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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:41:44 GMT -8
Why do Swedish warships have bar codes on them. So they can scan da Navy in. Michigan is Called "The Mitten State"?Infighting within the Republican Party's ranks has not only been apparent in the halls of Congress: It's now also threatening the stability of the GOP's operations in a state that's played a deciding role in the last two presidential elections. According to a Saturday report in the New York Times, eight of Michigan's 13 Republican congressional district Republican Party chairs have now co-signed a letter asking Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo to resign and "put an end to the chaos." The letter came after approximately 40 of the party's state committee members called for a meeting to discuss Karamo's future by the end of the year. However, that meeting has yet to take place. Meanwhile, the Mitten State's Republican leaders are growing more anxious by the day about their party's outlook next year. "The Michigan Republican Party is on the verge of imploding. I have more money in my campaign account than the state party has in its,” State Representative Mark Tisdel said. “Sooner or later, the creditors are going to come calling.” Since her tenure began in February, Karamo — a former community college professor and 2020 election denier — has seen the Michigan GOP's debt load grow to $620,000. This effectively scared off would-be donors to contributing to the state party's coffers, under the assumption that it would go toward debt service rather than electing Republican in Michigan. Karamo proposed enlisting 500,000 supposed right-leaning businesses to contribute as little as $10 per month to the party, though that idea has so far been unsuccessful. The Times additionally reported that Karamo's leadership has led to deep fissures between GOP leaders in the Mitten State. In July, a GOP meeting reportedly "devolved into a fistfight" that resulted in one party official suffering stress fractures in his spine. The final straw for Karamo may have been the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, which failed to attract any significant GOP stars. Its keynote speaker was actor and QAnon conspiracy theorist Jim Caviezel, who was paid in excess of $100,000 for a 25-minute speech. Not This Karamo
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:44:01 GMT -8
A Death in Venice --- Of Big Tour Groups
The city of Venice will ban tourist groups consisting of more than 25 people accompanied by tour guides and will also outlaw loudspeakers on such tours, the city council decided on Saturday.
The rules also prevent stopping at narrow streets, bridges or places of passage. The new measures take effect on June 1.
The decisions, made on the council's last meeting this year, are part of its effort to limit mass tourism and its negative effects on the northern Italian lagoon city. The rules apply to the city center and the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:44:57 GMT -8
She Was More Than Queen for a Day
Denmark's Queen Margrethe II has announced her surprise abdication in a new year TV address.
She will abdicate on 14 January, which will be 52 years to the day since she became queen.
"I will leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik," she announced.
The 83-year-old is the longest serving monarch in Danish history, taking the throne after the death of her father King Frederik IX in 1972.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:48:07 GMT -8
Is Israel Winning?
Almost 23,000 people – the vast majority Palestinian – have been killed since the unprecedented Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7, which launched the Israeli assault on Gaza.
As the end of 2023 approaches, the Israeli offensive is showing no signs of any let-up and the death toll is certain to rise on both sides as fighting continues.
Political attempts at peace have failed.
Israel has stated from the outset that its objective is to eliminate Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. To this end, it has continued the aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip almost without pause, since October 7.
While Israel admits it has failed in this mission so far, it claims it is just a question of time before it achieves this goal. But does the situation on the ground support that claim?
The answer is a cautious no.
A detailed and impartial analysis of various aspects of its performance leads to the conclusion that so far, Hamas has experienced more successes than failures – for the following reasons.
Is Netanyahu Winning?
Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting international calls for a cease-fire.
He is still in power, but his popularity is tanking.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:52:48 GMT -8
The State of Hispanic Journalism
Hispanic citizens represent almost 20% of the U.S. population, “but they’re orphaned by news in their language,” Calzadilla notes. Quality journalism in Spanish is a very scarce commodity and barely has funding. “Translations from English are usually of poor quality… they don’t take into account the way in which Latinos express themselves. And the sections aimed at them are the first to be eliminated when the media suffers from budget cuts,” she explains.
Agents of disinformation churn out content “that undermines democratic institutions, affects human rights, immigration, access to voting, or health care,” Calzadilla emphasizes. This past September, for example, conservative groups and Republican politicians pushed a false narrative in which they claimed that the Democratic Party had proposed allowing abortion — under any circumstances — up to the ninth month of pregnancy. “Something completely false, which was widely spread in Spanish,” Calzadilla clarifies.
In addition to the language factor, many members of the Hispanic community face other barriers to accessing reliable sources of information. “This exposes them to certain dangers, as the pandemic clearly demonstrated,” Calzadilla affirms. The narratives about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines were among the most widespread and impactful hoaxes that circulated on social media, taking a serious toll on many American citizens. This was explained in 2021 by an analysis from First Draft, a project against online misinformation founded in 2015 by some of the most important data companies, such as Google.
According to this study, misinformation about vaccines brought about serious consequences for Latinos, who were 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid-19 and 2.3 times more likely to die from the disease than non-Hispanic whites. Fake news generated widespread confusion and unscientific rumors, such as alternative treatments to cure the infection, “or absurd claims, [alleging] that the vaccines contained microchips, altered DNA, or were made from aborted fetuses and were the work of the Antichrist,” Calzadilla laments.
