Is the United States truly "one nation?" While the country is often defined as a single entity, the reality is that there are actually closer than 12 nations united under a single flag. Within the United States today, there are different cultural nations that each have their own values, priorities and preferences. And each of these nations compete and cooperate with each other depending on the issues. Oh, and the most important bit? These nations do NOT fall along state borders.
In this video, we'll cover what the 12 Nations of America are, how they formed historically and what they look like geographically, what it means for a single country to actually have 12 different nations within it, and what each nation would look like IF they were ever independent.
proportional representation might get us close to matching that map but it depends on district definitions and number of seats. State borders probably contribute a lot of dysfunction but sticking to two-party voting methods is going to be a problem no matter where we draw lines.
What I'm saying is that it makes zero sense to cram so many regional cultures under a single government. This sort of situation (basically badly drawn national borders) is also why the Middle East and Africa are so unstable.
For example, I don't want people in Florida having any influence over my life.
yes but geography is an accident of history, and we are where we are. Proportional STARvoting.org would be a force against gerrymandering in general, to the point that it might move state borders or at least forms of federal government, as 3rd thru 10th parties gained momentum to better represent those interests federally. A few states could start the Pacific trend and maybe even Idaho thru Missouri could get on board with better representation over this throw-your-vote-away brinksmanship.
Having now watched the video, I think it's still stuck in a red/blue, perhaps gradient of purple mindset, where splitting the country into 12 or 50 geographic areas still misses representing people in some ways. The size of district in proportional representation could be larger with more seats and the borders start to matter less. What is the local govt's authority and responsibility, is a tough question for some people, or maybe we should charge for parking but build housing.
We have all no doubt at some point released the magic smoke from a piece of electronics, it’s part of what we do. But sometimes it’s a piece of electronics we’re not quite ready t…
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We Are Not Fascists, and If You Call Us Fascists, We Will Arrest You
Donald #Trump deserves nothing but praise, and I, #StephenMiller, will not stand idly by while the radical left tries to sow chaos by painting Trump as some sort of #self-obsessed, jingoistic #nationalist.
Calling the president, or any member of this administration, a fascist is tantamount to inciting #violence
We are not fascists, and if you call us #fascists, we will throw you in jail.
Finally back on 70cm. The dipole as-is can only cover the upper ~14 MHz of 70cm, but I'm going to see about getting some even smaller brass tubing so I can extend the legs even further. 🤔
And if that doesn't work, I have plenty of variable capacitors in my shack. 👍
After even further experimentation, I discovered that the lower leg can remain fixed at 10.5cm for the upper part of 70cm. Just need to change the upper leg to 15cm almost exactly. 👍
Attached: 1 video
"BREAKING: UK Arrests Journalist Sarah Wilkinson After Israeli Abduction
🇬🇧 Sarah Wilkinson was arrested the moment she landed back in Britain, days after being kidnapped and detained by Israel during the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Stephen Miller Melts Down as MAGA Is Blamed for Fire at Judge Diane Goodstein’s House
Judge Diane Goodstein, who ruled against the Trump administration in a high-profile voter registration case, had been walking her dogs on a beach when her $1.1 million Edisto Beach home went up in flames around midday on Saturday.
Goodstein had reportedly been receiving death threats for a few weeks, the local FITSNews reported.
Three people were hospitalized after the blaze, which is being investigated by authorities.
Her husband, Arnold Goodstein, was forced to jump from the first floor to escape the blaze. He is understood to have suffered multiple broken bones. He is a former Democratic state congressman and state senator.
Two others were rescued by neighbors and paramedics from a marshy area at the rear of the house. Goodstein’s son, Arnold Goodstein II, is also in the hospital, but the extent of his injuries is not known.
Last month, Judge Goodstein issued a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration’s Department of Justice from getting access to the South Carolina Election Commission’s voter registration data.
Democratic congressman and attorney Daniel Goldman, who served as lead counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, was quick to tag Miller on X with footage of the fire.
“Stephen Miller and MAGA-world have been doxxing and threatening judges who rule against Trump, including Judge Goodstein,” Goldman wrote on X.
