Ooh, what do we have here?

@WikiAdam : pictured is a bleu balsalmic endive salad

@jaymayday Would eat

I *don't* smoke a pipe, man.

god it's been awhile since i've disrupted u

This is my "Bob"

Grunkle Stan?

> Much of the time was spent painstakingly erasing stars, to reveal the satellites.

Inverse modern astronomy

Literal sky net

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

I've been taking night photos since 2007. I have seen a notable increase in satellite streaks the last few years. And then there's the ever-present air traffic.

She’s incredible and I hope to see plenty more of her. I do think Talarico was the better choice for the general - just in terms of not having to overcome the racism and misogyny that regrettably appears hard baked into the electorate - but she has so much to offer Texas and this country.

The irony of photographing an EV at a gas pump is not lost on me

^lol

Back in 1999 - some friends and I decided to have a Guy Fawkes Day celebration where we burned a tiny straw man in effigy. The neighbors got freaked out, called the cops, and it ended up being reported as a comedy bit in a local paper called THE STRANGER: https://www.thestranger.com/news...

Anyway, we made up a Guy Fawkes Day song (sung to This Old Man):

Once this Guy was alive
But way back in 1605
He was tried and hung for Treason 'gainst the Crown
For trying to burn the whole thing down

See this Guy was in a lurch
He didn't like the Anglican Church
Or the way the Government made him pay a fee
If he didn't go voluntarily

Guy thought this was a crock
'Cause he was of Recusant stock
So he got together with 12 other drunken sots
And fomented the Gunpowder Plot

This plot had just one hitch
Someone went to the cops and snitched
Well the cops heard the tale and they were just aghast
And they got medieval on Guy Fawkes' ass

The big trial was no fun
In the end just 8 were hung
And so that Guy's name will live on in infamy (note: sarcasm!)
Now we burn him in effigy

Goooooooooooooooo FAWKES! (everyone cheers)

THE END

Make up a Guy to get mad at

Nothing like good old sectarianism, eh? What could go wrong with that!

Much of the Gunpowder plot was hatched in Northamptonshire (my neck of the woods)

: )

Mazel Tov!

Go, kid!

Congratudolences!

Conga Rats 🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀🐀!!

And those pasty-faced descendants of German immigrants will never understand that. They think they too are part of the elite by accident of birth.

Turboencabulator. You can tell from the manifolds.

Maybe, but I don't see any unilateral phase detractors.

Ah yeah, once the Canudenshpringle paper came out, everything changed overnight.

Its definitely going to kill us.

out of blinker fluid

Just tightening up the widget arm.

Yes, but is science really real?

@MackReed IN THIS COMMENT WE BELIEVE

SCIENCE IS REAL
REAL IS SCIENCE
IS REAL SCIENCE
HFUCISISOKFNFNSK

That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

It looks like that imagines it made whitefish bay by putting 15 more miles behind her

Aw man I did not get this choice at my locality

Are you...a cat?

And Carl can play the bagpipes!

Cat for scale. I wish I knew more about music so I could make a better scale joke.

Catatonic

@ba +

I haven't been able to quite articulate it enough (in my head) to post about it here, but it made me weep last night thinking about how much we owe Minnesota for standing up to ICE the way they did last winter (and still do!). A lot of other people have stood up and shown up, and worked hard (godDAMN, Georgia!)- don't get me wrong - but by fighting back so forcefully and publically "ordinary" Minnesotans just galvanized the country in the way it really needed and they deserve some credit for what happened nationwide yesterday.

@williwaw I think Minnesotans recognized that simply caring about your neighbors in this day and age has become a radical act, and we made the most of it that we could. There were dozens (maybe hundreds) of small groups organizing help for people here, so while the cartoonishly evil of ICE helped make it a national story, the roots of support and connection went so much deeper. Even farther out from the Twin Cities, ICE was abducting people and disrupting communities, and that helped those more isolated parts of the state both recognize the problem and find support networks in ways that cut through their haze of right-wing media. MN Isn't uniformly blue, but this election pushed the state as a whole back toward the left.

Also, much of this goes back further to George Floyd and the networks of support that grew from those killings. ICE focusing here just reactivated that feeling of being under siege and the need to band together.

hell yeah

💙

Watched it three times!

Oof 😢

I've seen other photos from that corner this morning, the number of stickers is growing fast

I imagine it's pretty wet.

Flood warning

@wjcstp and @poorusher +++

Lots of big blue waves last night

also every day

Make Aryans Grimace Again

I'd start with a whiskey amuse bouche.

For the appetizer, whiskey.

For the main course, a large tumbler of whiskey with a side of whiskey.

For dessert, whiskey. Something sweet I suppose, like a nice bourbon.

I'd totally do that, on an empty stomach too.

@mikenmar : on empty!! i used to only be able to drink busch ligjht on empty

@mikenmar : i worked not attended

I think I love you too!

