FirstCircle

joined 2 years ago
[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Good catch. Bad on Biden. Many would argue that "Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans" includes Biden of course.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

Except that they (researchers) are claiming to have an idea of why something (fingers) is a certain way (chopped-off in cave paintings).

“There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities”

If you review their research and find cite-able problems with it, fine, but they're specifically asserting that they have reason to believe that these amputations were real and inspired by beliefs in supernatural deities.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking something like this too when I first read the article. Around here, the right-wing mayor (a short-timer now thankfully) was pushing for the cops to be able to do homeless "sweeps" of "encampments", something that I've little doubt has, and will, lead to serious roughing-up (maybe even murdering...?) of homeless who look at the cops the wrong way or give any backtalk or don't 110% "comply" immediately if not sooner... . Hell around here a cop just beat the shit out of a guy (busting ribs and much more) who was simply taking a quick nap in his car in a public park parking lot, because he thought himself too tired to drive safely at that time.

The authorities around here pay attention to the homeless when it's time for a little violent action (fun!) but that's about it. So I too am surprised these LV ones are jumping on this incident. It would be a great thing if they were vigorously pursuing solving crimes against the homeless, but I've gotta wonder ... seems awfully unlikely.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

"Unhoused" kind of rubs me the wrong way too, mainly because, in my opinion, it's such a blatant (and not exactly genius) manipulation of language to, as you say, "destigmatize" the Other word. The Other word comes with mental images of dirty bums and mental illness and drug addiction and petty criminals and ... whereas "unhoused" people ... well, that sounds like just an ordinary person without a house! Someone w/o a house doesn't necessarily need expensive social supports like health care and food and training/education and [obviously] housing. A much more palatable and low-baggage term, no? Oy.

But I'm easily annoyed at all this kind of re-terming, and it's everywhere. Among the most irritating is "Anthropogenic global warming" becoming "climate change" ... notice how that eliminates all blame from the term, and furthermore no longer indicates which direction temps are moving in. Even worse is that my fellow lefties say "climate change" now w/o a second thought to the origin of the phrase (right-wing propagandists) or the motives behind its creation (corporate profits).

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Actually...there is a group of nutters who have a fantasy of doing something like that but with ID+eastern OR (possibly eastern WA too). They get in the news now and then.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Update: they've caught someone who seems to be the perp.

Court records show Awartani was hit in the spine

Ugh, that sound like potentially one of those "never walk again" sorts of injuries. Then again, it's not safe to walk, at least not outside, and while not looking like a member of the ethnic/cultural majority...

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Meanwhile the POs around here have signs up all over begging people to apply for PO jobs....

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Double-plus thanks for that. The photos add a lot. Wow, that's one packed meeting room! I was in four different old-timey musicals (pit orchestra) in HS, including Ok!, and they were just the sweetest, most old-fashioned-values, romantic things you could imagine. When I read this article I couldn't believe that anyone would make a fuss over something as stupid as casting choices, and then seek to deprive the kids of the unforgettable experience of putting on one of these shows. Just criminal. "The set, a sturdy mock-up of a settler’s house that took students two months to build, was demolished." What bastards. I really feel for these poor kids and hope they can put all that Ugly behind them and give the town a beautiful show.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Coming to a telescreen near you: Two Minutes Hate, 2024+ edition.

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Indeed. An update:

Elections offices in Spokane, Pierce and King counties were evacuated Wednesday after election workers found white powder in envelopes.

In a prepared statement, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs called the incident an act of terrorism.

“The safety of staff and observers is paramount as elections workers across the state open envelopes and count each voter’s ballot,” Hobbs said. “These incidents underscore the critical need for stronger protections for all election workers.”

In Spokane County, an election worker discovered a suspicious substance and a note in an envelope Wednesday morning. The substance found in Spokane County tested positive for fentanyl, according to the Spokane Police Department.


Also, from the Seattle Times,

Tacoma police confirmed a hazmat response at the Pierce County Elections Office at about 8:45 a.m., after an elections worker found an envelope “that dispersed a white powdery substance.”

Washington State Patrol and Tacoma fire crews responded and determined the substance was baking soda, according to William Muse, a police spokesperson.

A message inside the envelope said “something to the effect of stopping the election,” Muse said. “There was no candidate that was identified. There was no religious affiliated group identified. There was no political issue identified. It was just that vague statement.”

[–] FirstCircle@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 years ago (9 children)

This bit, below, is sure to get the attention of Christofascist and Christofascist-adjacent politicians in the US. They don't care at all about the welfare of the citizenry, but they do care about money and power and keeping the funnels of both wide open.

