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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by bolverk

  1. Very much appreciate the thought, bro, but y'all keep those guys closer to home and on standby.
  2. You'll be pleased (but unsurprised) to know that Incredulity made a complete ass of himself...again...by arguing with a firefighter about firefighting.
  3. Here’s the latest on the fires. Firefighters racing against the arrival of more desert winds made progress on Sunday against the two biggest fires raging in Los Angeles, which have killed at least 16 people and destroyed entire neighborhoods from the inland hills to the Pacific Coast. At least 16 other people have been reported missing in the area of the two largest fires, Sheriff Robert Luna of Los Angeles County said at a news conference, adding that he expected that number would β€œabsolutely” rise. Crews managed to contain more of the Eaton fire as of Sunday morning, and they had largely stopped the Palisades fire’s momentum toward a road of homes in a section of the Brentwood neighborhood. Forecasters expected a brief reprieve from the wind on Sunday afternoon, but the kind of gusty desert winds that have propelled the fires were expected to return on Monday through Wednesday, keeping the fire risk in the area high. Here’s what else to know: Slow progress: Crews have contained 11 percent of the 23,700-acre Palisades fire and 27 percent of the 14,000-acre Eaton fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, according to Cal Fire. More than 100,000 residents are still under evacuation orders, and tens of thousands more have been warned they may have to evacuate. High winds: The National Weather Service reported wind gusts between 30 and 40 miles per hour on Sunday morning in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, combined with low humidity. Here’s the forecast. Scale of destruction: The combined area burned by the past week’s fires is larger than each of the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston or Miami. Together, the Eaton and Palisades fires have damaged more than 12,000 β€œstructures,” which can refer to houses, but also cars and outbuildings. The victims: The identities of more people who died in the blazes have been released. Read more about them. Arrests: Robert Luna, the Los Angeles sheriff, said that 25 people were arrested in the area of the Eaton fire, and four near the Palisades. One man was dressed like a firefighter and had been burglarizing a home, he said.
  4. Absolutely. It's become a wholly political thread now. Hell, even one of the mods changed the thread's title to call Elon a traitor. Sure, that's "my side" bitching about the fucker, but it's a great example of inconsistent and conflicting moderation rules. To bring it back to the "CR LA fire," conservative cranks have been trying to make hay of the mess since the second day of this ongoing disaster: Bevo, Raw Dog, 5280, Incredulity, and Chicken Sandwich have all joined in with political takes based on their partisan leanings, talking points in conservative media, opposition to certain government regulations, victim blaming, and outright conspiracy shit. At least they haven't started up on the anti-LGBTQ and DEI shit in that thread yet, although US183 is doing a good job carrying that water in the Satirical Tweets/Political Cartoons threads.
  5. At least one of the mods has an ill-conceived and ill-defined opinion on what constitutes "politics." In the last week, we've also had at least two mods provide opposing definitions of what they think "politics" are. As a result, the moderation in DT can be inconsistent, muddled, and opaque. It's not a feature (I don't think) but a bug and can make for a frustrating user experience that can create resentment. A concrete rule (even if I don't agree with it) that is consistently enforced would be helpful. Instead, the mods simply go with their gut in a "I know it when I see it" kind of way, but they often miss a lot of the coded language or mentions (sometimes sly, other times blatant) of emerging political debates/topics that they might not be unaware of.
  6. If everyone put him on ignore, stopped engaging, or ceased quoting the dishonest prick, it'd be even better.
  7. Understood, but he ain't the only one who's been trying to politicize this disaster for the past 3-4 days. I've said my piece about it and will move on.
  8. This is a really good piece about the emotional toll that people go through when they're among the few whose homes survive a wildfire. I highly recommend it for our LA brothers and sisters. Free gifted link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/realestate/california-wildfires-homes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok4.D89A.b1eRB2OyQ-5L&smid=url-share
  9. It's just interesting that some comments are getting deleted while other off-topic tangents are not. I guess it's okay to argue about the policies (i.e., government rules, ergo "politics") of the California Coastal Commission, beachfront protection, seal walls, jetties, and sand erosion in a wildfire thread, but not okay to call out a dumbass bitching about the number of firefighters per square mile.