@waldopepper : omg! why??

I have no idea why Prop 134 and Prop 135 is doing so well, both seemed to be out of step with the general Colorado Vibe but who knows? At least they are just Propositions, and not attempts to amend the constitution. We can repeal them easily enough.

@jazon yea, honestly, this is probably more of an indictment of our ridiculous voter referendum system than it is specifically about bigotry.

That we've allowed ballots to become partisan via absurd 'surveys' is the core problem.

Yeah I'm totally down with all the happiness going around but we have a long way to go.

Here in Washington State, I'm glad that one of the transphobic measures was shot down, and I feel like part of the reason 638 (sports) looks like it will pass is because the opposition messaging just wasn't clear enough of how awful and evil this measure is. If it passes, I'm sure it will be challenged in court and hopefully promptly defeated there. It is disappointing that there are still so many shitty people out there. There's no hate like Christian love.

The silver lining here, if there is one, is that one of the main reasons this sort of stupidity makes it on the ballot to begin with is to motivate specific groups of people to vote - where they typically vote for whatever candidate most closely aligns with the proposition. At least that's what happens here in Ohio.

They wasted their shot this year, and won't be able to do it again in 2028.

If kids were actually being given unauthorized surgeries it would be a real scandal, a horror show.
But you won't hear another word about it after last night. I guess they don't care about them little kids getting "mutilated" if there isn't an election going on.

"How will you enforce this?"
"Uh wellll we hope we don't have to, that it's a deterrent"

Yeah yeah right ... a deterrent .... stupid laws bring stupid results

I think y'all are conflating and assuming other people's motivations for voting yes on surgeries. Drinking, fucking, tattoos, voting, taxes, and driving are all things that are and should be withheld until assumed maturity. And they are all less consequential than chopping up your junk.


Sure love up the kids and support them in their choices. Educate each other, live in a grand world but if societally, those other things have been deemed to demand mature responsibility than so does surgery. If it's right for that person it will still be right when they are 18.


I'm autistic and apolitical but I notice blues acting the same as reds with just stepping in line and knee jerk reacting to pre supported arguments and demonizing "the other"


There is only one enemy and that is the slave masters. Everything else is their distraction to keep the slaves fighting amongst each other so do the opposite and love them red fucks. Empathize their dicks off.

Also I'm sure there's lots of nuance to surgeries. I know nothing about this topic and have literally never heard about teenagers doing it till this post.

Another thought I had was when I think about all the stupid shit I did in a trendy rebellious way as a teenager and I wanted to prove myself to other teenagers this is something I could see doing to out hardcore others. I did hella stupid shit and I know y'all did too.

And I left out a step in the above comment between being autistic and towing the party line was the hierarchical neurotypical tribal bonding step of agreeing with your people against the other

@Jimbo, These aren't impulse surgeries after a night out drinking in the dug-out. There is a massive amount of consultation, doctors, therapists, psychologists wrapped up in all of this. If it gets to the point of surgery, there is a really good fucking reason for it.

Bottom line, this is one group of people denying children access to medical care because...they don't understand any of this.

And I'm not mad at you, Jimbo. Hope that is clear. I am mad at the amount of bullshit hatred spewed from the right...and frustrated by those that feel that the left 'hating bigotry' is as bad as the bigotry itself.

Also...a lot of these weren't even about surgery. They were about kids. Playing sports. And adults thinking genitals should have anything to do with that. These are kids. That want to play on a team. With their friends. That's all.

But, not, republicans want to strip search them for...reasons?

@jazon I'm not not that surprised, actually. I just peeked at my county's result break down- a fairly rural, somewhat red country - and while a lot of them held their noses to vote blue at the top, for local stuff they still voted red. Here so much of this election was about the economy/tariffs/some ICE etc. Or they didn't vote at all down ballot, which means for an issue like this many of the voters could be people who really cared one way or the other. I'll be interested to see how the entire state breaks down when all the results are in to see if that holds true other places. One thing's clear though: Dems shouldn't mistake this wave for what it *isn't*.

Also, a lot of people don't know anything about trans issues AND don't realize that these are *also* super based in misogyny, so end up just going with the vibes. They don't see who's sponsoring this shit. So you get these uneducated voters who might be against it who think, "oh, that sounds ok," or are heavily influenced by the algo etc., or maybe think, "I did stupid shit as a teenager, this sounds like a good thing," vote yes without realizing Just How Harmful these initiatives are. Also, educating oneself requires work, and, well . . . people are *exhausted* right now, yeah? Or isn't it easier to go with where the algo's driving you? Some people don't vote when they don't know enough. . . others, unfortunately, think their vibes are good enough. And thus they cause extreme harm.

