Steve98052

@Steve98052@universeodon.com

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GottaLaff, to earthquake
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Pro tip:

Donโ€™t be in the middle of trying on clothes in a dressing room during a 4.7 ๐Ÿ˜ตโ€๐Ÿ’ซ

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
Must be something interesting about the geography there. I've completely overlooked 4.3 quakes near Seattle, and that's about 40% the strength of your 4.7 quake.

I was in Los Angeles for the 2010 Baja quake, which was a 7.2 -- quite memorable.

The only one I've felt since then was the 2012 Haida Gwai, which was a 7.8, but barely perceptible because it was 800 miles away.

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
Interesting. I was at a restaurant for lunch. Things didn't tip over, but everything rattled, particularly dishes, and the chandeliers were swinging like Tarzan vines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Baja_California_earthquake

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
I lived in West Hollywood at the time, near West Hollywood Park, and I think it was a short drive to the restaurant, which was at the ground floor of a high rise. I don't think it was at the Grove or Beverly Center, but I don't remember the exact place.

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
My writing from that day didn't mention the restaurant name:

I was at a restaurant for a late lunch with our office manager and two teenage girls. I felt the booth swaying back and forth, along with sort of a dizzy feeling like I was somewhat drunk. (I haven't had anything to drink since the after-party.) The girls felt something too. The office manager looked at me like I was crazy, until she overheard people at other tables talking about the earthquake. Then she realized that she felt it too. The restaurant's chandeliers were swinging, maybe 30 degrees out of vertical. The shaking seemed to last longer than most earthquakes I've felt of that intensity.

1/

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
On the drive back to the duplex after lunch, I speculated that, based on the moderate intensity but long duration, it was at least moderately powerful earthquake in terms of total energy released. The shaking was much lower frequency than most earthquakes I've felt. During the short drive, I got a phone call from Seattle, worried about it because it was much larger than I had guessed, with an epicenter somewhere in Mexico. I reassured the caller that all of us were OK, and that I'd check on the dog as soon as I got back to the duplex.

When I got back to the duplex, I looked up the earthquake on the US Geological Survey web site. There I found that it was a devastatingly powerful earthquake in Mexico, in northeast Baja California south of Mexicali. The first reports said it was magnitude 6.9, but now the estimates say magnitude 7.2 โ€“ and it was fairly shallow and short in duration, so the surface intensity was extremely strong.

2/

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
The web site also said that the zip code 90048 (which includes both the restaurant and the duplex) is 365 km (228 miles) from here. That's a long way for the shaking to be as strong as it was. I was surprised to find that the duration at the epicenter was as brief as it was. Maybe it stretched in duration during the time it took to make it here from the epicenter, or maybe I just perceived it as lasting longer than it actually did.

End/

StephanieMoore, to random
@StephanieMoore@mastodon.online avatar

@Teri_Kanefield @qotca @Dseitz @raphaelmorgan @BruceMirken @accretionist @joeinwynnewood oh Iโ€™m definitely voting for Biden, but he has work to do. I wish he would refuse to sign anything that sends aid to Israel in what has clearly become their mission to eradicate Palestine. And I wish he would try to move Overton windows, e.g. on issues like restoring Roe and expanding SCOTUS.

Steve98052,

@StephanieMoore @Teri_Kanefield @qotca @Dseitz @raphaelmorgan @BruceMirken @accretionist @joeinwynnewood
Even if the US put Israel on full sanctions -- no military aid, no military sales, no economic aid, no non-military sales, pressure on allies to follow suit, diplomatic scolding, etc., --

-- Israel would still have enough military firepower to either chase all 2.4 million people in Gaza into Egypt or kill them.

-- with firepower leftover to annex every other patch of land that they want on the West Bank.

Sure, their economy would eventually suffer under sanctions and military spending. But by that point, 2.4 million Gazans would be living in refugee camps in Egypt and 2.9 million West Bank Palestinians would be living on land so desolate that Israel wasn't interested in it.

And Hezbollah would be busy turning southern Lebanon and northern Israel into battlefields.

In terms of stopping a specific Israeli military operation, the only tool the US has is diplomatic scolding.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

#ProLifeMyAss

US #SupremeCourt declines to halt execution of Alabama inmate set to be the first to die by nitrogen gas #SCOTUS

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/24/us/alabama-kenneth-smith-execution?cid=ios_app

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
I think "state sponsored ritual killing in the name of criminal justice" is a better description than the euphemistic "execution".

