"woke", used in a US political context (and not as the past tense of "wake", as from sleep), doesn't have any meaning in the first place. It's made-up propaganda noise invented by the far-right. I refuse to parse any sentence containing the word, from the media, because that sentence is guaranteed to contain right-wing propaganda, if only obliquely. I certainly won't utilize the word in any political way myself - that would mean that I accept as legitimate the propaganda machinations of the right-wing. And they are pure festering slime, so no.
Greater Idaho movement asks Trump for his support
>The leaders of the Greater Idaho movement have asked President-elect Donald Trump to support their efforts to have counties in eastern Oregon join Idaho – a state they say is more in tune with them politically, economically and culturally.
>“Unlike typical politicians, you have a unique ability as a practical problem-solver to get things done, and your support can bring a peaceful resolution to Oregon’s long-standing east-west divide,” the three leaders said in a Dec. 4 letter to Trump.
>Matt McCaw, the executive director of Citizens for Greater Idaho, said Thursday morning that the group has not yet received a response from Trump.
>“It takes time for these things to filter through, but we are hopeful that somebody from the administration will reach out to us and pick this up,” McCaw said. “This is an idea whose time has come.”
>The letter added that “eastern Oregon residents recognize that representative government will never come from Oregon because we are outvoted on every issue the progressives put forth, leaving us completely disenfranchised
citizens of another country
Or another planet. Back in the day we addressed the alien problem with style, advanced technology, and a cool theme song. Nowadays it'll be just MAGA bumfucks running things, people who can barely put two coherent thoughts together, and that's on a good day.
Eye in the sky: The feds have quietly built surveillance towers along the Canadian border in Vermont, New York
VTDigger found that at least three towers first proposed in 2021 have been built in the region since — and it’s possible more are on the way.
>On a recent snowy morning in Derby, Letourneau accompanied a reporter up to the hill near his home, pointing out along the way a large “Trump 2024” flag he had strung up nearby. Along the road at the foot of the hill, he has a large white and red sign telling state and federal law enforcement to “beware” and stay off of his land.
>But he does allow the government to lease a slice of that land to operate a surveillance tower, a deal Letourneau said he signed off on because he thinks the tower is an important tool for local U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. He said he’s heard for years about those same agents arresting people who attempt to enter the U.S. on the road that runs along the hill and, at points, parallels the Canadian border.
>“We need something they can work with to catch those aliens,” he said, referring to people who cross the border without authorization. “They’re coming right and left.”
Loser incels are so pathetic.
If this becomes law the charitable-giving industry is going to be slammed. Right now there are lots of ways that you, a donor, can give to your favorite causes via an intermediary, taking a current tax deduction for doing so but (possibly) having the intermediary pay out in the future (an endowment), possibly forever (if endowment growth exceeds charitable outflows). If all of a sudden a large chunk of the nonprofit space are deemed anti-Trump "terrorists" then these intermediaries (public and private foundations and donor-advised funds (DAFs) for example) will suddenly have far fewer recipients to write checks to, and may have no recipients at all in the case where funds are directed to just a few recipients or areas-of-interest by the terms of the donation. Oh sure, the money will be disposed of one way or another, but it might very well not be disposed of in the way the donor intended at the time of the donation, and might well end up being disposed of in a way the donor would never have agreed to. Tough luck donor, you took the tax write-off, you can't get the donation $ back and you can't have it disbursed to non-charities either.
These intermediaries, the foundations and charitable-fund managers, are themselves charities. Their job is to disburse donor funds to a myriad of charities more or less according to the wishes of their donors. So what happens when, say, Fidelity Charitable is deemed a "terrorist" org for sending donor money to the ACLU? If it's stripped of its nonprofit status, it can no longer be a DAF manager, so what then? What happens to the donors and all the assets under management? I suppose there will need to be a follow-on bill that will compel the fund managers under such circumstances to cut checks to Trump and Trump-affiliated orgs (nonprofit or not). I read recently that the sum of DAF assets under management alone is around $250B (2023 numbers I think) so if a substantial amount of those funds are deemed "terrorist" funds, then it'll be mighty tempting for "somebody", somebody bad at business yet well-known for criminality to see about doing some confiscation.
