Did not know that faking crime-scene evidence was part of home-schooling curricula.

Finally the mainstream media is starting to catastrophize over Donald about things Ivana alerted to us decades ago.

"Trump denied us aid"

Are these stories about aid denial just coming out now? If yes, why didn't they come out as they occurred?

@3
Didn’t really serve a purpose at the time. But now, less than 2 weeks before the election Nathalie & friends can trot this out and fire up the voters in an area where very few people would vote for Trump anyway.
They didn’t accomplish anything, but they’ll be patting themselves on the back for the rest of the day.

@2, some of the aid denial was reported at the time but a lot of it is just coming to light now because some former staffers are speaking up

@3, you may recall there was also an election in 2020 so whatever purpose this reporting serves today would have been applicable then too

@3,

According to the linked article, it sounds like Politico just recently did an investigation based on recent remarks he made at a rally where he was bragging about using the incentive of aid as a bullying tactic.

"During an Oct. 12 rally in rural California, Trump celebrated a proposal to increase agricultural water supplies by weakening endangered-species protections and threatened Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“We’ll force it down his throat,” Trump said, “and we’ll say, ‘Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not giving you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all the forest fires that you have.’”

The investigation turned up multiple instances of his doing so, including those in Washington.

@6 Thanks, your comment answers my question but I really should have followed the link. I was wondering whether Insley had complained at the time but it wasn't really picked by media. I kind of remember that Trump withholding aid to blue states was already known, although it makes sense to make it a major issue in this campaign.

@3:

I guess that's because they're NOT "just coming out now." There was coverage of this in the months after the Malden, WA fire, but you (and presumably @4) just weren't paying attention at the time:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/sens-murray-cantwell-ask-biden-to-do-what-trump-wouldnt-provide-disaster-aid-for-washington-state-wildfires/

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997690599/a-destroyed-town-denied-aid-by-trump-braces-for-more-wildfires

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/jan/16/trump-is-blocking-aid-to-malden-pine-city-fire-vic/

https://www.nwpb.org/2021/01/22/lawmakers-ask-president-biden-to-act-on-washington-wildfire-relief-after-trump-refused/

Yeah, I was gonna follow that comment up to note that it seems like most, or at least a lot of the stuff they uncovered was already public, so your question was certainly warranted. I really think that it's just too insanely fucking difficult to keep track of and continually bring to light all of the abhorrent and repugnant shit he's said and done over the course of the past decade, even when it is public record. It's freaking surreal.

“he'll win a spot in Trump's cabinet… US policy on Russia will probably shift in favor of Putin”

Can we stop using inevitability language? It has a harmful impact of making the reader feel nothing can be done to prevent this—in this case, a Trump win. It seems like a small linguistic thing, but it’s insidious. How hard is it to add “if Trump wins” to this? Or replace “will” with “would”?

@10, If people opposed to Trump use limited bandwidth to come into a forum, in a state that Harris will win by a landslide, to preach to the choir, rather than compromising to appeal to the 80,000 or so swing voters in say ,Pennsylvania, that will pick the next President, then your fears of inevitability are well founded.

What do those 80k voters care about? What positions and policies can Harris adopt to appeal to them? What can her supporters from states like Washington offer to address their concerns? Perhaps reassurance that her base won't insist on their most important policy priorities if she wins? Policy priorities that are deal breakers for the few remaining undecided. I.e. Policy restraint if Harris wins.

Politics is the art of the possible. Recent changes in polling are the few undecided voters, in key swing states, breaking against Harris.

Worst case scenario for Progressives and Ultraliberals? Trump wins. He won't engage in any restraint. That's the worst case for everyone in this election.

What are Progressive and Ultraliberal voting blocks prepared to concede to those few swing voters, so that the inevitable does not happen?

Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning

As the Cop16 conference begins, scientists and academics say human activity has pushed the world into a danger zone
Mon 21 Oct 2024 01.00 EDT

Humanity is “on the precipice” of shattering Earth’s limits, and will suffer huge costs if we fail to act on biodiversity loss, experts warn. This week, world leaders meet in Cali, Colombia, for the Cop16 UN biodiversity conference to discuss action on the global crisis. As they prepare for negotiations, scientists and experts around the world have warned that the stakes are high, and there is “no time to waste”.

