Deep freeze

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 9:43am

open thread_153.jpg
Got down to 11° last night here at the farm. Really clear skies though, with billions of stars and of course, the planets!
Just the other day they were lined up like aircraft coming in for a landing.
This place is like our very own Dark Skies refuge with the Seattle/Tacoma metro 70 miles to the north and the Vancouver/Portland metro about 60 miles to the south.
To the west is small town Toledo, Washington with a population of 805 and beyond that nothing for 80 miles but forests until you get to the Pacific Ocean. Not much in the way of light pollution.
It does get dark around here.
It's also a great place to bug out. Hope we don't have to.
Cannot yet make out what Trump has in store for us with all his EO-ing but I'm keeping extra bottles of propane and food stashed up here anyway.
The way he's deporting people there should be lots of job openings in construction and lawn maintenance.
I actually have a couple of close friends who do yard work and landscaping and they are both living pretty large.
So rumor has it Trump is going to declare victory in Ukraine and scoot on outta there and colonize Greenland and Canada to keep Russia at bay (pardon the pun) up there in the Arctic Ocean.
Anybody know how to build icebreakers? The floating kind, not the first date kind.
Thread is open.

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Submitted by QMS on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 11:07am
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Light pollution is minimal here but
clear skies only occur when in a
high pressure air mass from Canada.
Finally climbed out of the deep freeze
which lasted about 3 weeks. Give the
wood stove a break. Watching the western
order diminish is not a surprise.

Thanks for the OT!

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question everything

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:20pm
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@QMS
a lot of clear nights, but when we do the temps plummet. We've got 3 to 4 more days of clear, then the clouds return, warming things up a bit.
Thanks for sharing.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 11:09am
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.

Pfizer broke the law…again

Big Pharma Pfizer has agreed to a hefty $59.7 million settlement to resolve allegations of a kickback scandal that has defrauded Medicare and other federal healthcare programs.

How long has it been since Medicare fraud was a criminal offense?

Maybe just maybe if CEOs who commit criminal acts were criminally charged and put in prison the fraudulent acts would stop. Remember Pfizer paid $2.3 billion during Obama and here it is committing more fraud. Maybe if that fine was $59.7 billion and it affected the shareholders they would stop committing crimes.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by MrWebster on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:24pm

@snoopydawg During Obama's time some banks were charged with fraud, etc. They got the most favorable terms and were not punished according to legal requirements like being delisted on stock exchange. And their fines were all tax deductible. The only thing the plebs get out of sanction banks was the pleasure of irony.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:44pm
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@MrWebster

to admit wrongdoing. I believe you are right that the fines are tax deductible.
Thanks Obama.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:26pm
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@snoopydawg
that 450 banking officials served time as a result of the S & L scandals in the early 80s.
Anybody else remember that?
Of course, that didn't stop the corruption. They just bought future imunity.
Thanks for the post.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:56pm
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@earthling1

Lots of people were jailed for the S and L scam.
Obama not only let bankers off, but he bailed them out so they could buy up the homes they foreclosed on.

Clinton and Obama were the more effective evil. Bush got us into 2 wars, Obama started 7 more and continued the Bush wars.

You remember the “Hope and Change” show, don’t you? Remember when Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, ended the war, drained the swamp of all those torture-happy war-criminal guys (i.e., Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al.), and then got to work relentlessly bombing seven different countries in the Middle East and illegally surveilling everyone?

CJ Hopkins has a great essay on MAGA.

He makes fun of T supporters who are falling for the MAGA hype like O supporters fell for Hope and Change.

He nails it.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 1:15pm
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@earthling1
"Between 1988 and 1992, the Department of Justice sent 1,706 bankers to prison and found guilty verdicts in 2,603 cases."
Somewhere after this act of justice, blanket immunity for all executives became the law.
I still maintain time served for theft should be tied to amount stolen.
For a guy stealing a loaf of bread and baby food should spend overnight in jail.
For a guy (or gal) that steals 100k, 10 years. A million, 25 years.
A billion dollars.......capital punishment.
It's the only way to deal with greed.
IMHO

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:20pm
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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 12:44pm
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@snoopydawg
They would probably eat baby alligators, but that one looks to be a mouthful.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by orlbucfan on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 5:28pm
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@snoopydawg What location? That is a baby gator. Normally, those birds would give an adult a very wide berth. Smile

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Submitted by humphrey on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 1:42pm

of a one way ticket to The Hauge.

https://apnews.com/article/antony-blinken-book-deal-secretary-of-state-a...

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken has a book deal, billed by his publisher as a “rare glimpse” into the “challenging and often controversial” responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza and other crises that broke out during his four years at the helm of the State Department under President Joe Biden.

Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced the book Tuesday. The title and release date are still to be determined.

“In this candid work, he will offer the first inside story from within the administration on what really transpired in the run up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the difficult choices that shaped American diplomatic and military support in the months that followed in a war that would bring the world as close to nuclear conflict as it had come in more than half a century,” Crown’s statement reads in part.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 2:22pm
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@humphrey

Blinken will slip up and admit that he was making orders without Biden’s knowledge or consent. Ritter thinks if that’s what happened then Blinken has committed treason. Taking power that the constitution didn’t authorize.