“Today, someone committed arson on the Judge’s home, severely injuring her husband and son. Will Trump speak out against the extreme right that did this??”
Miller was quick to respond, calling Goldman “deeply warped and vile.”
Still can't get control over the USB serial interface to work. This is the full output I get in minicom after resetting the Heltec V3, after which the port is no longer responsive. #Meshcore #LoRa
ESP-ROM:esp32s3-20210327
Build:Mar 27 2021
rst:0x1 (POWERON),boot:0x29 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
SPIWP:0xee
mode:DIO, clock div:1
load:0x3fce3808,len:0x4bc
load:0x403c9700,len:0xbd8
load:0x403cc700,len:0x2a0c
entry 0x403c98d0
[ 2606][E][Wire.cpp:499] requestFrom(): i2cWriteReadNonStop returned Error -1
[ 2616][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2623][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2629][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2636][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2642][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2649][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2655][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2662][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2668][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2675][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2681][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2688][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2694][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2701][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2707][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2714][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2720][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2727][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2733][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2740][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2746][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2753][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2761][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2767][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2774][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2781][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2799][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2807][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2813][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2820][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2827][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2834][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2841][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2847][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2854][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2861][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2868][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2875][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2881][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2888][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2896][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
[ 2902][E][Wire.cpp:513] requestFrom(): i2cRead returned Error -1
Having trouble figuring out how to #Meshcore on the Heltec V3 I got. Everyone is all "web installer" this and "web installer" that, but I'm not using Chrome. >:(
@enot if using any companion, serial on a minicom can only be used to get some logs, if enabled (and you shouldn't get logs if using usb_companion) ...
To interact with the node you'll have to use a client that talks companion radio protocol (android client, web client or meshcore-cli) over usb or ble depending on the firmware you installed
% meshcore-cli -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200
INFO:meshcore:Serial Connection started
INFO:meshcore:Connected to 36E496E5 running on a v1.9.0-b92d9bd fw.
Interactive mode, most commands from terminal chat should work.
Use "to" to select recipient, use Tab to complete name ...
Line starting with "$" or "." will issue a meshcli command.
"quit", "q", CTRL+D will end interactive mode
The #Courage of #Ordinary #People Stops #Fascism Fascism rises when people stay silent. Join the movement for democracy—organize, speak out, and build people-powered resistance before it’s too late.
..."In every generation, some people refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. At People Power United, we know the most incredible stories of courage don’t come from halls of power but from the people. That’s why we’re launching “Freedom Over Fascism: Voices of the People.” We want your story. Tell us why you stand against kings in America and believe healthcare is a human right—not a privilege for the powerful. Whether in your own words or, even better, on video, share why you believe democracy must serve everyone who calls America home. Together, we’ll uplift these stories to remind lawmakers that they represent the people—not the wealthy, not the well-connected, but all of us who refuse to be silent in the face of injustice. Because when we raise our voices, we prove that the people’s power is greater than those in power.
You’re invited: NO KINGS National Day of Action Details: 📅 Date: October 18, 2025 📍 Location: Over 2000+ locations and growing. RSVP today and bring your voice to the movement! ",,,
Having trouble figuring out how to #Meshcore on the Heltec V3 I got. Everyone is all "web installer" this and "web installer" that, but I'm not using Chrome. >:(
I ended up getting it to boot to the MeshCore firmware UI by holding the program button and running this, but the USB serial interface isn't coming up. :(
I ended up getting it to boot to the MeshCore firmware UI by holding the program button and running this, but the USB serial interface isn't coming up. :(
image re-upped for details in addition to all the obvious violations here, one law enforcement norm is that one does NOT put cuffs on somebody then take them back off (with exceptions granted for certain personal safety situations, which this was absolutely not)
Federal Agents Handcuff Chicago Alderperson At Hospital ER
A video of the Friday afternoon incident shows Fuentes at the hospital, asking federal agents if they had a signed warrant and telling the agents a man — who they had detained — has constitutional rights. Fuentes is not seen touching the agents, one of whom tells her he will arrest her if she does not leave.
Fuentes again asks the agents if they have a warrant, and an agent grabs Fuentes, spins her around and handcuffs her hands.