Also, right now, if one is, say, a DAF donor, many of the managers (most?) allow you to make anonymous donations out of your account. But if you are (or were) having checks sent to newly disfavored (i.e. not regime-aligned) orgs, will the manager have to turn your name over to the government? After all, you'd then be a "terrorist" yourself wouldn't you?
I could really see this decimating the charitable-giving industry. Charitable foundations and fund managers have got to be losing sleep over what these laws could entail. As a donor, unless I was already MAGA-aligned and really wanted that tax deduction, why would I bother with all this uncertainty and risk?
Trump’s win is a return to the default state of centralised, hierarchical societies – like ours. That’s the problem. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 7th November 2024 We were losing slowly. Now we are losing quickly. Democracy, accountability, human rights, social justice – all were ro...
>We were losing slowly. Now we are losing quickly. Democracy, accountability, human rights, social justice – all were rolling backwards as money swarmed our politics. Above all, our life-support systems – the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, ecosystems, ice and snow – have been hammered and hammered, regardless of who is in power. Donald Trump might strike the killer blows, but he is not the cause of an ecocidal economic system. He is the embodiment of it.
>Trump has pledged to wage war on planet Earth, ripping up US climate commitments and reverting to unrestrained fossil fuel extraction and burning. If he follows the Project 2025 agenda, he will leave the UN climate framework altogether, making his assault on Earth systems much harder to reverse.
>His evangelical base, eager to advance the biblical apocalypse, will love him for it. Most simply deny climate breakdown. Others perceive events such as floods and fires not as warnings, but as joyous portents of the end of times: a great cleansing, in which the righteous will be uplifted to sit at the right hand of God, while their enemies will be cast into the fiery pit. What we will see under a new Trump presidency is a neat alignment of the interests of fossil fuel companies and a constituency gunning for Armageddon (and hoping that Benjamin Netanyahu will assist its delivery).
>Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind.
An Ohio sheriff’s patrol commander has apologized for posting on Facebook that he wouldn't help Democrats and would require proof of who a person voted for before providing aid.
>Lt. John Rodgers, a 20-year sheriff’s veteran in Clark County, where Springfield is the county seat, made the statements in several posts on Facebook, WHIO-TV reported. In one post, he reportedly wrote: “I am sorry. If you support the Democrat Party I will not help you.” Another said: “The problem is that I know which of you supports the Democratic Party and I will not help you survive the end of days.”
>The sheriff’s office said Rodgers, who has commanded the department’s road patrol, would remain on duty, with a written reprimand for violating the department’s social media policy.
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.
New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg had a message for striking Machinists — accept the latest offer, or the next one will be worse.
>While Boeing did not specify what would be taken away from Thursday’s offer if it were to fail, Holden said that could mean cutting any number of gains, including canceling a commitment to build the next airplane in the Puget Sound region, backing away from a 38% wage increase or losing a 1% decrease in health care costs.
>On Friday, some workers were heeding Holden’s warning. Sitting down for an interview with The Seattle Times, Holden had just finished a Zoom call with more than 500 members who questioned him closely about the new offer and his recommendation to accept it. He had told them about the risk of losing the earlier gains.
>The response from those on the call, he said, “led me to believe … they’re looking to accept it.”
>For sure, there are still Machinists unwilling to bend. Rob Davis, a 13-year Everett employee, said he’s still a no vote and dismissed the union leadership as “a finger puppet of Boeing.”
>Andrew DeFreese, an equipment operator in Everett, said Friday he’s also sticking with his no vote. He wants to hold out for more paid time off and quicker steps to progress through the wage scales.
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.
Ah, a @YourChildhoodRuined moment. Just great. :-(
This is what you are voting for if you vote for Donald Trump. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 29th October 2024 Dear US voters, in the spirit in which I would beg a dear friend not to get a facial tattoo, I’m writing to ask you not to vote for Donald Trump. While…
Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.
>Another fired worker, Hossam Nasr, said the purpose of the vigil was both “to honor the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” because of the use of its technology by the Israeli military.
>Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft. The group didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on how it learned about the firing.
>The same group had months earlier publicly called on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to take action against Nasr for his public stances on Israel.