Hey_Beth, (edited ) to random
@Hey_Beth@sfba.social avatar

Reposting after hearing about The Messenger:

Please follow the journalists and news organizations that regularly post here.

Also, click on notifications or set up a list, so that you do not miss any of their posts.

There really are some great accounts in the fediverse.

Steve Herman @w7voa and Kristza Satori @fulelo post a wide-range of articles throughout the day.

These news organizations and journalists post frequently:

Philip Bump Washington Post @pbump

Utah Salt Lake Tribune @sltrib

Colorado Colorado Sun @coloradosun

Nebraska Flatwater Free Press @flatwaterfreepress

Texas @TexasObserver

Boston @gbhnews

General

Alaska James Brooks @AK_OK

Bay Area CA @thevallejosun

Gil Duran @gilduran

Baltimore @BaltimoreBanner

General:

@Semafor

The Markup @themarkup

Bolts Magazine @bolts

@TheConversationUS

@damemagazine

Russ Contreras of Axios @russcontreras

@dangillmor

@ProPublica

@JamesGleick

@drewharwell

Art @hyperallergic

Steve98052,
GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

AFP- Europe saw 30-fold increase in reported measles cases in 2023: World Health Organization ๐Ÿ’‰

Steve98052,

@Npars01 @GottaLaff
None of those links have anything to do with anti-vaccination disinformation. All of the articles would be reasonable arguments for assertions that billionaires want people to starve to death upon retirement, unless they have investment income. But none say anything about vaccines.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Mark Joseph Stern:

boosts 1 of โ€™s top agenda items for a 2nd term: Using exec power to ban medication in all 50 states.

I genuinely donโ€™t understand why this goal doesnโ€™t get as much media coverage as, say, his dumb posts on Truth Soc

Alice Miranda Ollstein:

Pence says 1st things a conservative pres should do are:

  1. Order the DOJ to stop investigating/charging anti-abortion protesters outside abortion clinics
  2. "Pull the abortion pill off the market"
Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
It's all a part of the Heritage Foundation "Project 2025", which is al long list of fascist ideals. Here's a quickie summary, plus a Wikipedia link:

โ€ข Replace federal civil service employees with party loyalists.
โ€ข Eliminate the FBI, and departments of Homeland Security, Education, and Commerce.
โ€ข Place the military in charge of law enforcement.
โ€ข Ban the drugs used for medical abortions.
โ€ข Require all states to report statistics on abortions, including gestational age and method used.
โ€ข Eliminate all laws providing civil rights protections to LGBT+ people.
โ€ข Criminalize production of "pornography", and imprison people who create it.
โ€ข Define all media that support trans rights as "pornography".
โ€ข Require teachers and librarians who support trans rights to register as sex offenders.

1/2

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
โ€ข Reinterpret the First Amendment to protect religious freedom only for Christians.
โ€ข Redefine the way people are counted in the Census, to rig apportionment of House of Representatives seats and electoral votes.
โ€ข Disregard all climate change regulations, and maximize natural gas, oil, and coal production.

For your followers who don't already know, this is from the Heritage Foundation, a think tank founded in 1973 that was instrumental to getting Reagan elected in 1980. Heritage Foundation is not just wackos like the Proud Boys. They represent the core policymakers of the Republican party.

In short, fascists are now in charge of the Republican mainstream.

2/2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Steve98052,

@Frances_Larina @mwt @GottaLaff
My point is that Dominionist Christians were an important, but peripheral faction in the Republican coalition.

For most of its history, the Heritage Foundation was an old-fashioned make rich people richer organization that appealed to Dominionist Christians as a necessary allied faction, and through Nixonian Southern Strategy dog whistles also appealed to racists, though they aimed at racists more through their overlap with Dominionists.

This Project 2025 suggests a new era of the Heritage Foundation, which has Dominionists as its core, racists as a key ally, and old-fashioned make rich people richer Republicans as tag-alongs who answer to the Dominionists.

PattyHanson, to random
@PattyHanson@mastodon.social avatar

#GOP #Project2025 proposes to eliminate the #USDA and the #FDA, two agencies that inspect our food for safety. They intend to do this the next time a Republican is elected President. Men like #Trump will go along as long as he's paid.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spinach-salad-kit-recall-listeria-stop-shop-wegmans/

Steve98052,

@PattyHanson
I didn't know that the USDA and FDA were also on the Project 2025 hit list. More scary stuff.

