Go Japan! Hell yeah!

This isn’t exactly what the previous comment was talking about, but it’s similar. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/14/alabama-immigration-law-workers and there’s something similar going on Florida too https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1242236604/florida-economy-immigration-businesses-workers-undocumented

These are my go-to articles anytime the subject of undocumented workers comes up. Personally, I think we would go back to the old model. If I remember correctly, the 1930s was when immigration started to be severely restricted; but, before that, temporary workers would come up for a season of employment and then go back home. All of it was done legally. It wasn’t until immigration restrictions were enacted that there was an incentive to stay and move their families into the US.

This is exactly what I’ve been thinking lately. And on top of already existing laws, make new ones that criminalize currently normal things. Hell, the South enacted new laws after slavery ended and only applied them against Black Americans. Why stop there, why not increase penalties for certain crimes from misdemeanors to felonies and make 3 felony convictions mean a life sentence?

The only part I disagree with is the for profit prisons part. 8% of prisoners are in private prisons which is 8% too many, but 92% are in publicly funded and operated prisons. And those publicly operated prisons sell the services of their trapped slave labor for so many more things than stamping license plates or road work. Not only do they fight fires and clean up after natural disasters, they also make kit (armor, helmets) for the armed forces, they pick crops, they manufacture white goods (washing machines, refrigerators)(I can’t find a link specifically mentioning appliances and I’ll update this it I find one), and so much more. Shoot, some cities’ budgets would be blown up if not for the availability of publicly held prison slaves.

That was- I cannot convey just how insane that was using spoken language. I think I’d need to smash a watermelon, aim a sandblaster filled with crushed seashells and desiccated termites at it, start blasting and let my intuition do its thing until something resembling art was produced. Possibly while doing interpretive dance and making primal guttural grunting noises. That would get me pretty darn close to properly communicate my thoughts on what I saw. Thank you.

I do wonder, though, what they’d do when

crops are left rotting in fields and houses and buildings aren’t rebuilt after disasters because all undocumented immigrants have been reported;

after LGBT+ folks hide themselves and “fit in” for safety like it’s the 1950s;

when there are masses of unemployed young people born after abortion and contraception are outlawed living in a nation unequipped to handle them;

after the education and environmental protection systems cease to exist and the country falls behind in every metric of a developed nation from an absence of knowledge pools and poison in everything.

What will they do after creating an environment that fosters stability, innovation, and a thriving society like we saw in the mid-2010’s Middle East. It sure sounds like a great and prosperous future, doesn’t it. Right?..

Here’s a list of states that have effectively banned adult films websites by requiring sites to verify a user’s age:

The states are:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nebraska
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia

How age is verified:

While the specifics vary between states, in general the new laws mean users are required to provide a pornographic website with a copy of their ID to obtain access or by sending it to a third party.

Project 2025 and “adult conent”

“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology … is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”

What does this mean? Well it seems to mean that the far right want to define a book that features a same-sex couple as illegal pornography and throw the author of the book and any distributors of the book in prison. It seems to mean that a book talking about sexual violence could be classified as porn and banned. It seems to mean that talking about the existence of trans people would be “porn” and criminalized. In short: anything that goes against normative gender roles and hierarchies, or interrogates those hierarchies, could be considered obscene and criminalized.

These are the kinds of laws they have in theocracies. These were the kinds of laws they had in the Soviet Union. This is where they want to take us. And that is where we will go if we let them.

There’s a neat post I came across some time ago showing how few votes can still win the electoral college.

Comment link

Direct link to website

Turns out, though unlikely, it is possible to win the election with less than 25% of votes through the magic of the electoral college and disproportionate representation.

Another article said it was the office’s high power consumption and the SMELL of marijuana… in a state where marijuana is legal. And the ‘AC was too loud.’ And two people dressed similarly because I guess scrubs, uniforms, or a dress code are suspicious as hell. And security cameras. Like, holy goddamn shit guys. The officers, especially the team’s leader who requested the warrant and the judge who signed it, should be reprimanded for sheer incompetence.

If this is all it takes for a raid, my favorite cheap Chinese food spot should be raided, too. Hell, they get a ton of customers coming and going so they’re probably dealing, too!

According to the lawsuit, the raid of Noho Diagnostic Center stemmed from an LAPD officer’s application for a search warrant.

The officer said there had been a noise complaint about the medical center’s air conditioning units, and cannabis was possibly being cultivated inside, the complaint says.

He repeatedly surveilled the property in 2023 and reported the “distinct odor of live cannabis plant and not the odor of dried cannabis being smoked” — as well as tinted windows, security cameras and two people dressed similarly, according to the complaint.

The officer believed these were signs of a hidden marijuana growing operation, and efforts to expand it, the complaint says.

He also found that the medical center wasn’t licensed to grow cannabis and, because of this discovery, determined the facility was violating California’s health and safety code, according to the complaint.

The officer considered his observations as “probable cause for cannabis cultivation,” and a search warrant was issued, the complaint says.

I don’t have Facebook but I did come across this

According to The Associated Press, Stines gave a deposition Monday in a federal lawsuit stemming from allegations that a now-former deputy sheriff forced a woman to have sex with him in Mullins’ chambers for six months, in exchange for keeping the woman out of jail. He pleaded guilty to rape and other charges earlier this year, The Mountain Eagle reported.

Which is so messed up.

Also, related to that deputy

She also alleged that a male relative of Fields, who he introduced to her, also coerced her to have sex with him because he “had pull with the court.” She said that she talked to Fields on Facebook Messenger, but the other man never sent her any messages. He wasn’t charged because she had no proof.

Adkins said she believes that man is still doing to same thing to other women because she went to court for a hearing on a charge of driving under the influence and saw him sitting in the gallery whispering to another female defendant with his arm around her.

“He was right there in the courtroom, asking her to go out to dinner with him,” she said. “I felt physically sick.”

I don’t know what the hell is going on out there, but holy crap they have a lot of problems they need to address.

Also, Metz was transported to headquarters where he was processed and booked into jail. He was later released after posting $5,000 bond.

I haven’t seen any reporting confirming that she’s got XY chromosomes. But if you have an article, please correct me if I’m wrong. What I’ve been able to find is this:

Banned governing body that’s fueling outcry on Olympic boxers has Russian ties and troubled history

Summary-

• The disqualification was done in a tournament run by an organization banned by the Olympics.

• She participated in tournaments run by this organization with no issues for the last several years.

• The organization hasn’t said why she was disqualified.

• The man spouting the ‘trans woman’ claims is the leader of the organization. He’s a friend of Putin and described as a drug trafficker.

• Her disqualification happened after she beat the previously undefeated Russian boxer Amineva 3 days post fight.

There’s more in the article, but these are the quick bullet points I came up with.

This is the latest in a 14 part investigation that started in May 2024 and just wow. The story gets more insane and unhinged with each part that’s released.

She then claimed that if people would take a moment to try to “understand…the context” of her husband’s comment and focus less on the “three-word phrase,” they would understand that he was simply arguing that “it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.”

Our policies. Policies like being against school lunches? Like voting against a child tax credit? Like not supporting or opposing funding for childcare? Like opposing paid parental leave? I don’t know, it sure feels like some folks in particular have made it their goal to continue hardships for parents and children.

Let’s not forget banning open carry in CA:

he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons” and that guns were a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.”