“This is an alderperson who is being under arrest,” a person off-screen says in the video.
“This is a hospital. Do you have a signed judicial warrant for him?” Fuentes says to the agents.
“We told you to leave,” says the agent who handcuffed Fuentes. “Now you are under arrest for impeding.”
Fuentes was led outside the hospital and released. She was told that if she went back inside, she would be arrested, witnesses said.
In another incident caught on video Friday, federal agents inside a car randomly threw tear gas into a Logan Square street while people — including a 2-year-old — were outside nearby.
Minnesota utility regulators unanimously approved the controversial sale of Duluth-based Minnesota Power to a pair of private investment firms, one of which is owned by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset holder.
The city is doing some work on South 228th Street, so the trail is closed around it. I didn't know about this since I used Frager Road/Green River Trail to head south. The detour took me on busy SR-181 most of the way to South 212th Street, but thankfully traffic was pretty light.
These days, you can buy full graphical LCD or OLED displays for just a few dollars. However, if you’re so inclined, you can actually get your own segmented LCDs made to suit your own projects…
Finally back on 70cm. The dipole as-is can only cover the upper ~14 MHz of 70cm, but I'm going to see about getting some even smaller brass tubing so I can extend the legs even further. 🤔
And if that doesn't work, I have plenty of variable capacitors in my shack. 👍
Did you try varying the center (gap) spacing? Have focused on minimizing this with some dipoles in the past to good success. Did you incorporate a sleeve balun at the feed? Have had unbalanced feed dipoles yield narrower bandwidths. 73
Rite Aid, the U.S. pharmacy chain that operated more than 2,000 stores nationwide as recently as 2023, announced Friday it has officially shuttered all of its locations after years of financial struggle.
“All Rite Aid stores have now closed. We thank our loyal customers for their many years of support,” the company said on its website, which continues to allow customers to request prescription and immunization records.
Despite more than six decades in the pharmacy industry, Rite Aid has been facing financial challenges for years. The company most recently filed for bankruptcy protection in May. At the time, Rite Aid operated 1,250 locations nationwide — a significant drop from its roughly 2,000 stores in 2023.
Rite Aid previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, which allowed it to cut $2 billion in debt and close hundreds of stores.
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/115317365115559405 AkaSci@fosstodon.org - Things are about to get worse in Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote that trump intends to nationalize hundreds of National Guard members against the wishes of state officials.
"In the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.
I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people."
Attached: 1 image
Things are about to get worse in Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote that trump intends to nationalize hundreds of National Guard members against the wishes of state officials.
Most remarkably, in late 2024 the OECD published a report which found that literacy levels were “declining or stagnating” in most developed countries. Once upon a time a social scientist confronted with statistics like these might have guessed the cause was a societal crisis like a war or the collapse of the education system.
What happened was the smartphone, which was widely adopted in developed countries in the mid-2010s. Those years will be remembered as a watershed in human history.
Never before has there been a technology like the smartphone. Where previous entertainment technologies like cinema or television were intended to capture their audience’s attention for a period, the smartphone demands your entire life. Phones are designed to be hyper-addictive, hooking users on a diet of pointless notifications, inane short-form videos and social media rage bait.
The average person now spends seven hours a day staring at a screen. For Gen Z the figure is nine hours. A recent article in The Times found that on average modern students are destined to spend 25 years of their waking lives scrolling on screens.
If the reading revolution represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the screen revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history.
Our universities are at the front line of this crisis. They are now teaching their first truly “post-literate” cohorts of students, who have grown up almost entirely in the world of short-form video, computer games, addictive algorithms (and, increasingly, AI).
Because ubiquitous mobile internet has destroyed these students’ attention spans and restricted the growth of their vocabularies, the rich and detailed knowledge stored in books is becoming inaccessible to many of them. A study of English literature students at American universities found that they were unable to understand the first paragraph of Charles Dickens’s novel Bleak House — a book that was once regularly read by children.
“Most of our students”, according to another despairing assessment, “are functionally illiterate”. This chimes with everything I’ve heard in my own conversations with teachers and academics. One Oxbridge lecturer I spoke to described a “collapse in literacy” among his students.