Outside money poured into the race. In the last few months alone, the effort to champion Issue 1 and abortion rights raised nearly $30m, out-raising anti-abortion forces by roughly $20m.

 

[PBS video]

Stuart Stevens has spent the majority of his decades-long career getting Republicans elected to political office. But his latest book is a warning to the country about the current state of the GOP and its threat to America’s democracy. Amna Nawas spoke with Stevens about the book titled, "The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy."

 

Nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) agree that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country," according to the survey. This is up from 15% in 2021.

In a statement, PRRI researchers say they have asked about this in "eight separate surveys since March 2021." They said that "this is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%" in their survey results.

While Americans across the political spectrum feel democracy is at risk next year, support for political violence runs mostly along party lines.

Currently one-third of Republicans support violence as a means to save the country, compared with 22% of independents and 13% of Democrats, the survey found. More specifically, Republicans who have favorable views of Donald Trump were found to be "nearly three times as likely as Republicans who have unfavorable views of Trump" to support political violence.

Compared to past surveys, researchers also found an uptick in support for conspiracy theories among Americans — specifically QAnon. According to PRRI, there has been a significant increase in "QAnon believers (from 14% to 23%)," as well as a "a decrease in QAnon rejecters," since 2021. However, Republicans are still twice as likely as Democrats to agree with the core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

 

Donald Trump gave another cognitively impaired, unhinged speech to a small gathering in New Hampshire today after signing paperwork to officially enter their primary.

Trump claimed that the leader of Hungary Victor Orban was in charge of Turkey, forgot the reason why FDR was in a wheelchair, compared himself to Nelson Mandela, said he would ban people from entering the country who disagreed with Christianity, he then mused about what he wants to do to President Biden...

 

A 39-year-old rock climber is facing a slate of attempted murder charges over an alleged plot to kill random people at a Smith Rock climbing event this weekend.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office arrested Samson Zebturiah Garner on Thursday and took him to the county jail on several charges each of attempted murder of multiple victims, attempted first degree assault, attempted second degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon.

Law enforcement recovered a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun and an AR-15 from Garner when he was arrested. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office seized those weapons under an extreme risk protection order during the arrest, meaning the courts will take those guns away for at least a year.

 

A person gathering signatures for a petition Thursday at Eastern Washington University started arguing with students and using racial slurs before threatening to fight students and shoot them, according to EWU police.

The incident started at 1:50 p.m. at the front steps of the Pence Union Building, police said in an email to students and staff. The email said the male gathering signatures started arguing with some students and threatened to come back with friends and shoot them.

 

"Put to silence", "exposed and struck down". In other words, doxxed and murdered. Just par for the course with the Christianity that I know and loathe.

"Christo-Trumpism" ... that's a new term to me, gonna have to remember it - it's accurate and descriptive.

At today's Trump rally in Waterloo, Iowa, Pastor Joshua Graber from the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Vinton, IA, came out with his prayer which largely involved asking God to intervene to help Donald Trump defeat his enemies. Not something I have been able to find in my Bible, but this is christo-Trumpism.

"We pray that you will impart wisdom to our president as he goes forth to stand in our place. We ask that those who stand against him be put to silence. That those horrendous actions against him and his family be exposed and struck down..."

 

Attorneys who've been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can't pay the millions more that he'll owe in legal expenses going forward.

It’s the latest in a string of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who propagates former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems. Several big-box retailers, including Walmart, have discontinued his products.

“MyPillow's been decimated. ... We've lost hundreds of millions of dollars,” Lindell said, adding that the other main assets he has left are his home and pickup truck. He blamed Dominion, Smartmatic and the news media, including the conservative outlets Fox News and Newsmax.

 

Just another day in Idaho. Feel free to send your kids (preferably girls of course) to ID and into the hands of companies like this, for a heapin' helpin' of abuse. Society and state gov't there will be happy to look the other way, as long as there's profit to be made.

One girl was raped by a staff member. Others were attacked, molested or berated. Girls fought and sexually assaulted each other, with one being continually called racial slurs and harassed because of her race. Several chewed and swallowed shards of glass as if they were ice and had to be hospitalized. Others attempted suicide again and again.

The staff who spent the most time with the girls had little to no experience working with kids and were paid less than $15 an hour, former employees said. For years, they didn’t have the mandated training to handle children who were a threat to themselves or others, state records show. Nor did they have proper training on child abuse and neglect protocols.

