Comments

1

Fucked up how Congress will pass anti-hate legislation regarding what is happening to Asians in this country, but can't be bothered to do one fucking thing to stop the endless slaughter of Black people by the police. They need to pass the BREATHE ACT.

And while they're addressing that issue, they also need to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to counteract all of the legislation being passed nationwide to disenfranchise as many Black voters (and disabled, elderly, and poor) voters as possible.

2

At the risk of sounding like a pedant, Susan Collins is a senator from Maine, not Alaska.

3

Protected Bike Lane Sweeper? How about "Widowmaker"

4

Fun (?) Mt Saint Helen's Story: Amtrak's "Empire Builder" left Chicago bound for Seattle/Portland the day before the eruption. As the full effects of the event happened, The Builder was about the only piece of passenger carrying equipment left operationable in the state: Cars and busses crapped out because of the pollution, and airlines were grounded.

All along the route, the train stopped to pick up stranded people. They were putting them up in the dining and lounge cars, and doubling them up in the coaches, and even the sleepers.

By the time the train pulled into Seattle, several hours late, it had three times the normal consist, and the next day's train was just as crowded.

5

@1 There is a really good plan at the bottom of the BREATE Act and that is to repeal the Clinton Crime Bill. Repealing it would save money on top of improving lives and undoubtedly get supporters on both sides. But the BREATHE Act reads like the Green New Deal that will get no bipartisan support a probably not enough mainstream Democratic support either. Its all flowery language one type of Democrat really likes with a few good ideas that get burried in it.

6

@5 - The Crime Bill was pretty sprawling, so repealing the whole thing would be a mistake, as there were some worthwhile aspects. The Violence Against Women Act is probably the most significant of those. The Assault Weapon Ban was...until it expired. Other's I'm forgetting. It needs to be addressed in a line-item way.

7

Amazon's interface IS shitty! Always has been, for movies, shopping or otherwise. All that money, you think they could attract at least one decent UI developer.

9

@8 Yes a number of the hate crimes against Asians have been committed by Black homeless people. Your narrative is false, however, and your evidence cherry picked.

Until recently the identities of the perpetrators of hate crimes against Asian-Americans were overwhelmingly white: 74.6 percent of these crimes are committed by white assailants.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/03/11/why-the-trope-of-black-asian-conflict-in-the-face-of-anti-asian-violence-dismisses-solidarity/

Prejudice and pandemic in the promised land: how white Christian nationalism shapes Americans’ racist and xenophobic views of COVID-19
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2020.1839114

More in-depth study about how perpetrates crimes against Asians in America and why the racial disparity exists.
Hate Crimes against Asian Americans
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7790522/

10

ReporttotheNation:Anti-AsianPrejudice&HateCrime
https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/Report%20to%20the%20Nation%20-%20Anti-Asian%20Hate%202020%20Final%20Draft%20-%20As%20of%20Apr%2030%202021%206%20PM%20corrected.pdf

11

White supremacy and hate are haunting Asian Americans
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/white-supremacy-racism-asian-americans/index.html

13

@12 The conflicting messages from our health experts is really disappointing. Between that and COVID regulations varying by state, county, business, and vaccination status there's bound to be a lot of confusion as the country attempts to reopen.

14

@9: Who cares about a stupid tally about keeping a stupid narrative? It's wrong no matter what the race is.

15

@6 Assault weapons bans dont do shit for slowing gun crime but they do contribute to a lot of nonviolent offenders being locked up, mostly non white. Im still pretty convinced tough on crime bills are shit even if there is some bs about protecting women peppered in. Dont get me started on "sex trafficking" laws.

17

Imagine believing it is irrelevant that almost all hate crimes in this country are committed by white people against non-white people. Truly incomprehensible.

It matters because white supremacy is the ideology on which this country was founded and it is white supremacist ideology, policy, violence, and terrorism on which this country continues to exist.

Only in this country could white supremacists attempt a coup to overthrow the government, incited by a twice impeached Russian asset serving as president (who is a traitor yet still walking around free), aided and abetted by 148 sitting members of Congress (not one of whom who has been expelled from Congress) and people in this country think it's no big deal and want to "move forward" and "forget about it" (while vilifying Black people protesting the endless slaughter of Black people by police).

Hate & Extremism
https://www.splcenter.org/issues/hate-and-extremism

Top law enforcement officials say the biggest domestic terror threat comes from white supremacists.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/us/politics/domestic-terror-white-supremacists.html

DHS Report Says White Supremacist Groups Are Deadliest US Terror Threat
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/jamestown/news/2020/10/07/white-supremacist-groups-pose-greatest-us-domestic-terror-threat

Black Americans Still Are Victims of Hate Crimes More Than Any Other Group
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/black-americans-still-are-victims-of-hate-crimes-more-than-any-other-group/

18

@17 xina for the WIN!

19

@4 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Thank you for sharing an amazing story of how the Empire Builder from Chicago to the PNW saved the day on the historic weekend of the Mt. Saint Helens eruption. I remember how I-5 was a total mess, especially in Southwestern Washington. The town of Castle Rock had to be evacuated. The entire surrounding forest around Spirit Lake was leveled. Mt. Saint Helens resident Harry Truman (not the former U.S. President, but a mountaineer who rented canoes on Spirit Lake), his 30 cats were killed, buried in the mud, ash, and smoldering debris. Fallen trees strewn aground looked like spilled toothpicks. Toutle River, like I-5, was completely jammed..

41 years ago I was a high schooler with a weekend job cleaning rooms at a local inn. My parents and maternal grandmother had driven that weekend over the Cascades to Douglas County to visit my grandmother's family ranch near Waterville off USR2.
Just before I had left for work, there was an Earth shaking explosion at about 8:32 a.m., loudly generating from about 200 miles away from our house. Since the volcanic ash spewed eastward, I can't imagine my parents and grandmother's return trip westward. They made it home safely, but navigating through all that black ash and debris must have been a feat. My father said that by 12 noon, the city of Yakima was pitch dark. News articles in the Seattle Times and from all over the world reported ash from Mt. Saint Helens circling the globe several times. "Ash Globe" ornaments were sold as souvenirs in gift shops.
Question of the decade: "Where were you when the mountain blew?"


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