The transmission of knowledge — the most ancient function of the university — is breaking down in front of our eyes. Writers like Shakespeare, Milton and Jane Austen whose works have been handed on for centuries can no longer reach the next generation of readers. They are losing the ability to understand them.
The tradition of learning is like a precious golden thread of knowledge running through human history linking reader to reader through time. It last snapped during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire as the barbarian tides beat against the frontier, cities shrank and libraries burned or decayed2. As the world of Rome’s educated elite fell apart, many writers and works of literature passed out of human memory — either to be lost forever or to be rediscovered hundreds of years later in the Renaissance.
That golden thread is breaking for the second time.
The epidemic of anxiety, depression and purposeless afflicting young people in the twenty-first century is often linked to the isolation and negative social comparison fostered by smartphones.
It is also a direct product of the pointlessness, fragmentation and triviality of the culture of the screen which is wholly unequipped to speak to the deep human needs for curiosity, narrative, deep attention and artistic fulfillment.
Modern students who are unable to read are once more reliant on the authority of their teachers and are less capable of racing ahead, innovating and questioning orthodoxies.
These students are just one symptom of the stagnant culture of the screen age which is characterised by simplicity, repetitiveness and shallowness. Its symptoms are observable all around us.
Pop songs in every genre are becoming shorter, simpler and more repetitive and films are being reduced to endlessly-repeated franchise formulas. Studies suggest that the number of “disruptive” and “transformative” inventions is declining. More money is spent on scientific research than ever in history but the rate of progress “is barely keeping pace with the past”.
But in hindsight, these conservative moralists were right to worry. The rapid expansion of literacy helped to destroy the orderly, hierarchical, and profoundly socially unequal world they cherished.
The reading revolution was a catastrophe for the ultra-privileged and exploitative aristocrats of the European aristocratic ancien regime — the old autocratic system of government with almighty kings at the top, lords and clergy underneath and peasants squirming at the very bottom.
Ignorance was a foundation stone of feudal Europe. The vast inequalities of the aristocratic order were partly able to be sustained because the population had no way to find out about the scale of the corruption, abuses and inefficiencies of their governments.
And the old feudal hierarchy was justified not so much by logical argument as by what Walter Ong might have recognised as very pre-literate appeals to mystical and emotional thinking.
Politics in the age of short form video favours heightened emotion, ignorance and unevidenced assertions. Such circumstances are highly propitious for charismatic charlatans. Inevitably, parties and politicians hostile to democracy are flourishing in the post-literate world. TikTok usage correlates with increased vote share for populist parties and the far right.
TikTok, as the writer, Ian Leslie puts it is “rocket fuel for populists”.
Why does [TikTok] benefit populists disproportionately? Because, almost by definition, populism thrives on emotions, not thoughts; on feelings not sentences. Populists specialise in providing that rush of certainty you get when you know you’re right. They don’t want you to think. Thinking is where certainty goes to die.
The rational, dispassionate print-based liberal democratic order may not survive this revolution.
The big tech companies like to see themselves as invested in spreading knowledge and curiosity. In fact in order to survive they must promote stupidity. The tech oligarchs have just as much of a stake in the ignorance of the population as the most reactionary feudal autocrat. Dumb rage and partisan thinking keep us glued to our phones.
And where the old European monarchies had to (often ineptly) try to censor dangerously critical material, the big tech companies ensure our ignorance much more effectively by flooding our culture with rage, distraction and irrelevance.
These companies are actively working to destroy human enlightenment and usher in a new dark age.
As tech companies wipe out literacy and middle class jobs, we may find ourselves a second feudal age. Or it may be that we are entering a political era beyond our imagining.
Whatever happens, we are already seeing the world we once knew melt away. Nothing will ever be the same again.
😀🚲
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •Neil E. Hodges
in reply to 😀🚲 • •What I'm saying is that it makes zero sense to cram so many regional cultures under a single government. This sort of situation (basically badly drawn national borders) is also why the Middle East and Africa are so unstable.
For example, I don't want people in Florida having any influence over my life.
😀🚲
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •😀🚲
in reply to 😀🚲 • • •Baloo Uriza
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •