This article appeared in my feed just above another article about how China has the world's first operational thorium reactor. Meanwhile, the US is about to fight a civil war over whether vaccination causes measles and stripping away the last of our social programs in order to get out wealthiest people another 2% subsidy.
It fucking kills me how judges will absolutely fuck every day people up, but then when it comes to the wealthy and well connected, it's suddenly "oh, well, they only murdered two people, I think a fine is kind of crossing the line here, let's be reasonable about this".
It's not that they're strip mining it because the value proposition isn't there. Generations past, towards the end of the guilded age, we saw that the wealthy could meaningfully invest in and elevate society and still be fabulously wealthy. We see as much in the modern day with McKenzie Scott. It's more that ripping out the plumbing and wiring is quick and easy, and that's all anybody cares to do anymore. Why make $100 in ten years when I could make $3 right now? This is the natural and probable outcome of the way we've allowed our economic system to run, especially but not exclusively since Reagan embraced supply side economics and rejected the Great Society view of America. It's a race to the bottom, and always has been. That's what's always been lurking under the "bring manufacturing back from China" narratives, since Chinese factories have such fabulous features as unknown chemicals that make you just drop dead sometimes (electronics manufacturing), on-site bunk houses, and suicide nets.
The empire's been slowly eroding since the Vietnam war, and especially since the end of the cold war was apparent. It finally ran out of other places to fuck up for cheap gains, and it's turned in on itself to try and keep those cheap gains coming. We all know you can't survive, let alone thrive, by eating your own flesh, but the wealthy are all so goddamn short sighted that they're quite happy to try feudalism part 2: surveillance state boogaloo.
The thing that kills me is that we were the wealthiest nation on earth, we had it all, we could have had an absolutely outrageous standard of living for everyone in terms of healthcare, education, scientific advancement for the benefit of all mankind, etc. and we literally blew all of it out of our ass blowing up brown people and giving it away to like ten of the wealthiest people. It's such a disappointment to think of what could have been.
MS-13 member according to which judge and jury? What exactly is he charged with? As long as we're ditching the justice system, we the people might as well make some extrajudicial convictions too.
This might be unpopular, but I don't think HOAs should be banned. WAIT! I, personally, think HOAs suck and I'd never agree to buying a home in an HOA. That said, not everyone feels that way. Some folks genuinely like living in HOAs, and for all the horror stories, there's at least a few where the HOA simply exists to provide amenities to the neighborhood i.e. playgrounds, walking trails, pools, etc. People should be free to choose the kind of housing arrangements they want, and if they want an HOA, then that's their prerogative.
The real problem with HOAs is that we're trying to solve the housing crisis exclusively with single family residential zoning, which means that HOAs are vastly overrepresented in terms of what's available on the housing market. It's fundamentally a zoning issue. People who don't want an HOA or can't spend $2,000/mo in mortgage plus another $300/mo or whatever in HOA fees should have options, but they kinda don't. Ask your city why their zoning sucks.
"but what if I get primaried?" They ask as people are being sent to life in prison without being charged with a crime.
Jesus Christ, how do you make it this far in politics with this little spine or conviction? Is it really that easy?
I've always been a big fan of multi-classing
More concreatures, please
Let's fucking goooooooooo
You might not be political, but the Nazis are, and they don't really mind sending non-political people to the camps.
Oh, shit, I guess somebody actually did get consequences. I wonder if this guy's problem is that he didn't realize it's all a grift.
The cruelty is the point. I know you're probably used to seeing that in some kind of melodramatic context, but that's actually what it is in this case. The government's narrative is that the people that they're grabbing are all insane and violent gang members and that they all deserve life in the harshest conditions possible- conditions that, I presume, are not possible under the already barely enforced eighth amendment. The Trump administration already tested those waters in Trump I with refusing to give detainees such luxuries as beds, blankets, soap, toilet paper, and lights that turn off at night, and got shut down; if they send them to El Salvador, there is no constitution (or pretense thereof) to step in and say "no, you can't do that". They've said repeatedly and out loud that the terror is the point.