  10. It's not simply about the words themselves. For the Deaf, seeing the anthem signed is a form of poetry. They're not there simply interpreting the anthem word-for-word. If you know sign language, you see the use of symbolic signs, rather than a bunch of fingerspelling and precise interpretation. ASL is a visual language that the Deaf and signers artfully play with. Imagine the anthem without music and just a dry recitation of the lyrics.
  11. It's buried in somewhere the Cotton Bowl thread. Not worth making a fuss about at this point. I probably should've said something when I came across it, but I wasn't in the mood or have the energy to get into it yesterday when I came across the asshole's post.
  12. Why the fuck are people arguing about Galveston's seawall and jetties in a thread about active fires across the country?
  13. There's an asshole on the football board who was bitching about how it pained him to be "tolerant" of the Rangerette who signed the national anthem at the game Friday night. Took all I had not to tear him a new one yesterday when I saw his post (my daughter is Deaf).
  14. I don't ever remember hearing a prayer at college games, but it was commonplace on Friday nights at Texas high school football games back in the 1980s.
  15. Shoulda had a cup of coffee first Wordle 1,303 5/6 β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨β¬› β¬›πŸŸ¨β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨ πŸŸ©β¬›β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ© πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #581 🟦πŸŸͺ🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1084 7️⃣4️⃣ 6️⃣5️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  16. Wordle 1,302 5/6 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ β¬›β¬›β¬›πŸŸ¨πŸŸ¨ β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©β¬›πŸŸ© β¬›πŸŸ©πŸŸ©πŸŸ¨πŸŸ© 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #580 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 πŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺπŸŸͺ 🟦🟦🟦🟦 πŸ™‚ Daily Quordle 1083 6️⃣8️⃣ 5️⃣4️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
  17. It really is. I can only express my gratitude for your personal well-being and that you didn't lose your family’s home while, at the same time, so many others didn't have the luck of the draw.
  18. This station is on the scene and is reporting that the Palisades fire has switched direction toward the east and is heading toward Encino.
  19. NATO takes control from US of air defenses in Poland https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/politics/nato-air-defenses-poland-ukraine/index.html NATO assumed command and control from the US on Thursday, said Col. Martin O’Donnell, and will help to safeguard logistics nodes in Poland that are needed to continue delivering aid crucial to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. The move is part of a broader effort that has been in the works for months to shift the burden of helping Ukraine from the US to European countries, amid questions over whether US support would continue...
  20. It feels like there's a full-court press ramping up to destabilize EU/NATO unity as much as possible from Don Elon and Putin-backed far-right/nationalist/populist groups across Europe right now. I'm afraid we'll see something "essential" break causing a crisis in the alliance(s) over the next several months. We're fortunate a 2/3 majority in Congress is now required to pull out of NATO, but I can certainly see it getting crippled by stopping to cooperate, getting it so mired in squabbles (e.g., gotta spend 5% on defense now) that it becomes useless, and basically undermining it to make it not credible as a defensive pact. Basically, making it clear that mutual defense no longer applies on days ending in "-day" or some other stupid shit. Politically, Central Europe is becoming a fucking mess.
  21. Are there any the list that you disagree with, either in terms of likelihood or impact? Do you think they're missing anything? (link for those who'd like to look over it over) From the high-risk/high-impact items, this one kind of jumped out (not as a surprise) but one to ponder more about: Deployment of U.S. security forces to the southern border triggers a humanitarian crisis among migrants in the border region and heightens tensions with Mexico I don't know if Mexico, specifically, is necessarily in your specialty wheelhouse, but I'd like to hear your (and others') thoughts on this one above. It kind of jumped out at me that they'd put this on a "conflict" list. I'd like to hear more about what you think they're suggesting, if more than just heated words going back and forth between two newly elected presidents trying to (re)assert themselves.
  22. According to this AP article, the Pallisades fire started behind one of the houses on this street (Google map link).
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