How naive of me to think “That can’t be a real article. Surely they wouldn’t publish themselves saying they crushed living and dead people by the hundreds with an armored bulldozer. They must know how abhorrent, insane, and shocking that sounds. Right?”
No. Of course the worst excesses of violence which had never crossed my mind are being done by the IDF. I’m… I have no words.
This isn’t exactly what the previous comment was talking about, but it’s similar. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers and there’s something similar going on Florida too https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1242236604/florida-economy-immigration-businesses-workers-undocumented
These are my go-to articles anytime the subject of undocumented workers comes up. Personally, I think we would go back to the old model. If I remember correctly, the 1930s was when immigration started to be severely restricted; but, before that, temporary workers would come up for a season of employment and then go back home. All of it was done legally. It wasn’t until immigration restrictions were enacted that there was an incentive to stay and move their families into the US.
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking lately. And on top of already existing laws, make new ones that criminalize currently normal things. Hell, the South enacted new laws after slavery ended and only applied them against Black Americans. Why stop there, why not increase penalties for certain crimes from misdemeanors to felonies and make 3 felony convictions mean a life sentence?
The only part I disagree with is the for profit prisons part. 8% of prisoners are in private prisons which is 8% too many, but 92% are in publicly funded and operated prisons. And those publicly operated prisons sell the services of their trapped slave labor for so many more things than stamping license plates or road work. Not only do they fight fires and clean up after natural disasters, they also make kit (armor, helmets) for the armed forces, they pick crops, they manufacture white goods (washing machines, refrigerators)(I can’t find a link specifically mentioning appliances and I’ll update this it I find one), and so much more. Shoot, some cities’ budgets would be blown up if not for the availability of publicly held prison slaves.
I really miss the Voter Handbook with all the information I could need about laws or propositions, the candidates in the ballot, where and how to register, and I think where to vote.
The full text of laws and props are present along with calculated 10 year cost, and a statement from proponents and a rebuttal to that statement from opponents, and a statement from opponents accompanied by proponents’ rebuttal. For candidates, they submit statements which are usually a brief biography and things they say they support and oppose, why they’re running, and whatever else they think is important. There’s a sample ballot showing exactly what you’ll see on election day. It tells you how to register and where to go, about provisional ballots, mail-in ballots. It was such a fantastic resource.
Here in Texas, it isn’t easy finding information about the candidates besides their names and party. For any laws, good luck finding anything except for the name the dang thing. The plain text will be buried in a messy state website with nothing else presented. It’s like they don’t want us to know a damn thing about who or what we’re voting for.
That was- I cannot convey just how insane that was using spoken language. I think I’d need to smash a watermelon, aim a sandblaster filled with crushed seashells and desiccated termites at it, start blasting and let my intuition do its thing until something resembling art was produced. Possibly while doing interpretive dance and making primal guttural grunting noises. That would get me pretty darn close to properly communicate my thoughts on what I saw. Thank you.
Here’s a fun article about how different people are treated differently for the same crime. You gotta love the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Maybe not all of them were ready for violence, but a lot of them were prepared. They didn’t forget to bring guns, many had guns on them inside the Capitol building.. There were people with zip-tie handcuffs.. They were a hair’s breadth away from politicians who were their targets of ire, who they believed were stealing their country, when Ashli Babbitt breached the last barrier and reached the last line of defense before being shot. Behind Babbitt was a hallway/staircase full of insurrectionists.
Few started the day with a desire to get into the Capitol. Many were swept up in the moment by following far right extremist groups who were executing a plan to get in. Though we know how far they went following those extremists, we’ll never know how much farther they would have gone had those same extremists managed to reach politicians. Thank goodness they were stopped otherwise this may be a very different country.
Another article said it was the office’s high power consumption and the SMELL of marijuana… in a state where marijuana is legal. And the ‘AC was too loud.’ And two people dressed similarly because I guess scrubs, uniforms, or a dress code are suspicious as hell. And security cameras. Like, holy goddamn shit guys. The officers, especially the team’s leader who requested the warrant and the judge who signed it, should be reprimanded for sheer incompetence.
If this is all it takes for a raid, my favorite cheap Chinese food spot should be raided, too. Hell, they get a ton of customers coming and going so they’re probably dealing, too!
According to the lawsuit, the raid of Noho Diagnostic Center stemmed from an LAPD officer’s application for a search warrant.
The officer said there had been a noise complaint about the medical center’s air conditioning units, and cannabis was possibly being cultivated inside, the complaint says.
He repeatedly surveilled the property in 2023 and reported the “distinct odor of live cannabis plant and not the odor of dried cannabis being smoked” — as well as tinted windows, security cameras and two people dressed similarly, according to the complaint.
The officer believed these were signs of a hidden marijuana growing operation, and efforts to expand it, the complaint says.
He also found that the medical center wasn’t licensed to grow cannabis and, because of this discovery, determined the facility was violating California’s health and safety code, according to the complaint.
The officer considered his observations as “probable cause for cannabis cultivation,” and a search warrant was issued, the complaint says.
I don’t have Facebook but I did come across this
Which is so messed up.
Also, related to that deputy
She also alleged that a male relative of Fields, who he introduced to her, also coerced her to have sex with him because he “had pull with the court.” She said that she talked to Fields on Facebook Messenger, but the other man never sent her any messages. He wasn’t charged because she had no proof.
Adkins said she believes that man is still doing to same thing to other women because she went to court for a hearing on a charge of driving under the influence and saw him sitting in the gallery whispering to another female defendant with his arm around her.
I don’t know what the hell is going on out there, but holy crap they have a lot of problems they need to address.