Here's the big, huge, glowing hot problem that remains, even with news media now reporting that Kilmar's wife sought a restraining order or something in 2021:
A bunch of these folks were NEVER charged with a crime. The government never had to prove their case to a jury, never got a sentence from a judge, and never even attempted to say what crime these folks committed. They just scooped them up and sent them to a life term in supermax for ???? That's bad, like really, really, really bad. This puts us squarely in dictatorship territory, and let me be totally unambiguous here: when the government can arbitrarily sentence people to life in prison without even claiming a crime or trying the case before a jury, that is a dictatorship. We are living, right now, in this moment, in a dictatorship. If they can do it to them, they can do it to you-- and they will. In fact, they're currently discussing avenues for stripping citizenship from US citizens so they can "deport" them to El Salvador, and they've confirmed to the press that they're having those discussions. So, yes, they're coming for you, too, just not quite yet.
P.S. if you think you're safe because you're not political, that doesn't matter, because they're political, and they think that sending you to die in an El Salvadorian prison for being gay/atheist/furry/said anything bad about Trump ever/whatever is just dandy.
Central America, and technically North America since it's north of Columbia.
We're literally paying El Salvador to take these folks. We hold the purse strings in this case.
Fair enough. I'm considering purchasing private satellite imagery from more high-res providers.
Edit: yowzers, minimum pricing makes any imaging worth a damn about $125. I'm pretty sure my SO would stove my head in.
I wonder if he's part of that Quiver Full cult
Could be that CECOT is censored in bing data
YouTuber claims to find evidence of mass murder at CECOT in satellite images
I mean, it's a dude looking at pixels on google earth. It's hard to be sure, and there's nothing else really but conjecture to support the claim. Thoughts? Ideas on how to confirm or refute this?
That's a lot of index files
Maryland Democratic senator travels to El Salvador in push for Abrego Garcia’s return
US Sen. Chris Van Hollen told reporters in El Salvador Wednesday that he was unable to visit Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in the maximum-security mega-prison where he is being held.
US Sen. Chris Van Hollen told reporters in El Salvador Wednesday that he was unable to visit Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in the maximum-security mega-prison where he is being held.
Van Hollen said he specifically asked Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa if he could meet with Abrego Garcia or at least speak with him over the phone or via video conferencing. Again, Van Hollen said the request was denied.
Pressed on whether he had concerns about the man’s health, Van Hollen said: “I don’t know about his health status which is why I wanted to meet with him directly.”
The senator’s trip swiftly drew the ire of the White House.
Communications director Steven Cheung called Van Hollen “a complete disgrace” and the Office of Communications accused the senator in a statement of a lack of concern regarding crimes they say were committed by undocumented immigrants against his constituents. Abrego Garcia has not been charged with any crimes in the United States, according to his l
The U.N. has said Israel killed the workers. The video appears to contradict Israel’s version of events, which said the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/60439802
A video, discovered on the cellphone of a paramedic who was found along with 14 other aid workers in a mass grave in Gaza in late March, shows that the ambulances and fire truck that they were traveling in were clearly marked and had their emergency signal lights on when Israeli troops hit them with a barrage of gunfire.
Weird Wednesdays 2025-04-02
Welcome to weird Wednesdays- UFO edition! Today, I'm sharing a three hour interview with one of the UAP disclosure folks. He's leading project skywatcher, which is an effort try and capture more definitive evidence surrounding UAP, and claims to have worked with people involved in the legacy crash recovery program. The interview has the level, calm pace of an intelligent discussion, and makes for good background listening, I think.
I personally don't have anything too exciting to report on the UFO/UAP front, though I had I guess what you'd call a near miss once. The story goes that I was out in my back yard, using my telescope to oggle the moon when I saw a flat disc zoom from left to right across my field of view in a fraction of a second. I've always been a UFO lore enjoyer, so I was JAZZED that I saw a literal flying saucer until I looked up from the scope to try and see it with my naked eye and saw it was a passenger jet. I was just zoomed in enough that the apparent motion of the
A bee passed out in a California poppy
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59942164
I thought it might have died in there, since I watched it for a good two minutes with no movement. It turns out that "passing out" in flowers is a thing that bees do sometimes.
