Here in Spokane we’re showing off our second-ratedness again. Can’t even have a proper mass shooting: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/jul/04/false-report-of-shooting-scatters-crowd-of-thousan/ .

Flocks of panicked people fled Riverfront Park late Friday after false reports of an active shooter quickly spread through the crowd.

The fear in the crowd apparently was sparked by a misunderstanding of an “altercation” near the Clocktower, Spokane police said in a news release. Officers initially were told a gun may have been seen but no shots were fired. When they contacted a male believed to be involved, he was unarmed and “no victim came forward.” No arrests were made. And police found no evidence a shot was fired.

By the time fireworks restarted before 10:30 p.m., there was only a scattering of people left. Even many of those still in the park who knew the report was false were no longer in the mood for patriotic revelry and continued to leave.

Spokanistanians are clearly dying for a world-class patriotic mass shooting with all the panic and fallout, but no deal, just disappointment. Idaho is currently stealing all the attention with the recent ambush and murders of wildlands firefighters.

That little image of the bald, earless, eyeless head talking into a bullhorn is hilarious.

Wow, I’d totally forgotten about PB. I seem to recall they were on the low end of the PC clone market but I could be misremembering. I can’t seem to find my Computer Shopper catalog right now to check. I dig that huge Enter key but it’s a shame this came with the utterly useless Windows keys and what I guess is a “menu” key. I’ve never used either but then I’ve used Linux exclusively since the aughts and OS/2 before that. My M$ “Natural” keyboard wastes space on these keys too. This specimen is going to look great when it’s cleaned up. Hope you can find a pen or a pencil to put in that little trench just for show.

Thank you. Fixed.

This is good Christian Texas, they all believe in arks so I’m sure that each, individually, with personal funds, and by the sweat of their own brows, have built themselves private arks. They’ll be fine.

200F in the municipal waste landfill, caused by the usual breakdown of materials there. But it doesn’t sound like the radwaste, even at the one landfill mentioned, is mixed in with the muni-waste, so why would anyone think it’s at the same temps (or more) than the latter landfills, or that the temps would matter at all? Radwaste is going to decay and give off heat through that process, not by chemical decomposition (AFAIK). I get the feeling the author put in that radwaste sentence just to generate alarm.

Too bad. I’d welcome our planet being blown out of orbit due to too much radwaste being concentrated in one place and going critical. I’d also welcome this happening in Louisiana, or Texas, or Alabama, or OK, or Idaho, or …

No. Furthermore nobody in the US under 60 years of age knows what “renaissance” means. It’s one of those hard words from the high school books they didn’t read. Kind of like “literally”.

I refuse to click through from any headline, anywhere, that references this guy using his idiotic nickname. That results in me not knowing anything about him, and deprives “news” platforms of a billionth of a cent of ad revenue, both of which I think are for the best.

fear that the hot temperatures would spark a nuclear disaster

Like … the buried radwaste would for some reason start to fission or undergo fusion, all because of higher-than-normal surface temperatures? Or do they think the waste would for some reason start to leak out (more)?

There may be waste storage problems but it sounds like they’ve been watching too much “Space 1999”.

Oh no, they’re very sane. They just love weapons, violence, and cruelty more than most people do.

Rural hospitals? Well, are they Christian? And are you a Christian? If so, you’re all set. If not, what’s wrong with you, Jeebus will provide after all!

The Heritage Foundation Christofascist types want to see all “public” services transitioned to non-governmental (in claim, if not in fact) Christian “charity” orgs. Preferably white-controlled, evangelical ones of course. If you’re a person with medical needs, really bad ones, and can’t get medical help, then why haven’t you signed on the line and pledged your vote, tithes, and soul to Jeebus? That’s the MAGA Jeebus mind you, not that old-fashioned Socialist one. MAGA wants these rural hospitals to go out of business. That will provide them with millions of new, suffering, desperate people and a situation where MAGA can blame their suffering on the “mismanagement” and “inefficiency” of the government-supported hospitals, now defunct, and will provide their Christofascist friends with a fire-sale on facilities and medical specialists with which to start their Xian “charity” services.

You the individual will either do as you’re told by MAGA in government (because they’re terrorist thugs) or by MAGA in “churches” (because they’ll (maybe) provide some kind of “charity” aid that’s no longer available elsewhere), or you’ll die. Either way, MAGA wins.

The “Heritage” Foundation and all the tax-favored entities like it (incl. “religious” ones) will need to be dealt with.

Nope, nope, nope. The Hitcher (1986). Fans seem to appreciate Hauer’s performance, it’s not as clear to me that they liked the film in and of itself quite so much.

Hauer would go on to say that critics misunderstood the film, calling it an allegory in which Ryder represents evil. The film has since been acknowledged as a cult classic and one of Hauer’s most iconic roles -Wikipedia

“The other side” is catching on, realizing the utility of “emergencies” as an excuse for exercising authoritarian power. https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/breaking-washington-mayor-declares-state-1203356

This mayor is thought of as “left-leaning”, which, in Spokane, describes anyone who isn’t a Christian Fascist, or not yet anyway. In the event described at that link, she declared this “emergency” as justification to allow city cops to violently attack and arrest peaceful protesters, and to clear the area around the ICE building with a declaration of a curfew so that the latest pair of kidnapped dark-skinned people could be transported out to a temporary prison (“processing” center) on the other side of the state.

Watch what “emergencies” the Iran War brings about. “Only one of the ‘Enemy Within’ would complain about inflation, unemployment, high gas prices, cuts to domestic spending, and curtailment of Constitutional rights, when our soldiers on the Iran Front are suffering so much in this Emergency. Such talk against the government is deemed traitorous and shall be punished severely by the Emergency Tribunal.”

Donald Trump has recommended eliminating this and some other programs that fall under the Older Americans Act, a landmark 1965 law that provides social and meal services for older people. The U.S. House also proposed eliminating the employment program’s funding

Why? What ever could be their motivation for doing so?

In 2019, about two-thirds of participants were women, and about 44% were Black

Oh, well, there’s the problem.

That’s one butch-looking senator they’ve got there. And all decked-out in those eye-catching Satanic colors. The whole outfit looks 100% polyester “male-ordered” from a 1970s Sears catalog. Some kind of odd kink I guess, I’ll have to check Reddit for the explanation. No judgment from me, the 70s were weird fun.

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Secours_Mother_and_Baby_Home .

The mothers were required to stay inside the home for one year, doing unpaid work for the nuns, as reimbursement for some of the services rendered. They were separated from their children, who remained separately in the home, raised by nuns, until they could be adopted – often without consent.

Some women who had had two confinements were sent directly to nearby Magdalene laundries after giving birth, as punishment for their perceived “recidivism”. According to Professor Maria Luddy, "Such a stance, though not intended to be penal, allowed for the development of an attitude that accepted detention as a means of protecting society from these reoffending women.

Confinements. Punishment. Detention. Reoffending women.

Bypass the Intercept’s “This is not a paywall” paywall: https://archive.is/IFQzG .

I was there and saw this guy showing people the wound just like you see here. It’s for real.

Back in 2003 the city of Spokane Valley was formed, just to the east of Spokane city. If you want to find a near-pure vein of MAGA, look there. It’s in between Spokane and Idaho but is floating toward the latter. The SV Trumpets/QAnons/Fundies would be happy to be part of Idaho but the quandary is, while they’d get lower gas prices for their shitty coal-rolling trucks, they wouldn’t be able to buy their precious weed w/o coming back to civilization now and then.