#Iowa flooding 2024

[yhebrew]

God is calling silver leaders!

Israel is the world's strumbling stone. 2015 - 2025 election closes in on TRUTH. One Silver Trumpet now a 'second' silver Trump calls all The People.

Numbers 10:2  Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.  With the blowing of a single silver trumpet, we learned in the Torah Portion last week that the leaders are to come to the front of the camp to hear the instructions. With the blowing of both silver trumpets, all…

[the-bridgehunters-chronicles]

The Historic Bridges of Spencer, Iowa and surrounding area.

We are picking up on the series about the Great Flood of 2024 and are now going to shift to one city that has taken the hardest hit by the floodwaters. Spencer, Iowa is located over the Little Sioux River at the junction of US Hwys. 71 and 18. It’s located between the Iowa Great Lakes Region and Storm Lake. With a population of 11,300 inhabitants, the city feeds off its economic growth from…

[uniqueartisanconnoisseur]

Summer tractor shows!

I get the comment a lot, “Are you ever home?” The answer is yes, and no! Yes, I spend a lot of time going, and I spend a lot of time writing about the exciting places (exciting to us that is) that we have been. It is fun to relive our summer tractor show travels as I write about them, research them, and share them. Sometimes, it is almost like traveling twice! The fourth of July has already come…

[msbigredmachine]

Black Sweatpants (Roman Reigns)

Why did the Tribal Chief arrive late to the Pat McAfee Show? Based on Roman's appearance on March 22 2024. Pat was forced to cut a promo on the fly because Roman took too long to come out 😂

Pairing: Roman Reigns/OC

Word Count: 1.8k

Warning: Smut

-------------

You knew he would get out there late, and you accepted full responsibility. But given the way you were getting dicked down right now, it was totally worth it.

Your blood-red lace thong dangled from your right ankle as Roman jackhammered into you, his thick shaft stuffed inside your tender walls. Biting down on your bottom lip, you wrapped your arms tight around the big man, long-awaited pleasure coursing down your spine all the way to your pastel-colored toes as he pounded you out in the corner of the spacious locker room.

"Oh, ohhh fuck," you couldn't help but cry out at one particularly deep thrust.

"Keep it down before someone comes in here," he growled. Hunched over you, the wicked gleam in his eyes watching you struggle to suppress your moans, told you he was relishing every second of your agony.

"I'm trying, you ain't helping," you whined back.

"Not hard enough," he countered, nudging your legs wider and making you watch his dick disappear inside your wetness. He slapped your hand away when you placed it on his abs to push him back because he was getting too deep. "Naw, you wanted this dick all day, you better take it now..."

When you ordered the new all-black hoodie and joggers set from Nike for Roman, you knew he would look good in it. However, when he returned for his scheduled private flight to Iowa for Pat McAfee's show wearing it, you didn't expect him to look that good. And you certainly did not expect his dick print to be on display like that. You had endured three tortuous weeks of no sex because he'd been away spending time with his two kids he shared with his ex-wife. So you were excited to have him back, and judging from that not-so-little bulge between his legs, he was excited to see you too. You could all but see it, that long, thick brown cock that time and again wreaked the unholiest of havoc in you, protruding against the cotton material and calling for your attention. But the man had the gall to play hard to get, deliberately spurning your advances, acting all platonic and professional, like the rest of his team didn't already know you were lovers. Never one to back down, you ramped up your actions, rubbing his inner thigh throughout the flight and on the ride to Field House, brushing your body against him every chance you got, teasing him right back, trying to get him to crack. As soon as he ordered everyone out of his locker room just minutes after arriving, you knew you succeeded.

Roman planted wet kisses along the side of your neck, the soft prickles of his thick beard unleashing another flood between your legs. His hulking body stretched over yours, his sweatpants rolled down to just underneath the curve of his ass cheeks for the purpose of this quickie. He was so hard inside you, demanding your pleasure as he impaled you with no mercy, his tempo hot and frenetic from the very start. His big hand slipped from your breast downwards to twirl his fingertips around your clit, your throaty whines music to his ears as your sweet moisture pooled around his fingers. The squelching noise pierced the air that was already thickened by your heavy breaths and his hips smacking into yours.