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Lisa Rubin:

Alina Habba has responded to #EJeanCarrollโ€™s teamโ€™s proposals to ensure that #Trumpโ€™s testimony, if any, does not implode this next trial

While her response features many Trumpian turns of phrase, note what she never says: that he will abide by the courtโ€™s orders regarding what evidence and arguments are admissible

#legal

(more...) 1/...

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
It would be amusing to see lawyers' statements by Trump's mobster friends in the Genovese and Gambino families rewritten in the style of Trump's lawyers.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910
(2016 link)

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Well that did it. Trumpโ€™s sunk. Haley wins. ๐Ÿ™„

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan endorses Nikki Haley for president a day before the Iowa caucuses, saying it is time for the party to get behind her โ€” CNN

Steve98052,

@iuculano @GottaLaff
Maybe Hogan thinks the multiply-indicted twice-impeached racist misogynist fascist idiot mobster will be convicted before November, and thinks he'd have a shot at being Haley's VP nominee is Republicans decide they don't want a felon nominee campaigning from house arrest or prison.

I don't think the Republicans will dump him even if he goes to prison.

The only way Republicans dump him is if he dies -- and even then some cultists will refuse to believe that he's actually dead.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Vaughn Hillyard:

โ€™s campaign caught him on an apparent hot mic before his town hall just now & broadcast it on livestreamโ€ฆ

On presumably : โ€œSheโ€™s going to get smoked โ€“ you and I both know it. Sheโ€™s not up to this.โ€

And: โ€œAnd called me โ€“ petrified that I wouldโ€ฆโ€

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
Was it a mistakenly hot mic, or an intentional closing snark?

georgetakei, to random
Steve98052,

@georgetakei
When scraping social media for quotes, could your staff stop citing Xitter? Sure, some sources still post there out of habit. And some don't even crosspost.

But if there's any way to get a citation without citing Xitter, even if it's Threads, cite the other site.

Citing Xitter just encourages the holdouts there to stay, and slow its descent into fascist oblivion.
#SickBird #Twitter #X

merileedkarr, to random
@merileedkarr@federated.press avatar

Duolingo is advanced

Steve98052,

@merileedkarr
I have also noticed that it occasionally presents sentences that acknowledge marriage equality -- in some languages at least.

Steve98052,

@Pineywoozle @thepoliticalcat @merileedkarr
I normally edit out typos and autocorrect foolishness -- unless they're funny.

georgetakei, to random

Looks like Bo Duke has gone full Christian Nationalist.

Steve98052,

@georgetakei
Am I missing something?

Isn't it universal Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ was (or is) the son of god?

georgetakei, to random
Steve98052,

@georgetakei
Wow. I thought that the "woke" ideology about beauty contests was that judging women of beauty was a tool of the patriarchy.โ˜†

If the Captains of Woke have suddenly ruled that hair length is a measure of wokeness, they really need to chew out their propaganda department, because they never got the message out.

(I hope I don't need to indicate sarcasm here.)

โ˜† Even if some of the contestants are entering the contests of their own initiative in pursuit of scholarships, entertainment careers, their own egos, or other motivations that have nothing to do with men putting them up for judgement.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Iโ€™m starting to see news outlets breathlessly speculate on who will be Trumpโ€™s VP pick.

We already know that whoever he enslaves, er, chooses, that person will have pledged their loyalty to him. Including everyoneโ€™s new โ€œWell, sheโ€™s-better-than-Trump (bullshit)โ€ -darling Nikki Haley.

So it just. Doesnโ€™t. Matter.๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿผ

https://youtu.be/XM4jJc8w4H0?feature=shared

Steve98052,

@GottaLaff
Most of Trump's likely favorites for VP are either dead (Roy Cohn, "Fat Tony" Salerno, and Paul Castellano, Al Capone, etc.), ineligible because they're not US citizens (Felix Sater, Semion Mogilevich), or in prison (where he should be too).

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910

georgetakei, to random

This guy, sheesh.

Steve98052,

@georgetakei
Crazy is with more name recognition.

jpanzer, to random
@jpanzer@mastodon.social avatar

Feels like the NYT headline writers enjoy trolling us https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/us/politics/trump-blood-comments.html

Steve98052,

@jpanzer
How is this the Times trolling? They're just quoting the multiply-indicted twice-impeached racist misogynist fascist idiot mobster's trolling.

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