Also, unlike, say gay rights or what's going on with immigration or abortion rights, many people just haven't had any personal exposure in any meaningful way. Chances are most people know someone who is gay or might have seen/known an ICE arrest, or know a woman who had struggles with getting pregnancy care, etc. We can't understate how powerful that exposure can be for changing people's minds (as much as other people are still bigoted, yes, yes, yes). But trans issues are slightly different. Right now, frankly, it's a lot easier to talk to someone "who knows someone who [made up shit]" than to actually know someone themselves. It's probably gotten even harder with the sheer amount of anti-trans shit out there right now: trans folks are literally being terrorized at the moment we need their voices.

Anyway, the whole situation is awful and yeah, there's a lot of work to be done.

Oh, wow, viola: an example right here.

Don't tread on me.

These trans-related ballot measures aren't just about trans people, and they're DEFINITELY not about children having impulse sex reassignment surgeries. They are about the control of bodies. Every step forward we take in the push to ensure that people of all sorts have the right to control their own bodies results in a wave of downstream legislation and ballot measures to deny control to another group. Women can get abortions if they choose? Let's criminalize homosexuality. Gay rights get codified into law? Go after transsexuals, or children. Don't see the connection? Well any time a law is enacted which limits a group's control of their bodies, it becomes a stepping-stone to doing the same to other groups. If you can control how a gay couple fuck, you're one sympathetic judge away from extending that to how straight couples fuck. If you can control how straight couples fuck, you can control whether or not they will be forced to bear children.

TLDR it's about control and we should fight against these evil assholes.

I have thoughts on all this. So many thoughts. But I really can't articulate them right now.

I just know that we've got work to do.

@williwaw excellent analysis. I know they way the Props were written, they were vague and confusing and leaned into the "Think of the CHILDS" arguments. I know Colorado isn't the only state voting on these measures, it's a big push by conservative groupes.

I was listening to Denver Citycast Podcast on Monday and they were saying it's a trend - states with liberal policies attract families with trans members, the population grows, and suddenly there's a bit uptick of anti-trans propositions and outcry. the pendulum swings back and forth again and again .

Yea, I thik @williwaw's analysis is spot on.

I think there was a GOP meeting a few years back "Listen everyone, turns out there are a lot of republicans that now know gay people. Since they now recognize them as fellow human beings, it's getting harder to vilify them. Why don't we go after trans kids instead?"

"Good idea...but we're still vilifying women too, right?"

"Oh, of course...sexism is always a sure thing!"

Also I want to be clear: when I said we need trans voices, that doesn't mean we need them to do the actual work. It's others - specifically those of us with privilege - (not trans, cis, white, etc.) - WE need to do the work. Unfortunately, instead of just being able to say, "Hey, let's treat everyone like human beings and not bully people!" part of that work involves showing others what it means to be trans.

@jazon I ended up having to vote in person (dropped my mail in a puddle and ruined my ballot) and ended up not voting on one of our tax props because even though I knew HOW I wanted to vote I couldn't understand what a yes or no actually meant because of how terribly it was written. On Purpose, of course. It's maddening.

@williwaw i was never so happy as this cycle to be able to sit at home and read the Blue Book, news articles, analysis, and discuss with my wife all the different items

fuck the bigots. fuck any dem who dared mention that trans kids shouldn't be allowed to play sports on the proper team. fuck any dem who mentioned restricting gender-affirming care.

but especially, fuck elon musk and the fascist gop

MO shaped hole in the middle

@scruss I *believe* this particular graph is based on Senate races and neither of MO's seats were up on this cycle. It was a pretty good day here too, though, with Paul Wellman (D) flipping MO-02 and the two big statewide amendments (3 & 6) failing and passing, respectively.

@ufez @scruss yeah this particular map is based on Senate returns. Not every state had a Senate election this year.

That's a really interesting visualisation

@scruss @ufez @ian_crowther There's a more complete one here using all data, which shows the interesting shift in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona too https://www.reddit.com/r...

^using all *currently available* data

@williwaw nice

@ufez yeah, ms scruss (ex Liberty, MO, where she voted last week) was pretty happy to see Emanuel Cleaver reelected. But that question about abortion access was so convoluted!

@scruss Deliberately so! The wording allowed a bunch of PACs to run bullshit fearmongering ads in support of it. Fortunately the No campaign was *very* well organized and well-run, keeping it to simple, basic facts and the message got through.

It's kind of wild though; given the option, Missourians will fairly consistently vote for policies that are moderately progressive (by current US standards), which is why reinforcing the State Constitutional Amendment mechanism via Prop 6 was so vital. But when it comes down to [R] vs [D], they just don't seem to be able to get over the hump.

The Governor's race in '28 could get pretty interesting. Mike Kehoe and his wife were the public faces for the Yes on 3 campaign, making this another in a rapidly growing list of recent public Losses. He said as recently as last week that he intends to run again, but I imagine his seat is getting awfully warm.

More than half the local races near me are uncontested each election. I always go through the thought exercise of running just to provide some choice.... but this meme is my actual nightmare.

I was just thinking of rtha the other day.