They can request and may be assigned an individual tax ID number (ITIN). Having an ITIN may allow them to open a bank account. It also makes it so they pay taxes which a surprising number want to do. Since they want to stay in the country, having a long history of paying taxes is a way to show you don’t want to cause trouble and you just want to work. Hell, a lot of them probably know they got Al Capone on tax evasion and don’t want to end up like him. Here’s a report I just Googled, and possibly the source of the number which is an estimate.
On the other side is how much tax funding is used on them. Here’s a report from the House of Representatives which states they use more in services (Medicare, WIC, sending kids to school, etc) than they pay. I can’t speak to how accurate the report is considering the makeup and views publicly expressed by members of the committee. I’m personally leaning towards ‘they don’t, and can’t, use as more than they contribute’ because they’re not eligible for many benefits.
I haven’t seen any reporting confirming that she’s got XY chromosomes. But if you have an article, please correct me if I’m wrong. What I’ve been able to find is this:
Banned governing body that’s fueling outcry on Olympic boxers has Russian ties and troubled history
Summary-
The disqualification was done in a tournament run by an organization banned by the Olympics.
She participated in tournaments run by this organization with no issues for the last several years.
The organization hasn’t said why she was disqualified.
The man spouting the ‘trans woman’ claims is the leader of the organization. He’s a friend of Putin and described as a drug trafficker.
Her disqualification happened after she beat the previously undefeated Russian boxer Amineva 3 days post fight.
There’s more in the article, but these are the quick bullet points I came up with.
The second half is me. I absolutely loved being a carpenter for the 3 years that I did it. But I left the field because I knew the pay ceiling wouldn’t be like in the days when my dad was my age. So, I moved to an office job that pays more than the guys in charge of work sites were (and are currently) making and I get actual benefits. I’d go back to it in a heartbeat if the pay and benefits were better, and I don’t mean matching my current ones, just definitely middle class.
I do wonder what will happen when the number of people in the trades reduces because young adults aren’t going into them such that people can see it and feel it. Will the corps raise wages and improve benefits? Will the federal government make immigration easier or restart the WPA like during the Great Depression? I don’t know. What I do know is that my buddy who’s 35 is always one of the youngest electricians on job sites and that can’t be good for the trades.
NYT - Here’s the latest on the attack in Beirut.
Israeli analysts said Hezbollah was most likely aiming at a nearby army base on Mount Hermon and did not intentionally target the village. But the group’s use of inaccurate rockets in an area dotted with civilian communities could lead to the kind of unintended consequence that risk sparking an all-out war, they said.
Sounds a lot like Israel might be using human shields to protect their base.
In February, far-right settlers went on a rampage in the West Bank town of Huwara torching dozens of houses and cars. Following the violence, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Huwara to be “wiped out”.
Hmmm, I wonder what happened to the people rampaging in the town.
The IDF said in a statement to CNN that dozens of Israelis had “desecrated Palestinian property” and “acted violently against Palestinian residents” on February 26, but only several were arrested. All were released without charges.
That sounds like we should follow Congress’ stock trades for our own benefit. I bet there’s a tracker out there since all that is supposed to be public information.
I found this interesting article when trying to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing with Twitter. What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter? - NBC News
On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitter’s biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter, the 3,000-word anonymous article said, would amount to a “declaration of war against the Globalist American Empire.” The sender of the texts was offering Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, a playbook for the takeover and transformation of Twitter…
The text messages described a series of actions Musk should take after he gained full control of the social media platform: “Step 1: Blame the platform for its users; Step 2: Coordinated pressure campaign; Step 3: Exodus of the Bluechecks; Step 4: Deplatforming.”
That pressure campaign is against the Anti Defamation League which Musk has been trying to do.
So I guess he’s doing it all for far right adulation.
Similar story here. I work away from home for months at a time and I got locked out of using it on all my devices. Fuck Netflix.
Airbnb, in a statement, said the legislation will not alleviate the housing crisis but instead will take money out of people’s pockets, inflate the cost of accommodations for visitors and decrease tourism revenue.
My eyes rolled so hard they popped out of my head
Not quite. From what I’ve been able to gather, housing in the postwar era was made fast and cheap to ensure everyone could have a place in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. Then, in the sixties, they came up with better building standards, more regulations, and evaluated the lifespan of typical housing. I don’t remember the exact number, but they determined a conservative lifespan to be like 20-30 years. With this in mind, they started to constantly update building codes to make new construction safer and more resilient to natural disasters. So, what would end up happening is old homes stay cheap because not many people want to buy at the end of its life, and it’s less expensive to build new to modern standards than rehabbing an old home. Side note: recently the old estimated lifespan was re-evaluated and they determined that housing lasts, again I don’t remember the exact number, closer to 50 years.
Now, while all this is happening they have a different relationship to zoning than, say, America. What’s in America? It’s mostly single use zoning. They have a lot more mixed use zoning that allows for building housing where it would be illegal in America like commercial zones or light industrial zones. Side note: America used to build like that too until suburbs were invented and pushed as THE solution to housing people in our postwar era. Think of the older parts of towns with stores on the ground level and housing being 1-4 floors above them. With this freedom to build, they have built way more housing than is actually needed and in places people want to live.
The last point, which was already mentioned above, is that they don’t view housing as an investment. It’s a place where you raise your family, you store your belongings, and sleep. You don’t buy a home with the idea of selling it to make a ton of money in a few years or even decades. With that, there’s no incentive to buy up housing and leave it sitting empty for the right time to maximize the investment. It’s sort of like we view cars. Cars don’t typically increase in value, and the ones that do it’s because they’re rare, beautiful, or historic. MFers are out here trying to sell the housing equivalent of an '80s Ford Fiesta at 2024 fully loaded Toyota Camry or even Mercedes S Class prices.
Summary: Housing has a shorter lifespan, can be built almost anywhere through more mixed zoning, and it isn’t an investment, it’s just a place to live.