I Don't Know How Many Hispanics Speak Primarily Spanish
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:54:32 GMT -8
Israeled
The 30-plus entries for “Israeled” so far submitted to Urban Dictionary more or less share a definition. One, posted Oct. 22, reads: “Verb. Use this term to refer to someone who steals something and acts like the victim.”
All Urban Dictionary entries use the word in a sentence for clarification, with many proceeding along these lines: “In a restaurant, someone asked to share my table. I agreed. After a moment, he asked me to leave because he has a meeting! I’ve been Israeled.”
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:57:26 GMT -8
This is Similar to US Before Pearl Harbor. Due to Racism US Offiicals Believed Japanes Were too Primative to Oraganize An Attack Like December 7th.
The Times investigation is based on internal Israeli government documents and a review of the military’s cache of materials, known as Pandora, that contains tens of thousands of videos, including footage from body cameras worn by terrorists and closed-circuit surveillance cameras. The Times interviewed dozens of officers, enlisted troops and eyewitnesses, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about military operations.
The documents and interviews revealed new details about the attack, including military assessments and orders like the one given by The Pit early that morning. Taken together, they show that much of the military failure was due to the lack of a plan, coupled with a series of intelligence missteps in the months and years before the attack. [...]
Israeli security and military agencies produced repeated assessments that Hamas was neither interested in nor capable of launching a massive invasion. The authorities clung to that optimistic view even when Israel obtained Hamas battle plans that revealed an invasion was precisely what Hamas was planning.
The decisions, in retrospect, are tinged with hubris. The notion that Hamas could execute an ambitious attack was seen as so unlikely that Israeli intelligence officials even reduced eavesdropping on Hamas radio traffic, concluding that it was a waste of time.
Even After Pearl Harbor, Many US Officials Insisted That Germany Must Have Planned the Attack and Participated In It.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 10:58:51 GMT -8
We Could Have Told the Brits This Before They Voted.A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union. The survey of more than 2,000 UK voters also finds strikingly low numbers of people who believe that Brexit has benefited them or the country. Just one in 10 believe leaving the EU has helped their personal financial situation, against 35% who say it has been bad for their finances, while just 9% say it has been good for the NHS, against 47% who say it has had a negative effect. Ominously for prime minister Rishi Sunak, who backed Brexit and claimed it would be economically beneficial, only 7% of people think it has helped keep down prices in UK shops, against 63% who think Brexit has been a factor in fuelling inflation and the cost of living crisis.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:01:34 GMT -8
Love Thy Crypto Neighbor
Oklahoma state Senate candidate and pastor Dusty Deevers, a Republican and theocratic crackpot of the usual mold. Via Right Wing Watch, Friendly Atheist's Hemant Mehta delivered this sermon: Dusty Deevers, the Republican nominee for a vacant Oklahoma State Senate seat, delivered a sermon last year in which he railed against in vitro fertilization (IVF), saying that embryos “were incarcerated in frozen prisons,” referring to them as “cryo-orphans,” and urging the audience to love their “embryonic neighbors.”
Today, I want to ask and answer the question: What must you and I do to love our IVF embryonic neighbors as ourselves? My aim today is, with our Creator's help, graciously to bring before your conscience the harsh realities of IVF so you will respond by faith, in faith, by loving your embryonic neighbor. Why should this matter to you? Well, we've heard why it should matter. Millions of our embryonic neighbors, unnecessarily, are being led to slaughter every year by IVF and assisted reproductive technologies.
And countless others are cryo-incarcerated in frozen prisons. We are creating cryo-orphans for the sake of biological offspring.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:02:09 GMT -8
Who Won the Week?
The residents of Colorado's 3rd congressional district, after pervy dim bulb and MAGA business failure Lauren Boebert announced she's cutting and running to avoid getting beat by a Democrat next year Solar energy, which ends 2023 as the cheapest form of electricity in a majority of the world's countries Photographer Cecil Williams, whose millions of civil rights history photos will be on display during the opening of South Carolina's first civil rights museum. (Nikki Haley might want to take a peek.) President Biden: with a steady hand on the tiller, POTUS ends 2023 with another excellent year of leadership and accomplishments Judge B. Lynn Winmill, for ruling that Idaho Republicans can't enforce a law banning parents from the right to get gender-affirming care for their transgender kids Obamacare, as new signups at Healthcare.gov and affiliated state exchanges continue to smash records and enjoy high approval ratings 10 years after they started going live Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, for ruling that Trump can't be on the state's 2024 primary ballot due to his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection Karma, as Little Miss Perfect Nikki Haley's self-inflicted faceplant in NH about the reason for the Civil War knocks her campaign down a few pegs McGruff the Crime Dog, as murders and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2023
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:09:09 GMT -8
Scratch "Lighthouse Keeper" From You List of Possible Careers
Sally Snowman, America’s last lighthouse keeper, ends watch at Boston Light after 20 years.
She’s done bringing home the beacon.
The last Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in the United States ended her watch at the historic Boston Light after two decades at the helm.
