WTF-Beta

I'm sad to say I have to agree.

Nice!!

Florida has a very detailed statue about knives and which ones are legal to carry.

I can't remember where I read this but it stuck (sic) with me.

Well, this is a mess six ways to Sunday. Yuck.

I've said pretty much said what I wanted to say about it. It's an illegal war. It constitutes multiple crimes against humanity. It was ill advised. It's backfiring militarily. It isn't and never was in the interests of the US. It's wreaking havoc on the global economy. It's especially objectionable to me that US service members are being required to fight and die in it. That's all.

It's all Greek to me.

Thanks so much, Ax!

I know wtg is admin.

Thanks so much, wtg!

This place means a lot to a lot of people.

Great minds think alike.

I stopped eating on Thursday, I haven't eaten today, and I had two apples last night. Otherwise, I've had water and sea salt.

I did research this before I started my fast. I think I got an adequate run down of the physiology. I won't lie and say I remember all of it.

I'll also say that it's not an exact science.

I first chose a 5 day fast where Dr. Berg (random YouTube MD) explained everything with helpful animations and included introducing certain foods on Day 5.

Well, that's not a 5 day fast. It's a 4 day fast.

I was tentatively deciding between 3, 5, or 7.

I can tell now 5 isn't what I think I need or want and am moving to at least 7.

I can see that my body is burning its own fat for fuel now (the so called spare tire is more flat and more wrinkled; I apologize in advance if this is TMI).

I'm certain my body has not finished detoxification.

I'm certain I haven't reached a "reset" stage.

As far as mentally, I don't know if I've experienced a state of euphoria yet. I have multiple stressors at any given time and I'm unclear on this point.

Has it had spiritual benefits? I'm certain it hasn't as of today.

I did break down last night and ate the apples for sucrose.

So far, so good.

I'm definitely continuing on with it.

I'm not stopping until I feel a sense of clarity about what I have experienced/ will have experienced.

YMMV.

@Rontuner said:

We live pretty close to the area in downtown Chicago where many of the rallys take place. We didn't go this year. Traffic was slow getting out of the neighborhood to attend a family birthday gathering. Thinking about the event I was reminded about something I read by John Pavlovitz recently on how they are most important for those protesting, not so much about making any change to the minds on the other side.

"We’ve already had two massively successful No Kings Day events, and as cathartic and encouraging as they were, things here are far worse than they were then.

The Constitutional crises are piling up.
We’re immersed in unnecessary and unwinnable wars halfway across the world.
This Administration’s disregard for legality and morality is escalating.
The complete Epstein files are still concealed, the monsters within them still evading their reckoning.
ICE is still ravaging our communities with impunity and with taxpayer funding.
And our traitorous, cognitively-decimated, sociopathic Predator-In-Chief has become more unstable, more violent, and more unhinged than before.
We’re a hair’s breadth from full-on fascism.

The last No Kings Day protests didn’t stave off the chaos that is now here, and it won’t prevent what this regime has planned, unless we all do more than show up on Saturday.

Rallies and protests are powerful, important things.

They are a necessary visual reminder that we’re not alone.
They help provide a sense of agency in dark days, to help our minds right-size the threats that seem so towering and so beyond our reach.
They give us a chance to stand with a chosen community and be a tangible response to the things that burden us.
They connect us with people we live, work, and study alongside and give us the chance to forge partnerships and build coalitions."

snip

"We need to remember that transformative activism is found in sustained movements, not in soothing moments, and we need to find our place in the messy and local battles throughout this nation until we actually strike fear into the oppressors and oligarchs, and upend the new order they are constructing where we are truly powerless."

https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/no-kings-day-is-coming-but-does-it

I could be wrong but it seems to me that the most effective action would be a general strike. That's a hard sell when a) Americans gave that up after WWII and b) people need to pay their bills and the economy is hanging on by a thread.

@Bernard said:

@Rontuner said:

I disagree with John Pavlovitz on this one,

Thinking about the event I was reminded about something I read by John Pavlovitz recently on how they are most important for those protesting, not so much about making any change to the minds on the other side.

Trump is more unpopular than ever before (36% approval from Reuters, and 68% disapprove of the illegal war in Iran being waged by two war criminals), special elections continue to wipe the floor with republicans by large margins (mostly). Things are changing. As Daniel posted, even The Villages had what looks like a huge turnout yesterday. The mere fact that the turnout for No Kings has grown is also a good indication that things are changing.

The fact that Trump hunkers down and sinks ever lower and lower (and there is no low too low for him when it comes to the Constitution) is quite possibly one indication of how cornered he sees himself regarding his games with Netanyahu. He knows he's in a pickle. Look at how many times times his story has changed. It's so utterly transparent. The whole thing was built on a pack of lies and everyone knows it. Look at the infighting now taking place in maga world. Some of the pictures coming out of CPAC this week are pathetic.

I think I know what John Pavlovitz is getting at: We aren't seeing mass demonstrations affecting politics very much. I got back from the march yesterday to discover that 3 House Democrats voted for the DHS funding bill put up by little Mikey, and that 8 were absent! That news was a bit deflating. Why bother if our elected reps are just going to ignore us? Well, they can't ignore us forever. These marches, in my mind, are as much about sending a message to fence-sitting (or worse: Fetterman) Democrats as much as it is a show of solidarity against the christian nationalist white supremacist program of 2025. Also, there are a number of vulnerable gop congress critters up for re-election this fall. I believe this No Kings momentum can help get people out to vote.