"Mmm, wet as fuck, just the way I like it," Roman grunted, leaning down to suckle on your left nipple, his saliva smearing the puckered skin when he released it with a wet pop, "I can tell you was goin' crazy without this dick, right, baby?"

"Yes, and yet your punk ass still ignored me all day, too fuckin' busy making your damn TikTok videos," you griped.

"Quit your whining, Daddy always gives you what you want in the end. Unh, how you feel so good all the time? I love it," he moaned, his brown irises rolling back briefly before they landed on yours again in an intense stare. Through the lustful haze of passion, you felt your heart thumping rapidly inside your chest as you looked into his eyes. It didn't matter if you were having sex or not; it always sped up in his mere presence.

You fell in love with him not long after you became his personal assistant a year and a half ago. You worked hard to please him, on the job and off it, and he showed you his gratitude in a plethora of ways, carnal and otherwise. You were a walking cliché, but you couldn't care less, not when it bagged you a man like that. The sex appeal oozed from his pores. He was confident and self-assured and had worked his ass off to get to where he was today. He got along with all of his team, was a decent and fair employer, and was generous to a fault, showering his staff with presents on birthdays and Christmases. The diamond pendant he gifted you for Valentine's Day currently hid between your cleavage he was kneading with his big hands. He was everything you could ask for in a boss and a boyfriend, which was honestly an impressive feat.

You placed one hand behind his neck and tugged him down to flick your tongue inside his warm mouth. His thrusts remained indulgent as you kissed hungrily, branding you, marking you, wiping out everything from your mind except the euphoric feeling that engulfed you every time he kissed and fucked you dumb. He pushed your dress further up your waist and gathered your supple ass cheek in his competent hand, lifting you right up against him. He was all up in your stomach and your walls suckled his cock greedily, holding him in a vice-like grip. The gruff yet sensual sounds pouring from him teased your core, making you need more of it, more of him.

"Awww, shit, yes," Your eyes fluttered shut when he began to wind his hips, circling clockwise and then in reverse, the head of his cock churning your sweet spot, his triumphant growl accompanying every thrust. In and out, in and out, the erotic loop punctuated by the low, husky groans of your Tribal Chief, causing your head to rock back from blinding bliss. "Ooooh baby, baby right there, ahh," you whimpered.

"Uh huh, I'm deep in that shit. Got this pussy feelin' good, huh?" Roman said, his haughty taunts disappearing in another moan as your pussy rippled around his dick over and over. He kept up his grinding strokes which seemed to intensify the throatier and more desperate your moans grew, as though the mere sound of them fueled his ruthlessness. His paw curled around your throat, his display of dominance leaving you a sopping, dripping mess as he made you take every inch of him. You were dizzy, on the verge of falling apart, and your body burned for release, yet all you could do was hold on while this man continued to destroy you, rendering you helpless and pathetic and under his heady spell.

"I'm gonna come, Daddy," you gasped. Your fingernails clawed at his forearm holding your neck, moaning his name as he fucked you harder, making sure there was no way you would last long with the kind of pounding he was giving you right now.

"Mmm-hmm, come on my dick, give it to me," he ordered, barely hanging on himself. He groaned as your pussy walls held his cock hostage, making him swell inside you as his climax beckoned. "Fuck, babe, ahhh, fuck..."

Burying your face in his broad chest, you barely kept your scream muffled as your orgasm tore through you, your body arching, legs trembling around his waist as you came hard. Time and space and coherence blurred into one sensual puddle. His heavy weight almost smothered you as he chased his own orgasm, his eyes glazing over in a telltale sign that he was right there with you. His hips jerked as his dick began to throb and twitch inside you, and you gasped at the feel of his seed spilling inside your walls, his big body shivering from the force of his release, his deep voice exhaling guttural moans as he succumbed to you. It felt so good, feeling him fall with you, toppling over the precipice of pleasure together.

After he finally caught his breath, Roman shifted back a bit to observe you, taking in your face, flushed with satisfaction, your lips plumped and ravaged by his own. You looked damn beautiful, and he showed you by brushing your mouths together in the gentlest, sweetest kisses.

"Happy now?" he smirked.

