how difficult it could be to evacuate people wearing wrist and ankle shackles
No need to worry about such niceties once it's openly admitted that these are just Death Flights in disguise. Murder the prisoners in mid-flight, or hand them over for murder after landing, the results are the same.
Republicans/MAGA have long loved the idea of Death Flights. MAGA Warms to a Murderous Chilean Dictator
electronic lock
Why TF would anyone have a car with such a device? Key ... key in hand ... insert key into lock assembly ... turn key .... door unlocks and can now be opened. It's simple, effective, proven tech that doesn't need computers or come with any "burned up in the car because door locked" risk. Sure it doesn't make any loud noises that draw attention to you when you lock/unlock, but that's a positive thing.
Got a '97 and yeah, nothing beats it if you're someone who loves to drive for driving's sake. Analog instrumentation, no screens, no "click here" buttons, no auto removed making decisions for me, no cameras or microphones or recording devices. It does have a rudimentary "cruise control" - probably a bad omen for things to come - but it only tries to maintain your speed, it doesn't try to match the speed of the car in front of you or otherwise encourage distracted driving.
The other vehicle I have is a 2005 Wrangler, nearly as analog as the Miata. I can't imagine getting rid of either in favor of an oversized, rolling surveillance computer.
the systematized psychological, physical, and sexual assault of prisoners has been absolutely normalized, often seemingly for no other reason than prison guard recreation.
Another link posted in this very forum today: Away From Cameras, These New York Prison Infirmaries Become ‘Torture Chambers’
This is the kind of guy NYS is hiring as a "guard". From the look on its face, I have to believe it's thinking "I hope I get my hands on this freak in private - I'll rip his guts out". Just the psychopathic qualities you want in a prison guard, ICE thug, or FSB interrogator.
As the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration presses on, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is reminding its bishops and other lay leaders that they are not to ask members about their immigration status in temple interviews.
That position was reaffirmed in a letter this week from the faith’s governing First Presidency to all general officers and local male authorities who conduct “worthiness interviews” with members desiring to participate in temple rituals.
“With enhanced enforcement of immigration laws in various jurisdictions, we have received inquiries from priesthood leaders about temple recommend interview questions,” states the April 24 letter signed by church President Russell M. Nelson and his two counselors. “We remind those conducting temple recommend interviews that under established policy, local leaders are to ask only the temple recommend questions as currently constituted.”
The prescribed questions cover a range of beliefs and behaviors — including members’ faith in Jesus Christ, their attendance at church meetings, their payment of tithes, and their adherence to the faith’s Word of Wisdom health code.
There is no question about immigration status.
It's not a poll. It's a book.
Reminds me of this book about interviews with "ordinary" non-political, non-military Nazi party members in Germany. Just regular citizens with jobs and families. "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45" (1955).
"The author determined that his interviewees had fond memories of the Nazi period and did not see Adolf Hitler as evil, and they perceived themselves as having a high degree of personal freedom during Nazi rule, with the exception of the teacher. Additionally, barring said teacher, the subjects still disliked Jewish people... At the time of the interviews the interviewees were still not in favor of the democratic Bonn government."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free
Excerpt from the book: https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
This woman is interpreting the Xian god's intent? Heresy!
Because the "Heritage" foundation paid for it, and they're a bunch of Xian Fundies. Project 2025 (which Trump knows absolutely nothing about, he says so himself) is their baby.
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As children's mental health needs escalate, teens in the area would lose access to lifesaving treatment. And other nearby facilities would struggle to fill the gap, Sacred Heart executives wrote in an application for a state Department of Commerce grant in February 2024, obtained by InvestigateWest in a records request.
"If this unit downsized or closed, this would cause even less access in an under-resourced area resulting in patients and families having to travel several hours for inpatient care,” hospital leaders wrote.
Sacred Heart asked the state for $1.8 million to pay for facility upgrades to make the unit safer and “ensure that every child has access to high-quality, affordable and culturally competent mental health care.”
The pitch worked. The state awarded Sacred Heart the full amount it requested.
But Sacred Heart turned the grant down in April. In September, it closed the Psychiatric Center for Children and Adolescents anyway.
In the last decade, Sacred Heart repeatedly reduced services and long-term resources in the unit, according to internal emails, public records and interviews. Yet as Sacred Heart cuts youth services in Spokane, the Providence system is pouring more than $1 billion into a hospital expansion in Seattle that sees fewer Medicaid patients. And its executives are making millions.
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Yeah it is. I think the company must be trying to filter all user-supplied content in such a way as to make it maximally resellable to other AI companies. Even as a read-only platform, I sometimes wonder how many good posts I'm missing because they've secretly been banned/filtered.
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They pay some (all?) of their C-level execs (and maybe others) tens of millions of $/yr in salaries and bonuses. What, you want that money spent on staff and patient resources? You must be a Communist! Some claimed numbers from 2019:
Providence is making enough money to give CEO Rod Hochman a 157% raise between 2015 and 2017, bumping his total compensation to more than $10 million. Top executives at Corporate Headquarters aren’t the only ones getting huge raises. Current Chief Executive at Sacred Heart Peg Curry earned more than $1.2 million in 2018 including a one-year bonus of $131,812. As Chief Nursing Officer, Susan Stacey’s total compensation increased by 35% between 2015 and 2018 including bonuses totaling $97,638. Previous Chief Executive Officer Alex Jackson’s total compensation increased by 47% between 2015 and 2017 including bonuses totaling $668, 468. https://www.wsna.org/union/update/spokesman-story-misleading-incomplete
Naturally they fight against their workers' unions too
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I'm blocked by Reddit "filters" from posting on the Spokane subreddit, but if any of you are on there I encourage you to repost this. I had not heard of this story before seeing the article today.