I think Fetterman has lost the plot. He's proven his capacity for backstabbing. I think he's cognitively incapacitated. The worst part is that the Israel lobby owns him. I'm not sure why he need to wear sweatshirts to work but again I think he's cognitively incapacitated. He's a disappointment not that disappointments are rare among politicians.

@ShiroKuro said:

I didn’t go, but I wanted to. Besides the fact that my foot makes that kind of activity pretty much impossible these days, a long time ago Mr. SK asked me not to attend protests, because he worries that if something happened to me, he wouldn’t be able to help. Which makes sense.

My mother (almost 82 now) also wanted to go but didn’t (concerns about her age etc.)

So we support in other ways…

I agree with your philosophy. You can't injured yourself, your husband was clearly right about what he said, and likewise he depends on you.

Actually, I grew up in a culture, being in a military family, living outside a military base, born in the late '60's, where "people" didn't attend protests. It just wasn't done.

And, to be honest, military families, including the wives and children, were watched in a subtle but definite way by the service member's superiors. My grandmother described it as a constant part of her life.

So, it's not something I've given a lot of thought.

@Bernard said:

@Daniel The turnout at The Villages looks large...
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWb3BPQkY8L/

It surprised people because it definitely leans Republican.

Oh, but we can't. The UK and US have made laws making criticizing the state of Israel a criminal offense. This is a direct, de facto violation of the US Constitution. It is no more right for the UK government to have done this in a free society. Now I ask-- were these aberrations resultant of the influence of the state of Israel? Or were they influenced by do-gooders who happened to be so taken by the welfare of Jews in free societies that taking away free speech in those societies became an Orwellian agenda? In addition, the United States Constitution includes the separation of church and state. Citizens in our countries are legally prohibited from expressing negative political opinions about a foreign state? What kind of madness is this?

I swam with spinner dolphins in the open ocean off the coast of Hawaii Island. Honestly, it was a glorious experience. And, they didn't try to molest me. Lol. They swam huge circles around us underwater and then would jump far into the air. Maybe because they were wild but they only wanted to interact with us. They didn't want to be touched.

It's ok. The world needs nothing if not another Florida Man story. Lol.

Wonderful! Wow.

I couldn't have gone anywhere, haven't been to one, and the only one I heard about was at The Villages of all places.

I live in an evangelical Christian neighborhood in Clearwater. It's not an experience I plan to have again.

I'll bet there was one at USF in Tampa.

The main industry in Hawaii if you don't count land trusts (and you shouldn't because these are the trusts that used to own agricultural production all of which is gone) and real estate (and you shouldn't because the market has become heavily weighted in the favor of billionaires) is tourism.

For one thing, the tourism industry is seasonal in the best of times.

It nosedives in times of trouble (e.g. 9/11, The Great Recession).

I don't know how it's doing now but my gut instinct tells me it's not a good situation.

Dol, I'm sure you're familiar with the iconic American late night comedy show Saturday Night Live.

I distinctly remember watching it one night as a child.

The skit was that it was Christmas Eve and the American military let it's guard down because it was such a peaceful time. It was then that a fictional Canada chose to invade the US.

It was such a good performance.

I think it's sad how times have changed. It makes it even worse to me that I can't think of any good reason why it had to happen.

I love her.

I know he takes money to be told what to say and "changes his mind" when evidence becomes overwhelming because he has to have "debate" or he doesn't have a show.

But I enjoy his campaign against Meghan Markle (it's light hearted compared to the work of the heavy hitters like Tim Bower and Lady Colin Campbell).

Markle intentionally made his acquaintance and ghosted him. This naturally got under his skin. He was one of the first British journalists to criticize the fairytale even if the fairytale lasted a minute anyway.

But this is too funny!

Link to video

Well, that sucks.

BTW, it was a court in the constitutional court (there are about 800 judges) who broke the law (they can judge based on law, they have no basis in law for upholding or overturning an appeal verdict based on the initial trial's findings of fact- as you can see, it's a three tier process) when they overturned the appeal verdict upholding the initial trial's verdict finding of Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend guilty of rape and murder.

The boyfriend's family were mafia from Bari, Montreal, and occasionally the Dominican Republic. The court at the constitutional court in this case was controlled by the mafias from the South aligned with the late Prime Minister Berlusconi. In fact, Berlusconi arranged for his office space to be occupied by the defendants' defense attorney.

The Knox family (the father) hired a now defunct PR company in Seattle (who also worked for Boeing). It might or might not sound hard to believe but the PR company handed talking points American media outlets. The American media outlets repeated them. This is how the myth of Amanda Knox as a victim of the Italian judicial system was born.

A hard look at the evidence and readings of the professionally translated initial trial's transcripts and judges' written verdict (and the same for the appeal) reveal it was an open and shut case.

Italy fascinates me (everything about it) but I'm too "Northern European" to have an ability to assimilate. This is academic because I have no way to become a citizen in the first place.

This doesn't happen, even in Florida, and if it did, he'd be a psych ward. Too funny.

Link to video