TIL: that First Lady Grace Coolidge acquired a pet raccoon meant to be eaten for Thanksgiving at the White House in 1926. Rather than becoming the main course, she became the official White House Raccoon and was named Rebecca.
"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has scrapped a plan to offer help curbing measles in Texas schools after some staff working on the agency's response to this year's record outbreak of the virus were warned they could face layoffs, an agency employee said."
Those who argue with trolls should look to it that they themselves do not become a troll... When you scream long into the void, the void also screams into you...
VIENNA, Apr 18: Austria’s science minister has announced a slew of measures this week to provide security and a free environment for researchers from the
What liberals need to understand about the reality of the #HousingCrisis is that while building more homes will not in and of itself alleviate rising property prices, there is no path to affordable housing in an economy with a growing population that does not rest on the foundation of building more #housing.
Nobody's arguing they're not. However, building car dependent suburbia of standalone white flight houses also doesn't solve housing because nobody can afford that shit.
@BalooUriza And who is talking about building car dependent suburban freestanding houses? I’m talking about urbanism, and building in cities. That’s the subject matter of the article.
Sorry to offend. We're on the same side. I just hear that same thing *word for word* from right-wingers round here as an excuse to greenlight yet another gated mcmansion subidivision with enormous yards (or as it says on the permit application, septic drainage field, since they're so far out the city can't afford to *build the sewer there*) and kinda went off. Mybad.
@BalooUriza I don't disagree with you. it's jst that the article I was commenting on was specifically about urban land development. Suburbia is a hellscape, even the relatively dense ones I've lived in in New Jersey, the most densely-populated state in the nation. The first time I flew to the suburbs of Detroit, I was utterly poleaxed at the reality of it, the same when I went to Phoenix. I'm originally from NYC and have lived most of my life in urban areas.
By my “happened to see it in the news” count, at least 3 US citizens who were born in the US have been told by ICE they must leave the country. This isn’t an accident. It is either incompetence or intentional malfeasance, and the three we know about are probably a tiny fraction of the problem.
It's extreme paywalling keeps many people as involutary citizens of the #USA and is designed to keep #US citizens against their will like #indenturedServants.
Eeyupp - this is even worse than the pre-Nazi legislation, as the #USA's #ExitTax assumes ALL possessions (from scooter to house and from savings account to portfolio and private pension plan) are being sold off "at market value" right now, and will refuse to complete the #denaturalization until it's completely made up number is being paid off (including any losses, gains and interest incured in the meantime!), not just any assets held within the #US or possessions on U.S. soil (i.e. shares of corporations or property titles)…
IOW: Until denaturalized, U.S. citizens are literally indentured servants to the U.S. government even if they never consented to and/or explicitly widthdrew consent to it.
#Iran for example does not allow renounciation of #citizenshipunder any circumstances and the citizenship is inherited from the parent to their children.
This is a huge problem given that there are now 3rd generation exiled Iranians who de-jure face discrimination and stigmatization for being de-jure citizens of a country they most likely never entered and potentially don't eben know the language of.
Needless to say espechally male citizens against their will are advised to not enter Iran as to not be drafted for military service or face jailtime for "draft dodging"...
It speaks of either gross incompetence in determining who should be deported that citizens got on this list OR it speaks of the Trump Regime using this illegal system of theirs to threaten immigration lawyers. Either way it's bad.
@IveyJanette Is there a phrase that’s like “Overton Window,” but instead of referring to what’s socially acceptable to contemplate, it refers to what a given system allows in practice (regardless of whether it’s theoretically legal / allowed)?
From my hometown, they kidnapped a Guatemalan immigrant (that country we used the CIA fuck beyond repair nearly in the 50s) and people are salivating at the idea of attacking Guatemalans around there.
(New Bedford, MA)
No criminal record. Has a job. Providing for their family, as the VAST MAJORITY of them just want to do and be left alone. Kidnapped by pigs for the "crime" of existing as a refugee from the place OUR COUNTRY ruined for them.
An exodus of top staffers reporting directly to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is apparently roiling the Pentagon as part of a growing investigation into potential leaks.