A bee passed out in a California poppy
I thought it might have died in there, since I watched it for a good two minutes with no movement. It turns out that "passing out" in flowers is a thing that bees do sometimes.
Decolonization Platform
Hey, so, I'm interested in learning what a decolonization platform would look like in the US. Are there meaningful measures that have passed, and what were their outcomes? What are some of the more popular or more practical decolonization policies?
Low Cost of Living platform
Hey everyone! I'm ruminating on running for my local state assembly seat or city council (leaning towards city council, I don't have any name recognition or political network to support an assembly seat run, so it'd be a hot mess probably). Around here, candidates typically run on pro-farm, pro-family, pro-cop, tough on crime platforms. I'm intending to run on a platform that focuses heavily on lowering the cost of living through policy choices. I think it can work specifically because this area is not very economically advantaged, and the cost of living has gone from bad to berserk in the last five years; meanwhile, there's really not that much crime here.
So, the platform goes like this:
CA-27 in 2026
Esmeralda Soria (D, CA-27) has announced that she's planning to seek office in the California state Senate, leaving her assembly seat open. There's some interest from several mayors, but I'm not aware of any particularly strong left candidates seeking this office.
CA-27 includes Merced, Madera, Atwater, Los Banos, Dos Palos, Kerman, Mendota, and Coalinga.
Anybody from central California either interested in running for this seat or have a suggestion for someone we can promote for it?
Monolith Be Like
Do yourself a favor, Stalkers, don't stare at rocks, not even once.
Stargazing Saturdays 2025-03-22
Looking like the clouds are finally going to break tonight. The moon's quickly heading towards the new moon, and we've got Virgo rising. I'm excited to get out and check some targets off my list.
It'd be nice if I could get out in time to hit Canis Major and Puppis, but I think CM might be too far west for me to have a clear view, and Puppis too deep into the southern sky to hit anything meaningful.
Tonight’s itenerary is basically a copy-paste from last time, because last Saturday fell apart on me at the last minute.
Going to hit the Leo triplet again Going to hit Bode’s Galaxy again M94 -M48 -M44 -M67 M3 if it’s high enough Gamma Leo Zeta Ursa Majoris Depending on if transparency is good, I might hit the owl nebula and Cigar Galaxy. Probably off itenerary:
Everything in Canis Major and Orion :(
I’m considering M84, M86, and M87 if they’re high enough, but given relatively low altitude, I'm not too hopeful.
Anyone else getting their scopes out? What are you going to look at?
Trump Goes Full Dictator With Announcement on Biden Pardons
Oh no, who could have predicted this besides anyone who was paying attention?
FTA:
The Trump administration is working tirelessly to undo the accomplishments of President Joe Biden—including the ex-president’s pardons.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social within the first hour of Monday.
(Hope I'm doing this right, I don't post much news and I forget the conventions.)
Stargazing Saturdays 2025-03-15
I know we did Fridays last time. The weather was bad, so I kinda forgot about it. The transparency tonight is looking suboptimal, and, given my options, I might just settle for hitting some binary stars. My best view is of the eastern sky, and most everything there right now is faint fuzzies, so I don't have especially high hopes.
Tonight's itenerary:
Probably off itenerary:
Anyone else getting their scopes out? What are you going to look at?
Remember Orion? This is him now. Feel old yet?
I asked ChatGPT for an image of the constellation Orion. Someone needs to let the IAU know that they need to update their charts.
How to survive emission
Hey stalker net, my drinking buddy told me that it's possible to survive an emission. He even walked out into one to prove it, but I didn't have the guts to follow. Idk, I believe that they're dangerous, they always make my teeth fucking rattle. Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that he can walk around in an emission like that, or is there a trick to it?
Why would the sun do this?
Summer daylight hours are about to massacre my boy. Nobody's ever been treated so unfairly.
Weird Wednesdays 2025-03-12
Knock, knock! It's the Rag and Bone man. Got any stories to share? Real or other, it makes no difference, our mutual benefactors are happy to hear them all.
Glad that we're past this, sad that they're gone
Yeah bro, I swear you can see it if your eyes are good enough
"Oh, you can't see it? You must not be lynx-eyed lol. Sounds like skill issues to me, bro" -shills for big astronomy