You grinned from ear to ear. "Very happy, Daddy. I've missed you. Love you so much."

"I love you too, baby," he replied with one last soft kiss, both of you moaning as his drained dick slipped out of your warm confines. You dragged yourself to a seated position when he climbed off you and hurriedly tugged his pants back up. Adjusting your dress, you checked your watch and sighed. "Great, you're two minutes behind schedule. You're not even mic'd up yet," you said, fishing out Roman's bottle of Jean-Paul Gaultier cologne from his backpack and giving the room a few quick spritzes to stifle the cloying scent of your latest sexscapade.

"Well, Pat's gonna have to wait," he answered flippantly as he raked his hair back into its trademark bun. He watched you reach for your underwear that had tangled around your foot and beat you to the punch, snatching up the tiny scrap of lingerie and tucking it into his back pocket.

"Roman!" you exclaimed.

"What? It's mine now," he declared, grabbing his gold championship belt and standing to his full height. You bit your lip as you drank him in, your gaze stopping between his sturdy thighs. You just had sex but you found yourself getting aroused again.

"Your dick print is still showing," you pointed out, licking your lips reflexively.

"Course it is, I got that thang on me," he bragged, smoothing his big hand over his groin, his body tingling from the memory of your delicious warmth. Noticing the heat in your eyes, he smiled that suggestive half-smile of his and tapped your backside. "Down, baby girl, Daddy's gotta go to work. You can have me all you want after TV tonight."

As you followed him out of the locker room and stepped into the cold sunshine, you caught the slightly pronounced limp in your man's walk, his glowing, kiss-swollen features, the extra width in his smile, and beamed with pride.

Yeah, I did that shit.

THE END

--------------

Another short one. Thoughts?

I have a few more Roman ones I'm working on and hope to get out soon.

Thank you all so much for reading!

Banner made by me. Credit to the owners of the pics and gifs.

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[trans-axolotl]

" “In the year 2024….” read the headline of an editor’s message in a 1970 issue of The Presidio, a publication out of the Iowa State Penitentiary. Even for people in prison, whose primary currency is time itself, the date felt far-fetched. Something so distant, it was more the setting of a science fiction novel than of a real-life possibility. Al Ware, the paper’s incarcerated editor, had just experienced the solar eclipse of the century, though Iowa was outside the range of the total eclipse. He whimsically mused on whether he’d be around for the next one—if he meant alive or still in prison is up for interpretation.

People travel for hundreds and thousands of miles to view total eclipses and consistently have difficulty describing the experience fully with just words. But even a partial eclipse can be a stunning spectacle. For those in prison, whose lives are often drudgery punctuated by fleeting moments of fear, being able to experience something collectively with people beyond the walls is the type of reprieve that buoys the psyche for quite some time.

I sat in prison for the partial eclipse of 2017. A far cry from how Florida prisons handled a total eclipse in 1970, the Federal Bureau of Prisons decided a dusk-like darkening of the sky was a security threat that warranted a total lock-down. Never mind that for half the year the sun set at dinner time, and we were allowed to continue going about our business, jogging on the rec yard, grabbing a book from the library, and just generally moving about the compound. Perhaps some nefarious actors would use the few minutes of diminished daylight in the middle of the day to orchestrate a prison break, or perhaps the reverse, introduce contraband.

It felt like my life came to a screeching halt the moment I was arrested. No longer did I feel like I was living, an active verb, I was merely existing. If I vanished off the face of the Earth, not a single thing would change in the world, so minimal was my presence, so isolated was my life. Headlines flashed across the television screens, one of my only tethers to the outside world. Floods in Houston, fires in California, a mass shooting in Miami. It was as if these events were happening in some other world, one to which I only had the narrowest window...

...And with that, she led us outside. She didn’t ask where the colander had come from, and I did not tell. Its round holes somehow cast crescent shadows, illuminating the laws of physics. The sky darkened but nothing like dusk, a bizarre energy filling the air—or perhaps it was the abject fear that I was risking time in the hole to watch odd-shaped shadows dance on the ground, unable to even look at the eclipse directly.

For days to come, we tried to explain to our friends what it felt like, what those colander hole shadows looked like. It was simply too difficult to describe.