“We are already locked in for significant damage, and we’re heading in a direction that will see more,” says Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading. “I really worry that negative changes could be very rapid.”

Since 1970, some studies estimate wildlife populations have declined on average by 73%, with huge numbers lost in the decades and centuries before. Passenger pigeons, the Carolina parakeets and Floreana giant tortoises are among the many species humans have obliterated. “It’s shameful that our single species is driving the extinction of thousands of others,” says Oliver.

The biodiversity crisis is not just about other species – humans also rely on the natural world for food, clean water and air to breathe. Oliver says: “I think we will, certainly, in the next 15 to 20 years, see continued food crises, and the real risk of multiple breadbasket failures … that’s in addition to a lot of the other risks that might impact us through fresh-water pollution, ocean acidification, wildfire and algal blooms, and so on.”

Oliver, who is working with the UK government to identify “chronic risks” to the world, was involved in a 2024 report that showed nature degradation could cause a 12% loss to UK GDP. Disease outbreaks, loss of insects to pollinate crops, collapse of fisheries and flooding were among the risks identified. He says we are in an era of mass extinction with “huge uncertainty in where the safe limits are”.

Scientists say human activity has pushed the world into the danger zone in seven out of eight indicators of planetary safety. Under a business-as-usual scenario, biodiversity loss will accelerate, with more species surviving only in zoos.

[..]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/21/humanity-earth-natural-limits-biodiversity-warning-cop16-conference-scientists-academics

There's a real shot Trump may win the popular vote. Polls show the race as basically even nationally as Trump runs far ahead of where he polled in 2016 or 2020.

He'd be the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years.

There has not been a single point in time since Biden dropped out that Trump has been ahead in the national polls

@14, True, but the rolling averages of polls a 538 and realclearpolitics.com show the gap in national polls narrowing and Trump leading in all the swing states.

Some polls do show Trump leading nationally.

@13, Pollsters have adjusted definitions of likely voter and sampling methods to hopefully correct those errors, so in all probability the polls this time around don't understate Trump's actual results.

@13 and @14, It's all within the margin of error with weeks to go. It's a toss-up. Who turns out in those key swing states, and Pennsylvania in particular, will decide the matter for all of us. Harris has a better ground game.

Or, if you don't have WSJ subscription, buy a copy of the paper at Bulldog News. It costs money to report the news.

The margin of error only applies to any given poll but it’s meaningless in the aggregate, also polls always tighten as the race approaches and they’ve gone from a ~2.5 point Harris advantage to ~1.5. It’s a close race but if Trump wins it will not be with the popular vote.

What Would Claus von Stauffenberg Do?

@1- do we know the kid was homeschooled? Were the parents religious wackjobs?

he may've been
teevee-schooled:
every other show,
murder & mayhem
what's a Kid to Believe

But first
these Words
from our Sponsors

I sure hope that kid who murdered his family and tried to pin it on his brother gets assigned to a good group home where he can receive counseling, assuming of course that he chooses to stay.

Looks like a pretty light touch on the part of the Israelis. A few dozen air-launched ballistic missiles, mostly hitting Iranian ground forces targets, no seeming attempt to destroy Iran’s air defenses (which would have indicated a follow-on attack with direct attack munitions). I predict this is the last in the current round of tit-for-tats.

@12 Yet another warning of impending catastrophe, yawn. We are witnessing a historical moment of cognitive dissonance. For decades and now almost every day, some of our best and most educated minds tell us that human societies are running fast into the wall of ecological overshoot due to climate disruption, loss of biodiversity and generally going past ecosystem limits. Yet, almost all politicians pretend they haven't heard anything (or deny the problem outright) and/or do nothing significant to address the warning despite the increasing urgency while most of us are apparently too busy with our lives, trying to meet the daily demand of existence, to worry about tomorrow ...