The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
It is not misogynist to say that these women do not have their priorities in order. Rather, it is misogynist of them to so forcefully associate womanhood with cosmetics and looks, rather than with any of the more noble and human aspirations to which space travel might acquaint them – curiosity, inquiry, discovery, exploration, a sense of their own mortality, an apprehension of the divine. These women, who have placed themselves as representatives for all women with their promotion of the flight – positioning themselves as aspirational models of femininity – have presented a profoundly antifeminist vision of what womankind’s future is: dependent on men, confined to triviality, and deeply, deeply silly.
Consumers boycotting major retailers on Good Friday, Easter 2025; here's why, when
Many consumers nationwide plan to take part in a three-day economic blackout from Good Friday through the Easter holiday, with organizers urging Americans to break spending habits at "all companies" to protest what they have called corporate greed.
Miss Piggy out in front of Gavin Newsom on a consumer issue? 🤨
Arkansas bans pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies in state
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Wednesday prohibiting pharmacy benefit managers from owning or operating pharmacies, becoming the first state to enact such a restriction.
DENVER — An ongoing dispute between two women culminated in a confrontation during school pickups, a fatal shooting and a crash involving children in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood on Wednesday, according to an arrest affidavit.
I think I'm going to just run a few feet of coax between the antenna and the balun so I can get the balun behind my balcony wall, out of view from the street. There aren't any electronic devices or metal that should cause any problem, so that should be fine, right?
They used to be a staple in public restrooms in Japan. These days, Western-style toilets are rapidly replacing Japanese-style squat toilets. Indeed, a new report says that squat toilets are so foreign to some kids that a healthy chunk say they can’t use them at all.
I had some *really* bad shit happen to me as a child. Here’s an incomplete list of things those experiences didn’t make me do:
1. Shoot up a university 2. March in a nazi parade 3. Abuse other people 4. Harm anyone at all and blame it on the abuse/weirdness I endured as a child
took this pic like seven years ago with my good old rebel t5, in very poor light conditions. But thanks to raw format and a little software tweeks we can actually see that unique purple mushroom! Never again I've stumble upon another one like this in a Tolkienian scene like that. Glad we could save this one 😅🍄
this is from my neighbouring forest, Parque Nacional da Tijuca 🌳
Someone should invent an electric vehicle that doesn't weigh 2+ tons, isn't a danger to everything and everyone around it, is easy to operate on narrow city streets, and is small enough to easily store.
isn't that what most protests are? Asking for the judicial system to work properly? Protesters and dissenters are not terrorists; we are not anti-america, anti-society, or anti-peace. We are anti-quiet, and we are protecting our values and our laws, and we want high standards of freedom and self-determination to be applied globally.
Reminds me of Allan Moore saying he overestimated what it would take for England to be taken over by fascism when he was writing V for Vendetta.
Of course, all it takes is a core cadre of assholes determined to govern the "homeland" the same way they've governed colonies for centuries, abetted by enough cowards.
Developed country 🤔 whom are you talking about, economy and infrastructure, ok, but equality and human rights are very tender plants in the usa, aren't they?! It was just a small, fast step to right wing facism.
I would question the term “developed country “. Although there are some aspects that give the impression of a developed country, there are far more aspects that do not meet that specification. (Universal medical support, access to education, freedom of speech, freedom of movement are just some elements of a developed country).
Apparently, the Supreme Court of the United States was "aiding and abetting a terrorist" when they ruled that all persons within our shores--even ones who may have gotten here illegally--are Constitutionally entitled to due process.
Iran used to be a liberal democracy with a US puppet leader. All it takes is for some religious idiots to get hold of the steering wheel and the country is driven over a cliff.