It's a French dip. Comes with some extra hardware. Bon appétit!
I've got neighbs with their adult, autistic offspring living with them. The "kids" are 100% supported by SSDI+parents. When RFK comes up with an excuse for cutting their SSDI, they're all f-cked. They're renters, and have lucked into a much-lower-than-market rent (the owner is some weirdo who doesn't pay much attention to the house or to the rental business and has not raised rents for a long time), but I don't know that they can afford it all w/o the SSDI support for the "kids". Also, the mother works for the state and is in the kind of job that the DOGE/Project-2025 scumbags would just LOVE to cut. If any of this comes to pass I can easily imagine them being at risk for ending up on the streets.
But on the bright side, thanks to Orange Diaper and president Felon, the landlord could then sell the house at some substantial multiple of what he paid for it back in the day.
Yeah I heard about the Chinese saying "take your damn plane back" to Boeing. If only there was Some Other manufacturer of well-made, sophisticated passenger aircraft somewhere in the world. Maybe in Europe or Brazil? A manufacturer that foreign airlines could buy from without having to pay US tariffs? If those foreign airlines find that manufacturer ..welp, lots of layoffs in Seattle and Everett and S. Carolina. With that, and all the professional-class government and tech layoffs, and the resulting personal bankruptcies, and mortgage delinquencies and rental eviction/vacancies, Zillow might just have a point here.
Re: tech, I hear you, tech culture sucks and has sucked for at least the past 20 yrs. I've only been in small companies/startups and consulting though, never megacorps. It's mindblowing to me that even after all the tech layoffs in SV and elsewhere, and all the RTO chain-yanking, techies still refuse to recognize themselves as the blue-collar salarymen that they are. Entirely disposable, and if you step out of line there's someone or something (AI) to take your place.
It sounds like you might have a viable riches-to-rags story to write! Something like this: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62875397/homelessness-in-america/ (everyone should read - it's a great essay) . Podcast interview with the guy: https://youtu.be/Oq8ulw5yEuw?t=95 . But good luck w/the project if you'd rather write software. MN sounds like a good Plan B (to the PNW). Had a GF from there once, and thanks to her influence I still issue the occasional "uff-da".
Spokane (or, as I call it, Spokanistan). I once lived in Seattle and liked to visit B-ham with its hippies and WWU and proximity to civilization (B.C.). But it was always WAY too expensive, even back in the 90s. I considered Tacoma and that probably would have been the smart move - Old Town is pretty cool and I don't think I've noticed the Aroma of Tacoma since the 90s. I lived in Tumwater for a year and Oly still has a certain charm - pretty leftie and so very close to the Olympics and all that wilderness and of course the ocean.
All those S. Sound cities have gotten crazy expensive but not as bad as Seattle and north as far as I can tell. I can kind of understand it - people getting pushed out of Seattle by gentrification but who can still find a job and afford an apartment or maybe even a house a bit further south.
I hadn't heard that north of Seattle had gone to hell and I've got to wonder how the dumbass tariff stuff is going to hurt Boeing manufacturing in Everett and hurt their local suppliers (if any) too. I doubt it will be enough to cause an outright crash there - the demand always seemed to be, uh, "organic" rather than speculation, but it's been a long time and I'm out of touch with that region.
Spokane is a cultural void for the most part, but politically it's surprisingly purple and getting more so. The job scene, except perhaps for medical, simply blows. What's inflated RE prices here seems to be people coming in from out of state who don't need a job or who work remotely, and who have some kind of fantasies about "getting away from it all". And of course the speculators and second-home buyers and developers. The skies here are full of corpo jets coming and going from Sandpoint (resorts) and CdA (resorts) and western MT (resorts) from Seattle and CA and the Southwest .. wouldn't break my heart to hear that their occupants' RE portfolios have tanked one day.
Sorry to hear about your assault. I'd be super freaked out to have to depend on Social Security
<anything>
with this regime in power.I'm constantly pestered by flippers mailing me their postcards offering me "all cash, as-is" deals to buy my house for 20% under assessed value. Medium-sized PNW city that's seen a ton of appreciation due to 1) being relatively cheap to begin with, 2) having an airport w/OK connections to major coastal and SW cities, and 3) being perceived by outsiders as not having "big city problems" (very wrong). I wish these flippers would die, but if that won't happen I wonder if bubble-popping will significantly hurt their ability to prey on the desperate?
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reports of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people will be removed, along with all references to DEI.
Among other topics ordered to be struck from the reports:
The rise in domestic chip orders is a direct result of former President Donald Trump’s ...
If only.
tough export tariffs
I think they mean import tariffs. The tariffs that domestic buyers pay when importing goods from overseas.
I used to see tons of Bs still on the road in Florida back in the 80s. I liked the looks but preferred the TR-6. Spitfires were nice looking too. Dream car would have been an E-type but that was going to have to wait until I became rich & famous. Still haven't got one! :-(