Fingers crossed. Same with Sullivan. And Austin.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 1:46pm
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the editors of the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" have announced the new setting of the Doomsday Clock.

It has been 90 seconds to midnight for the past couple of years. Today, they reset it- to 89 seconds to midnight.

So all my extra worry for the last year has been for nothing, apparently. I had bet a friend that it would be 30 seconds... So, I suppose that it is time to party like it's 1999. (;-)

https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/
https://time.com/7210372/doomsday-clock-moved-closer-midnight/

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by humphrey on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 2:37pm

that that today's problem is 'Cow Farts".

And there is no mention of forever wars.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 3:03pm

Fuck poor people

Medicaid reimbursement portals were down Tuesday in every U.S. state after the Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans, a senator said.

But the White House later said it expected the systems to “be back online shortly” without any effect on payments.

“My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in a post on the social media site X.

“This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” he wrote.

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Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 3:55pm
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@gjohnsit
Just to test the blowback.
Red lines, all that shit.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 1:52pm

@earthling1 22 million to lose Medicaid

The Republican Party is eyeing sweeping cuts to Medicaid, a program that the poorest Americans rely on for health care, to finance President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and plans for mass deportation. Democrats say those plans could cost some 22 million people their health care, which they argue would betray Trump's promises on the campaign trail to lower costs for working Americans.

That finding comes amid reports that Trump’s unilateral decision to freeze federal funding resulted in whole states being frozen out of the Medicaid payment system, despite claims from the White House that the program would be unaffected. The acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Matthew Vaeth, had said the freeze was aimed at “ending ‘wokeness'"; the freeze was put on hold by a judge late Tuesday, with critics accusing the administration of abrogating Congress' constitutional power to dictate federal spending.

“This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a post.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 11:39pm
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@gjohnsit

Medicaid was not included in this, but it makes for a good story to say it was.

Good grief. Are we going to be subject to every stupid thing Trump does that has no chance of becoming law?

Weird again how you didn’t report on all the things Biden did that hurt the poor and working class during his presidency. Biden has done much more harm to us than Trump can dream of. Biden did it for over 50 years.

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Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by soryang on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 4:44pm
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Year of the Snake 蛇年新年歌

It's 설날 in Korean.

We had some rice cake soup for lunch. Didn't do anything special.

Chinese New Year 2025: What does the Year of the Snake mean?

In 2025, the Chinese zodiac will enter the Year of the Wood Snake, which is the 32nd cycle of the 60-year lunar calendar. The snake is the sixth animal in the zodiac, and it has a complex and mysterious nature. The snake years are: 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 and 2025.

Each snake year has a different element. The wood snake is particularly charming, intelligent and creative sign, but also secretive, cunning and sometimes ruthless.

In Chinese culture, the zodiacs work in a 12-year cycle that links each year to an animal sign. The 12 animal signs are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The order of the animal signs is fixed.

Hoping this year will be more promising for all. 和平

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語必忠信 行必正直

Submitted by QMS on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 5:01pm
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@soryang
.
yeah man, put together an OT to celebrate
coming attractions por la mañana.

造化 (in Mandarin)
zào huà
good luck

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question everything

Submitted by soryang on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 5:21pm
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@QMS @QMS

I guess my post is premature. I thought it's already new year in Asia.

I was trying to find a song in Chinese, with lyrics in English subs on the youtubes or tiktok or something, without success.

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語必忠信 行必正直

Submitted by on the cusp on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 5:53pm

Crazy day! 4 walk ins, 3 really good cases, and two scheduled appointments. I had very little time to check out anything on the inter tubes.
Here at home, we are far from city lights, always have a clear view of the sky when there are no clouds. We will venture to Big Bend National Park this summer. On the way, we will take a tour of McDonald Observatory, take a look at the sky with super duper telescopes. While in the park, we will hope we do not see diamondback rattlers or Pecos copperheads. Or any of the other rattlers. Or black bears, mountain lions, or Javelina hogs.
DeepSeek is a wild happening! People like free or cheap high quality stuff, it seems.Who knew?
Thanks for the OT. Stay warm, friend!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by earthling1 on Tue, 01/28/2025 - 8:57pm
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@on the cusp
Want to go to Big Bend someday. Quite a drive from here, but need to go visit my bro in Arizona some day. Could push on to West Texas then.
Brother has big problem with wild hogs. Even heavy iron fencing can't keep them out of his half acre yard. They bore under it.
He has Mohave green rattlers too, which range down to Big Bend.
We have bear and cougar up here but no venomous snakes.
Hope your year goes well.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 01/29/2025 - 12:01am

@earthling1 I do not advertise. No market ploy website. It is word of mouth, a chance Google search. Funny that one young guy needs to do something about his mom's property. She died suddenly. He and his dad came to my office because his Dad hired me years ago to get his divorce from deceased mom. The Dad brought be an 18 pack of beer.
They now live in New Braunfels. They acquainted me with White Water Amphitheater and said if I bought tickets to a concert, they would provide transport!
I will keep a close eye on that venue for concerts henceforth!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981