regarding NC domestic terrorists:

In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.