Sally Snowman, 72, became the keeper of the lighthouse back in 2003, which she said was a lifelong dream come true after first seeing it when she was just 10 years old.
“There was a connection, instant connection. I had no idea as a 10-year-old what that connection was, it just went right to my heart. And to this day, it’s there. It’s still there,” she told the Daily Mail ahead of her final day as keeper on Saturday.
She is the 70th person to be the lighthouse keeper at Boston Light — and the first woman to hold the position — in its more than 300-year history.
The lighthouse — which originally opened in 1716 and was blown up by the British in 1776 and rebuilt in 1783 — has safely guided sailors through the dangerous waters of Boston Harbor from the small rocky island of Little Brewster.
Is She Going to Hang Out With Her Brother "Frosty"?
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:12:32 GMT -8
Roses and Brussel Sprouts vs DeathSentence
'We are not that': How one Florida county is defying DeSantis at the 2024 Rose Parade
Stacy Ritter knew she had to do something big to distinguish Fort Lauderdale from Ron DeSantis.
The Florida governor had spent more than a year attacking LGBTQ+ rights, and the Broward County seat was suffering. In 2023 alone, 18 conferences pulled bookings from the county, repelled by the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and DeSantis’ forays against queer and trans people and reproductive rights, among other targets.
So Ritter came to California and enlisted 45,000 flowers; a raft of Brussels sprouts; the nephew of the late Harvey Milk, one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials; and what amounts to a two-hour televised ad — also known as the 135th annual Rose Parade — that is viewed by millions.
Thanks to Ritter, president and chief executive of Visit Lauderdale, her county now has its first Rose Parade float, complete with rainbow umbrellas and a slogan she hopes will counteract DeSantis’ march to the right: “Everyone under the sun.”
“We’re hoping that the way we have designed the float will show how diverse and inclusive this destination is,” Ritter said of Fort Lauderale. “It’s a place that might be different from your perception of Florida and what the headlines say Florida is. We are not that.”
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:13:58 GMT -8
123-123: I Do. I Do.
Cindy Adams knew two things about her wedding: She and her fiance, Anthony Asta, wanted to get married in Las Vegas, and she wanted to tie the knot on a date Asta could easily remember for their future anniversaries.
They decided on a New Year’s Eve wedding at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. The ceremony is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on 12/31/23 — a repeating 1-2-3 pattern.
“We didn’t realize it was 123-123,” Adams, 49, said. Asta likes order, so the date seemed fitting.
“It just felt right for us,” Adams said.
Adams and Asta are among the nearly 1,500 couples expected to get married on Sunday in Las Vegas, the wedding capital of the world, known for its year-end sendoffs, performances, fireworks and brightly lighted strip packed with partygoers.
And while saying “I do” on New Year’s Eve is already a Vegas pastime, this year is what many industry insiders call a “specialty” or “magical” date — an occurrence nearly as rare as a sighting of Halley’s Comet — because the numbers align into a perfect pattern or sequence: 12/31/23, or 123-123.
It means an increase in nuptial demands that requires beefed-up staffing at venues, additional limousines, a pop-up Clark County Marriage License Bureau and extra Elvis Presley impersonators.
To top it off, the date occurs on a weekend.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 31, 2023 11:15:15 GMT -8
What's the Attraction of Fuzzy Dice?
Fuzzy dice finally will be free to dangle in Illinois.
Starting Monday, police there no longer will be allowed to pull over motorists solely because they have something hanging from the rearview mirror of the windshield. That means air fresheners, parking placards and, yes, even those dice are fair game to hang.
The revised Illinois windshield rule is one of hundreds of new laws taking effect with the new year in states across the U.S. While some may seem a bit pedestrian, others have real practical effects or touch on controversial issues such as restrictions on weapons and medical treatments for transgender people.
Though the original Illinois windshield law was meant to improve roadway safety, it came to be seen by some as an excuse for pulling over drivers. The new law still prohibits objects that obstruct a driver’s view but forbids law enforcement officers from conducting stops or searches solely because of suspected violations.
“With this new law, we are sending a powerful message that the state does not tolerate racial profiling or other forms of discrimination,” said Democratic state Sen. Christopher Belt, one of the bill’s sponsors.
Another new Illinois law seeks to stifle a more modern form of distracted driving by prohibiting people from participating in video conferences or scanning social media while behind the wheel.
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hasben
Resident Member
Posts: 1,023
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Post by hasben on Jan 1, 2024 19:49:17 GMT -8
Is Netanyahu Winning?
The war? Yes. His goal is to kill as many Palestinians as possible. Men, women, children, doesn't matter. And to make Gaza an uninhabitable wasteland. He's done both. Of the 22,000 killed most are women and children.
Hamas had an estimated combat force of over 20,000. Israel claims to have killed around 8,000. Hamas leaders are not even in Gaza. It is impossible for Israel to destroy Hamas and they know it.
Netanyahu is a war criminal no different than Milosevik or Putin. He should be tried and executed.
Unqualified support for Israel and the US border are Biden's major faux pas and he will pay for them.
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