Die Geldmacht hat die Politik korrumpiert. Das wird überall passieren, wenn man unkontrollierbaren Reichtum zulässt. Der Fehler liegt darin, die an Gier erkrankten ungebremst schalten und walten zu lassen. Gut, es fängt schon damit an, das Gier noch nicht als Geisteskrankheit erkannt wurde. Da haben alle Psychologen wohl gepennt, oder irre ich mich? 🤔
The power of money has corrupted politics. That will happen everywhere if we allow uncontrollable wealth. The mistake lies in allowing those suffering from greed to do as they please. Well, it starts with the fact that greed hasn't yet been recognized as a mental illness. All the psychologists must have been asleep, or am I wrong? 🤔
"Imagine if, every day for the last four years, every newspaper and TV station had “breaking news” stories and graphics about the thousands of deaths the night before from water pollution, eviction, lack of access to medication and health care, or poverty."
In 2022, I appeared on a Sunday morning news show in Los Angeles amid an increase in local news stories about theft. I pointed out patterns in which news stations devoted more coverage to low-level…
Just a reminder for con organizers, even outside immigration risks, this is genuinely all that is still relatively safe for gnc attendees in America, 2025.
In my honest opinion, cities on the western side of Oregon, and maybe as far south as down to Salem, it's safer. Outside of that, and especially once you get closer to the western side of the state where the eastern Oregon counties want to join "Greater Idaho"? Maybe not so much.
Also, if you do visit Portland, I recommend you stay out of Downtown. Especially Old Town and at night. Open air drug markets.
@wolfinpdx include Eugene/Springfield in fairly liberal. College towns like Corvallis and La Grande lean liberal. Bend is neutral left.
Even as far south as Florence on the coast I have seen men turn away when some guy brings up his right leaning politics.
Any place where people live in cities people have some empathy. The angry men are people who stayed in dead end rural areas to survive off family property.
I always think in terms of personal risk. I have since 9/11. I was in the streets during Dubya's administration. Old habits kicked in during Trump's first term.
Then the pandemic happened. I got sick and have been out of work. Maybe long COVID. Can't get a diagnosis. With Trump in office a second time, I am now surviving. I would be homeless without my partner.
We have friends who are at risk because of Republican politics. I worry for them. I would say if you don't need to come to the United States, just don't. Things are accelerating.
Find other ways to resist. Support those of us who are in hostile territory from outside our borders. It may be safer where you are. You can effect change from a position of greater freedom and strength.
@wolfinpdx I am in the same boat you are, only a little worse. I had COVID pneumonia and coughing for 4 months, lung pain for 9, and lasting damage that I took another year and a half to get over. I lost sensitivity to heat and cold, so my body didn't sweat enough, and I still get very cold below 73°F. My internal thermostat is burned out.
As of now I have burned through all my retirement, my savings, and I am trying to sell a small boat. I am 52, and with the gap nobody wants..
AND I live alone in an apartment, with no partner. I am 2 weeks and $1,000 away from being homeless. And the economic uncertainty this administration is projecting to businesses might be the deciding factor. And of course all aid for desperate people is being slashed.
This phone I bought 4 years ago and the annual plan I renewed 6 months ago while on a temp job is the only way I am communicating.
@wolfinpdx oh, yeah, and my last living family member, my single, 90 year old mother living in subsidized housing on $500/month SS income and food stamps, seems to have fallen into dementia and may have died last Christmas. And given what is happening to poor people right now, that may have been a mercy.
And with my autism and poverty, at some point I stopped answering calls trying to make me responsible for her. There was some childhood abuse, but I still feel guilty.
@Urban_Hermit @wolfinpdx I’m so sorry for all of that. You have a friend in Maryland; doesn’t help much, but I thought you should know. I’m glad you’re here. I like your POV. Best luck to you in continuing to manage. 🙏🍀
@mistergibson @wolfinpdx I have never made a mutual aid post. When does it stop? I am just one email or call away from starting work, but I have no control over if or when that happens.
Okay so Switch 2 preorders are back on for the 23rd -- at least, for now -- but it's a good opportunity to have your mind blown by the cost of this thing again;
Like, okay, the console itself is $450, that's actually pretty middle-of-the-road for a console these days. Mario Kart is $80? The pro controller is $85? A set of two fucking joycons is goddamn $100??? If these things drift I will personally shove them up Miyamoto's asshole >:(
Retail pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 will begin on April 24, 2025. At launch, the price for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will remain as announced on April 2 at $449.99, and the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle will remain as announced…
1. In 2025, over 850 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been filed across the United States - the most in US history. Most bills target transgender people. The bills have also grown more extreme, reverting drivers licenses, arresting trans people in bathrooms, and more. Subscribe to support my journalism.