Police were there frequently breaking up fights, returning runaways or putting on handcuffs because staff couldn’t handle dangerous situations on their own. From 2017 to 2022, Post Falls police were called by Cornerstone Cottage 321 times, just over once a week on average, call logs show. It’s a significant number considering Cornerstone’s relatively small size — with only 16 beds — compared to other Idaho facilities. Boise Girls Academy, for comparison, has averaged 1.3 police calls per week since 2018, records show, but its capacity is three times that of Cornerstone.

 

The "Shea" mentioned here is the most foul Christofascist the PNW has to offer. The Spokane mayor, Woodward, is in tight with him (and Republican C. McMorris-Rodgers, and of course Trump) though being a little more discreet these days after catching general hell for attending one of his wingnut moneymaking events.

Ginny Applington's testimony Monday night would have felt at home spoken in front of any number of evangelical congregations. “In the body of Christ,” she said, “we pray for all of our leaders. We pray for all of humanity. We pray against biblical sin and repent for our own.”

But Applington wasn't at church. She was speaking in front of the Spokane City Council, and quickly into her 2-minute turn during open comments, those comments grew ominous.

"Darkness is about to fall," said Applington. “God is taking back Spokane and He is taking back all the nations. … God is raising up the church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against Him.”

Applington was one of at least eight people who spoke during the council’s open comment period to protest a proposed resolution to censure Mayor Nadine Woodward for her appearance at a Christian nationalist concert, where she accepted a prayer from the fiery local pastor Matt Shea.

Not everyone who spoke Monday night identified as a Christian, but those who opposed the censure resolution echoed similar sentiments, believing the proposed censure – which the council has discussed in committee but has not voted on – wasn’t just about Woodward. It was a step down a slippery slope toward the widespread persecution of the Christian faithful.

"If the city council wants to stop her from doing that, do they want to silence all Christians?" Rebecca Murakami told RANGE just before the meeting. “What is the plan behind that? One thing leads to the next.” Murakami is a member of On Fire Ministries, the church far-right former legislator Matt Shea, who prayed for Woodward at the concert, founded in 2021. Applington is as well.

 

$16K, that will sure teach 'em.

Vetter, 27, died due to a formwork collapse, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner. Formwork is a mold used to form concrete.

"My daughter was obsessive compulsive about safety,” Vetter’s father, Laveron Vetter, said. “The union is just safety, safety, safety. And for her to fall just crushes me. Just how could that possibly happen?”

L&I found SAK Builders had three serious violations at the construction site.

The flipper deck, a working platform for employees doing formwork, was not sized correctly for the cores it was used in, according to the citation notice from L&I.

Employees worked on unstable surfaces that weren’t constructed in a way that would allow the flipper deck to meet the manufacturer’s maximum offset requirements, according to L&I.

SAK Builders did not ensure the required safeguards and safety devices for the flipper deck were installed and used correctly, L&I found.

Specifically, the secondary safety pins for the toggle locks were not installed and the pocket formers which help support the flipper deck were not left in place as required by the manufacturer.

SAK Builders did not ensure that the employees installing the flipper deck had access to the manufacturer’s safety documentation for the correct use and installation of the platform at all times.

 

In the aftermath of extreme weather events, major insurers are increasingly no longer offering coverage that homeowners in areas vulnerable to those disasters need most.

At least five large U.S. property insurers — including Allstate, American Family, Nationwide, Erie Insurance Group and Berkshire Hathaway — have told regulators that extreme weather patterns caused by climate change have led them to stop writing coverages in some regions, exclude protections from various weather events and raise monthly premiums and deductibles.

Major insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and hail from policies underwriting property along coastlines and in wildfire country, according to a voluntary survey conducted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group of state officials who regulate rates and policy forms.

Insurance providers are also more willing to drop existing policies in some locales as they become more vulnerable to natural disasters. Most home insurance coverages are annual terms, so providers are not bound to them for more than one year.

 

The General Assembly's narrow Republican supermajority is poised to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of an elections bill.

GOP lawmakers say the measure will strengthen election integrity in the state, but in his veto message last week, Cooper said the legislation "has nothing to do with election security and everything to do with Republicans keeping and gaining power." The governor warned the bill would "erect new barriers for younger and non-white voters" and "encourages voter intimidation at the polls by election deniers and conspiracy believers."

Perhaps the most significant change in the proposal is the elimination of a three-day grace period for counting mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day. The bill would also expand access for partisan poll watchers.

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