>Nasr, an Egyptian-raised 2021 graduate of Harvard University, is also a co-organizer of Harvard Alumni for Palestine.
>Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
In 2023, 65% of voters who moved to Idaho from out of state were registered Republicans. One agent estimates that over 90% of his clients in recent years have been conservatives moving from California.
King County Juvenile Court Judge Joe Campagna found probable cause for five counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder and ordered the teenager be held in secure detention.
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.
Campaign seeks to remove controversial role-playing magistrate judge
A Kootenai County magistrate judge with numerous reprimands who appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader on Halloween is up for re-election in November. A campaign led by a former litigant of a divorce and custody case he oversaw in 2012 hopes to remove him.
>A Kootenai County magistrate judge with numerous reprimands who appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader on Halloween is up for re-election in November. A campaign led by a former litigant of a divorce and custody case he oversaw in 2012 hopes to remove him.
>Judge Clark A. Peterson, 57, was appointed to the bench in 2010 and has faced complaints over the years that his fantasy role-playing hobby interfered with his judicial work.
>Campaign fliers call Peterson “Demon Lord” in reference to his former avatar: the demon prince Orcus, Lord of the Undead. He posted hundreds of comments on online fantasy message boards while at work, according to a 2013 Spokesman-Review story.
>The judicial council’s investigation also looked into other allegations of misconduct by Peterson. On Halloween, he appeared in court dressed as Darth Vader, walking out from his chambers with Star Wars music playing on his cell phone.
New article with more details: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/oct/16/12-year-old-who-brought-loaded-handgun-to-school-t/ .
Court records say another student was skipping class and hanging out with JV near the stairs when she saw the barrel of a handgun inside his backpack. When she asked about it, he said he was holding it for someone.
The student criticized JV for bringing a gun to school and he responded, “If you snitch, I will pop you in your head the next time I see you,” records say.
Another student who was skipping class told police JV showed her the gun and asked her not to judge him. He said he had it because another student would be coming to the school, records say, but didn’t give any more details.
The semi-automatic, 45-caliber Springfield model handgun found in the backpack had bullets loaded in the magazine, but no round was yet chambered in the barrel.
A 12-year-old boy is accused of bringing a handgun to Shaw Middle School, forcing the school into a brief lockdown Tuesday in north Spokane.
>Police officers responded at 11:30 a.m. to the school, 4106 N. Cook St., after school officials called 911 advising a student had a weapon in his possession, according to a Spokane Police Department news release. Another student reported the information to school staff, police said.
>Spokane Public Schools resource officers contacted the student, took away his backpack and found a loaded handgun inside, according to police. The boy fled the school after 911 was called.
>Patrol officers located the student a short distance away from the school and detained him. Police learned the student had showed the gun to another classmate, telling him not to say anything, according to police.
>The student, 12, was arrested on suspicion of possession of dangerous weapons on school facilities and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He was booked into the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center.
Boeing withdraws contract offer after talks with striking workers break down
Boeing has withdrawn a contract offer that would have given striking workers 30% raises over four years after talks broke down.
>The union represents factory workers who assemble some of the company’s best-selling planes.
>The strike is stretching on as Boeing deals with multiple other issues. It has shut down production of 737s, 777s and 767s. Work on 787s continues with nonunion workers in South Carolina.
>S&P Global Ratings put Boeing Co. on its “CreditWatch Negative” list this week, citing increased financial risk because of the strike.
>The addition to S&P’s CreditWatch means there is an increased likelihood of a credit downgrade, which could make it more expensive for the company to borrow money.
>Shares of Boeing, which is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, fell almost 3% at the opening bell Wednesday and the stock is down 41% this year.
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?
Trump secretly sent Putin COVID-19 tests during pandemic shortage, a new book reports
>Asked about the report during an interview Tuesday with Howard Stern, Harris said Woodward’s reporting was an example of why Trump cannot be trusted as commander-in-chief, because she said he is easily manipulated by authoritarians he hopes to befriend.
>“He admires strong men, and he gets played by them because he thinks that they're his friends, and they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor," Harris said. “Remember, people were dying by the hundreds, everybody was scrambling to get these kits ... and this guy, who was President of the United States, is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his personal use.”