2. Republican lawmakers have turned anti-trans legislation into a full-blown political obsession. What began as a handful of bills targeting sports and so-called religious exemptions has metastasized into a sweeping campaign against nearly every facet of transgender life. See the bills here:
3. In 2020, there were just over 100 bills aimed at LGBTQ+ people. In 2025, that number has ballooned to more than 850, the vast majority singling out transgender Americans. What we are witnessing now is not a legislative trend—it’s a coordinated nationwide crusade.
4. In 2020, most anti-trans legislation centered on banning trans youth from sports—a proposal that, at the time, was extreme. The political optics of attacking LGBTQ+ people so soon after the Obergefell ruling were poor, and the memory of North Carolina’s disastrous bathroom ban was still fresh.
5. Nevertheless, some Republicans had identified sports as a way in. APP's Terry Schilling: “The women's sports issue was really the beginning point in helping expose all this because what it did was, it got opponents of the LGBT movement comfortable with talking about transgender issues.”
6. In the years that followed, the volume and severity of anti-trans legislation escalated dramatically. Over 200 bills were proposed in 2022, and more than 500 in 2023, with each legislative session raising the ceiling on what Republicans considered politically palatable.
7. As of 2025, a staggering 867 bills have been introduced targeting transgender people across the United States. Of these, 122 would ban gender-affirming care for some segment of the trans population. Another 77 seek to bar transgender people from certain bathrooms.
8. Others target drag (and trans people dressed in the “wrong clothes”) or require schools to forcibly out trans students. A newer, chilling category would classify gender-affirming care or social transition as child abuse, opening the door for removal of trans youth from supportive homes.
John Morales, who played the crime-fighting cartoon figure McGruff, was sentenced for a 2011 arrest in which police seized 1,000 marijuana plants, 27 weapons and 9,000 rounds of ammunition from his Texas home
update... the DeFascist regime may finally have hit a guardrail
U.S. citizen arrested under suspended Florida immigration law released from jail after 30 hours – Orlando Sentinel
In apparent defiance of a federal court ruling, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested a Georgia man in north Florida under a new state law that targets undocumented immigrants who enter the state illegally — though it turns out the man is a U.S. citizen.
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez, 20, was arrested Wednesday under a new state law that makes it a misdemeanor for an undocumented adult who came to the U.S. without checking in with border authorities to enter Florida, according to a police report. But a federal judge in Miami had already blocked the state from enforcing that law through at least April 18, saying the statute is likely unconstitutional because it infringes on federal immigration authority.
“There is a state-wide injunction against anybody enforcing that law,” said Paul Chavez, litigation director at Americans for Immigrant Justice and an attorney on the federal case. “The court order is very clear.”
Alana Greer, an attorney whose organization Community Justice Project recently joined the federal lawsuit, said “any arrests under this statute are unconstitutional.”
In apparent defiance of a federal court ruling, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested a Georgia man in north Florida under a new state law that targets undocumented immigrants who enter the sta…
The U.S. Constitution I swore an oath to uphold and defend (when I joined the Army National Guard and later as an elected city official) provides for the right to due process. Fuck you, Gorka. #VeteransAgainstTrump
“Fighting for due process puts us on the ‘side’ of the Constitution and the rule of law, not on the side of gangs and criminals. Sebastian Gorka is a fascist.” - Jay Kuo
NOW is absolutely the time for you to reach out to your friends and colleagues in places like Palantir, Microsoft, Meta, etc., and start propagandizing them.
They are participating in and facilitating the destruction of human lives.
They are collaborating with fascists for a paycheck.
Convince them to choose a side. Not by being passively silent. But actively *choosing* the world they want to see.
Force that moment. Invite them to leave the Death Star.
Because this fucking apparatus *needs to be stopped.*
lopta
in reply to Athena • • •