June 30, 2025

2 Firefighters Shot Killed in Idaho: Active Shooter Situation

Two killed and firefighters attacked by active shooter ‘sniper fire’ in Idaho
Authorities warned public to avoid area around Canfield Mountain Trailhead
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An armed individual or individuals is currently shooting at first responders at the scene of an ongoing brush fire near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, likely killing two first responders, according to officials.

The ambush took place as fire crews were responding to a brush fire on Canfield Mountain.

Two died as a result of the shooting, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said at a Sunday afternoon press briefing. The official said he believed but hadn’t been able to fully confirm the deceased are firefighters.

No police officers have been hit in the shooting so far, he said, though first responders continue to take active “sniper fire” from what appear to be multiple positions.


https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/idaho-shooting-firefighters-coeur-dalene-b2779262.html

April 21, 2025

Looks like I picked the wrong day to hit 30,000 posts.

My original title for this post was "30,000 posts and 20+ years of change. I love you, DU community.” Then I opened my news. Market is crashing, Pope Francis died. So my timing is brilliant as always.

My account says I’ve been here since the eve of Christmas Eve, 2004. I know I had an account prior to that but I moved homes, had a computer that died and forgot my username or password, maybe both. I don’t recall exactly, it was a long time ago. I’m pausing for a moment today to recognize all that time and space, the changes in myself, my personal world, and the world we all share. Y’all, it’s a LOT.

Like most of us, I’m having all the emotions. I get scared. I worry most of all for my granddaughter, and I wonder is this the brief window available where I should be getting our family established in a new country, for all our futures but especially for her? After all, I exist because my ancestors survived, many of them by fleeing. My indigenous ancestors fled the Spanish invasion of the Oxaca region. My Jewish ancestors fled the pogroms of 19th century Europe and my Irish ancestors the famines of the 1840’s. I worry I will dither too long and miss the window and my grandaughter will suffer for it.

Through all of the changes in my own life and our political landscape,, I have found so much in DU. Solace, education, company, family, hope. It’s all here. We have professionals with experience in every field from medical doctors to oceanography to long-haul trucking. We are a wildly diverse (if somewhat older skewed) community of persons bonded over the simple idea that human beings should be treated well and with respect, and that as a society we should do things that further that idea as we are able. You are all precious, unique and wonderful people. I love you DU community. Thanks for all you do. Here’s to the next 30,000.

April 6, 2025

POST YOUR FAVORITE SIGN! Here is my protest sign in Kalispell Montana!

Kalispell, Montana population 24k - Hundreds upon HUNDREDS showed up!

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/4/5/2314808/-Hands-Off-Kalispell-Montana-photo-diary

Montana is a blood red state and Kalispell is one of the reddest parts of the state. The Republicans here have traditionally an overwhelming lack of concern for public health, homelessness, and social problems in general. It was, therefore. surprising that hundreds of people showed up carrying signs for a Hands Off event on Saturday April 5. People gathered at the old Court House and then marched about a mile along Main Street through the downtown business district to Depot Park. The marchers filled the sidewalks on both sides of the street for several blocks.

See the link above for lots of photos. Kalispell is in a +33 Trump area and there was a MASSIVE turnout for a mountain town of 24K people in DEEP DEEP red Montana.

But first - yours truly.



Both sides of the sign before I assembled it.



Got a nod from Meidas Touch and this Threads link has a WAY better video that gives a better idea of the scope/number of people. I would say minimum of 500+ , likely much more. (Click the video from Lynns_busy_life) Maybe give her a like if you could

Local news report:
https://www.kpax.com/news/local-news/flathead-county/hundreds-gather-for-hands-off-protest-in-kalispell

I am absolutely LOVING all the signs from around the country! Post or tell about your favorite! What a rush it was to be with everyone! I’m still BUZZING, lol!

February 9, 2025

The world's second-largest gold storage suddenly has very long lines to withdraw bars

The world’s second-largest gold storage suddenly has very long lines to withdraw bars
By Olesya Dmitracova, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 8:10 AM EST, Fri February 7, 2025

London
CNN
—
President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have created such strong demand for UK-held gold, traders are facing potentially weeks-long queues for a chance to withdraw it.

All existing slots at the Bank of England to withdraw gold bars are booked up as market players race to ship the metal to the United States to take advantage of a surge in gold prices there, an official has said. Gold has become more valuable in the US than in other parts of the world as traders worry supply will plunge if Trump’s across-the-board tariffs, both announced and planned, make imports of the metal costlier.

SNIP

“All of those bodies who ship the gold, they’ve all got the … slots they need over the next few weeks. If you were coming in new to us, you might have to wait a bit longer because all the existing slots are booked up,” Ramsden said.


https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/business/gold-bank-of-england-trump-tariffs-intl/index.html

January 15, 2025

Trump will attempt to declare January 6 a partiotic national holiday.