"MAGA is eating out" - this is happening to the colleges in N. Idaho as well, possibly all of ID. Schools losing accreditation, admin and faculty bailing, students unable to xfer credits... a big shit-show that fucks over students but makes the local Fascists think that they're "taking back education". Got kids? Send 'em to FL or ID and they can get an unaccredited PhD in Ignorance Studies in a year or less.
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/
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.
I haven't bought anything via the Amazon site in years. At least three, possibly five or more. Anything I need I can get elsewhere either online or in person without supporting Amazon's anti-union, worker-exploiting policies. I won't even use AWS for business purposes because of how they treat their workers. Boycott away, there are plenty of Amazon options that are "good enough" if not actually better.
Ah yes, the fumes. That "Waste To Energy" incinerator is west of town in the area known as "West Plains", near I90, near the airport, and not far from Fairchild AFB which these days is a locus of refueling operations and other support functions. Huge, 4-engined planes coming and going all day long. Long ago the AF firefighting ops polluted the groundwater there with PFAS chemicals and much of it is no longer fit to drink. Between that, the air pollution from military and civil air operations, and whatever comes out of the stacks at the W2E plant, I have to imagine the denizens of the area have evolved some powerful pollution-resistant genetics. Or maybe they just die young from cancer and respiratory and neurological diseases. Fortunately it's a pretty low-income zone (think 'typical military town' - old skool Bremerton-ish) so all that disease can just be blamed on personal poor decision-making (like the decision to live there). A shame really, West Plains now has a ginormous Amazon warehouse that the residents could slave at (in addition to the super-Wally's and the casinos) if they'd Just Say No to cancer and all those other tempting diseases.
Spokane burns its ordinary trash. It also accepts plastics and other "recyclables" at an every-other-week curbside pick-up, using a separate bin, just as you'd expect. Then they burn it. Yes, just like the trash. But wait, they do the burning at a facility they call the "Waste To Energy" plant, so that makes it all OK.
It's all a big expensive greenwashing game, but everyone seems perfectly fine with it. La di da di da.
A man who helped his father behead a 14-year-old girl in Idaho’s wilderness 24 years ago is in custody again, this time for shooting a woman in the head, law enforcement says.
>Merritt eventually told police that his father, David, took Benway camping and zip-tied her to a pole inside a tent while he stood outside and chose not to seek help. Merritt told police he participated in order to earn a black rose tattoo, a tattoo for a “brotherhood” of those who have killed people.
What's this about John Cleese? Nevermind, I wish to register a complaint. I wish to complain about this presidential campaign that my techbros purchased not six months ago. It's stone dead.
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.
A group of Christian investors are warning some of the largest U.S. retailers including Costco and Walmart against selling the abortion pill mifepristone.
>Companies offering the drug risk reputation and legal repercussions, according to an Aug. 2 letter sent to CEOs at the two retail giants, as well as Kroger, Albertsons and medical distribution company McKesson Corp. The group said 6,000 Costco customers have signed a petition saying they will cancel their membership if the retailer starts selling the pills.
>The religious coalition behind the petition owns about $172 million in shares of the five companies. The coalition was led by Boise, Idaho-based Inspire Investing, which manages $3 billion of assets, and includes the investment arm of the Southern Baptist churches and the American Family Association, a Christian fundamentalist group.
Trump’s return from the abyss is a political comeback for the ages. But for his party, at least in this state, it’s proving to be not a comeback but a comedown.
Cocoa Puffs cereal could contain dangerously high levels of lead, according to two federal lawsuits seeking millions from General Mills.
Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!
'Contamination Crisis': US Pesticides Contain PFAS, Endangering Food and Water.
"This is truly frightening news," the author of a new study said. "Lacing pesticides with forever chemicals is likely burdening the next generation with more chronic diseases and impossible cleanup responsibilities."
The demolition of public lands, water and wildlife protections are part of conservatives’ plan for a second Trump term.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/37488122
> > If Donald Trump is re-elected president in November, a coalition of more than 50 right-wing organizations known as Project 2025 will be ready with a plug-and-play plan for him to follow, starting with a database of potential administration appointees carefully vetted by coalition members; an online “Presidential Administration Academy” run by coalition members to school new appointees; and a 920-page policy platform called Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.