@20 "what's a Kid to Believe"

that predatory behavior toward kids and women is everywhere, like on TV?

@16 Why support a Rupert Murdoch/News Corp publication when it is hard to think of another as easily identifiable entity that is as responsible for the global mess we are in? Or were you being facetious?

I like Bulldog News. It's like a candy store to me.

We 100% need to nationalize spacex & starlink.

@19: No, they were not religious whack jobs.

@24

yes
And that
'everyone' chooses
a little Murder when it
may seem Convenient. see
Also: bibi's little Massacre cum
Genofucking Cide in the Middle
fucking East. oops! almost Fogot!

it's OUR LITTLE GENOCIDAL
MASSACRE, Too! Thnx for
reminding me, wormmy!

& thnx, Joe!
keep it*
Up!

Vote: BLUE Anyways.
What ELSE've
we even
Gott?

*/s.

The father, Mark Humiston, was an engineer, engineers are not typically wacky.

Now the debate is whether the kid should be tried in adult court. I'm conflicted on that.

I'm surprised no one had commented on this yet and I'm sure there will be more to come on Monday but it sounds like Rich was replaced as editor on Friday by someone from the South Seattle Emerald.

@23,

"human societies are running fast into the wall of ecological overshoot due to climate disruption, loss of biodiversity and generally going past ecosystem limits."

Since humanity and human neorocircuitry are just the result of random DNA mutations, wouldn't the outcome you describe be the deterministic outcome of how that circuitry responds to stimulus.

Just another species randomly evolving into existence and then going extinct because it was unable to adapt. The geological record is littered with such species. Why should homosapiens be any different?

@31. Stop it. Get some help.

It's not homo sapiens who is unable to adapt, it's older "first world" folks who don't care what the future looks like since they aren't in it

The new denialism or the 4 d's: downplay the crisis and its urgency, delay addressing the problem since technology will save us, deflect responsibility from systemic to individual level, and doomerism because there is nothing we can do about it.

@30 If a tree falls in the forest....

@19: yes, that was in the paper/on tv. all the kids were home-schooled.

@35- thanks. Was not in the reports I’d read. I suppose we’ll hear all about it in the future. As for trying the kid as an adult that’s a really tough question. Whoever makes that call will have a lot of things to consider.

speaking of
Slumlord
Million-
aires:

Today a landlord raised a local renter’s pet rent after discovering he had not disclosed keeping an adorable nest of pet wasps on the property.

“Thought you were being slick hiding them here in the back under one of the eaves next to the shed? Can’t blame you for trying but we had a deal in the lease: You can have pets, but it’s $50 extra dollars a month for each one,” said landlord Lionel Glimmer after an unannounced property check-in.

“You’ve already told me about your cat Sally and now you just need to add onto the lease however many wasps are in that nest—at least 20 by my last count. So multiply that by $50, that’s all. I’m gonna need you to also list their species and weights.”

The renter, Greg Larson, said he tried to explain he actually needed the nest removed but was told again that wasps put so much wear and tear on a building it’ll probably need a whole new roof, so Larson would need to pay up.

“He just wouldn’t buy it and threatened to make me pay back-pet rent if I kept going on,” Larson said, hiding inside away from the nest. “He even wants those ‘little buggers’’ names. Where’s a murder hornet nest when you need one?”

At press time, Larson was asking Glimmer if he wanted to get an accurate wasp headcount for the monthly rent while he pets them with their favorite broom stick.

oodles:
https://theneedling.com/2024/09/01/landlord-raises-pet-rent-after-discovery-of-wasp-nest/

I guess that beats the heck outta
UPSing the nest over (after a
damn good Shaking)
to the Glimmers

hope he don't Notice
all the sugar ants

@33, You wrote, " it's older "first world" folks who don't care what the future looks like since they aren't in it."

If what give life purpose and meaning is maximizing your own personal happiness, then why would you criticize people for successfully doing that. If there is no purpose, meaning, and obligation that transcends one's own happiness, then that is exactly the correct way to look at it. To look at it otherwise requires some sort of transcendent purpose and morality.