This is the thought that occured to me, somewhat intrusively, a few days ago. After a bit of contemplation, I can’t shake it. I wouldn’t bet the entire house on it, but I would place a responsible wager on its proposal. I am fairly convinced it will be presented as an idea, and how far it goes beyond that is anyone’s guess. I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons why it “can’t” happen, but in case you hadn’t noticed there are no rules anymore. It fits so perfectly into his own persona, into his cult’s need for vengance and validation, into his need to become the Great and Terrible Wizard. He will see it as an opportunity to remake history in his own image, and in the process, clean up that oil smudge on the garage floor of his legacy. All he has to do is rewrite the books, clean up the official narritive. Simple.

I’m trying mightely not to let that creature darken my days but truthfully, I’m pretty depressed.

January 7, 2025

Faceboook will now allow women to be called "property" and "household objects" with new rules change.

Calling women ‘household objects’ now permitted on Facebook after Meta updated its guidelines

New York
CNN
—
Meta on Tuesday announced sweeping changes to how it moderates content that will roll out in the coming months, including doing away with professional fact checking. But the company also quietly updated its hateful conduct policy, adding new types of content users can post on the platform, effective immediately.

Users are now allowed to, for example, refer to “women as household objects or property” or “transgender or non-binary people as ‘it,’” according to a section of the policy prohibiting such speech that was crossed out. A new section of the policy notes Meta will allow “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality.”

Previously, such comments would have been subject to removal under the policy. The changes to Meta’s hateful conduct policy were first reported by Wired.

Meta had hinted in its announcement about its content moderation policy changes Tuesday morning that it would get rid of restrictions on certain topics, such as immigration and gender identity. But the updated policy shows just how quickly Meta is moving to enact CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for “free expression.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/07/tech/meta-hateful-conduct-policy-update-fact-check/index.html

December 25, 2024

🎼🎶 I'm getting Covid 😷 for Christmas! 🎶🎵

Had a 12 hour shift scheduled for today. Woke up with just the smallest tickle in my chest. We’ve been in outbreak so I decided to test.

This is my first time! My pulse is slightly elevated and I’m running a temp of 100.6. Oxygen is holding beautinfully. Slight headache I took Tylenol for. I’ve had some mild/moderate muscle aches. Not much cough at all.
All in all, so far so good.

Fellow test geeks, look how the viral load exploded in just a few hours! Wow!

Stay safe out there DU!

November 19, 2024

Trump's Little Johnson

From Meidas Touch on BlueSky . . . I LIKE IT.

November 6, 2024

I burst into tears again today when I realized how we've disappointed Jimmy Carter.

I'm out of lots of things. Words, thoughts, feelings, fucks. Apparently not tears.

In 2016 I was bereft because I felt this country let my mom down. I wanted so much for her to see a country with a good woman in the oval office. She's gone now, and so many have needlessly died because of Trump. Millions more will follow. I will derive a small measure of darkly pleasured disgust when the people who made this happen suffer. I will.

October 27, 2024

NYC sanitation worker billed as "lifelong friend" at MSG rally actually just met Trump 2 weeks ago

Oh yeah. Also, he called Kamala Harris the "antichrist" AND he was once arrested with 18 kilos of cocaine.

And he's running for the mayor of New York.

I shit you negative.

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Trump backer calls Harris the ‘antichrist’ as he waves crucifix onstage at New York City rally
David Rem, a New York City sanitation worker, also called the vice president “the devil”

Justin Rohrlich
1 hour ago

A friend of Donald Trump’s referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “the devil” and “the antichrist,” drawing an ecstatic roar from the MAGA-hatted crowd that filled Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Queens resident David Rem, a 60-year-old sanitation worker who was billed as the former president’s “lifelong friend,” but apparently first met him just two weeks ago, gesticulated with a crucifix while delivering a particularly manic address, telling the crowd at Madison Square Garden that “the cross that I’m holding is the cross that my mother… used to hold in the air when she prayed at night, every night, for Donald Trump and his family, because we knew three years ago that he was going to be, his life was going to be attempted to kill [sic], because they don’t want Donald Trump at the ballot box.”

Rem — who was reportedly arrested in 1992 for transporting 18 kilos of cocaine from Los Angeles to Chicago, but is now “reformed,” according to an associate — told the New York City audience “they” will stop at nothing to eliminate Trump from politics, then offered his linguistic services during the nine remaining days before voters head to the polls.

“I just want to tell President Trump that I’m fluent in Spanish, and I will follow you to the swing states and I will speak in Spanish to the voters, and I will make a difference,” Rem proposed.

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more at the link
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-rally-david-rem-msg-b2636545.html