Whether Al Ware is still around to see this eclipse—he would be eighty-two—is unknown. What is known is that at least a few hundred people that experienced the total solar eclipse from prison in the United States in 1970 are still in prison. The next total solar eclipse that can be seen from the contiguous US won’t be until 2044—and unless that’s your release date, I’m sure it feels just as abstract as 2024 felt to the men at the Iowa State Penitentiary back in 1970."

- Watching an Eclipse from Prison, by Morgan Godvin

[qqueenofhades]

do you think there's a considerable amount of (young) people refusing to vote for biden because of i/p, or do you think theyre just a loud minority? i cant really tell, myself

I have been keeping a fairly close eye on polls (at least the good high-quality large-sample ones, not the numerous trash ones which currently flood the sphere), actual voting results, and other empirical data that relies on non-social-media blathering. And while we will still need more data and see if anything changes, at this point I think we can presume that any electoral effect of the I/P situation is already baked into Biden's expected results and performances, and I honestly don't think there's much, if any, of a measurable effect.

I say this because first of all, one of the most recent high-quality, large-sample youth polls (I think it was YouGov, but I can't be sure) had precisely 0% of voters between 18-29 listing foreign policy as their top priority in 2024. There were other expected priorities: the environment, the economy, American democracy, abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, etc -- but not foreign policy. Now, caveat emptor about this being only the people who respond to polls, the fact that most polls have been largely junk this primary cycle (notably, they have way overestimated Trump's performance and way underestimated Biden's), and so forth. However, even in libertarian New Hampshire, which tends to wander more than the other solidly-blue presidential election New England states (as a number of them still have Republican governors), "ceasefire" only garnered 1% of all write-in votes, and Biden won commandingly despite not being on the ballot. In South Carolina, he just won 97% statewide, and even the Democrats who skipped the primary due to it not being particularly interesting or competitive (as compared to the highly competitive open primary in 2020) still generally say that they plan to vote for Biden in November. So overall, Biden is doing even better at this point in the primary cycle than he was in 2020, where Sanders' early wins in Iowa and NH were generating chatter about an upset. Once again, this is early and we are working with a limited sample size, but despite everything, I think we can posit that the "Democrats/Black people/Hispanics/young people won't vote for Biden because of xyz issue and therefore We Are All Doomed" thesis is at best, considerably overinflated and at worst, totally untrue.

Likewise, to be blunt: the loudest voices shouting about how they will never vote for Biden because of the Gaza situation either don't vote at all, only voted once in 2020 under extreme duress and haven't voted since, and otherwise aren't being taken into account either in polls (which are bad data because they are by nature experimental and speculative) or actual voting results (which reflect the way real people actually voted in elections). The reason the YouGov sample might not have pulled any voters between 18-29 listing foreign policy as their top priority very well could be because these people flat out don't vote and therefore won't pass any "likely" or "registered" voter screens, so despite all their yelling on social media, there's not been any actual impact. Now, this is not to say that there won't be; there has, for instance, been speculation that Biden might be hurt in states like Michigan, which have a large Arab-American population. Michigan is obviously one of the traditional Blue Firewall states that Hillary lost in 2016 and which Biden retook in 2020, and any electoral wobbling there would be ominous for his overall results. However, this is also reckoning without the fact that there is now a largish chunk of old-school GOP/independent voters who say they will not vote for Trump under any circumstances, with that number growing if he's explicitly convicted of a felony. Some of these voters might sit out, or vote for Biden, or maybe decide to vote for some stupid crackpot like RFK Jr., but the point is, if they do in fact not vote for Trump or even vote for Biden, that changes the electoral math.

Likewise: there are about 40,000 Arab-American voters in Michigan. Biden won the state by 154k votes, or 3.35%, in 2020. Even if every single one of those voters voted FOR Trump this time (which would be insane, but never mind), that alone would not be enough to flip the state from Biden, and that's reckoning without the votes that Trump will lose elsewhere. I've seen a few left-leaning publications such as the Guardian picking up the "will Biden's stance on Gaza hurt him in November" question, and the loud social media blabbermouths want to insist that it will because it makes them feel important, but at this point, I honestly don't see widespread electoral evidence of it, because, put bluntly: Democrats vote. Posturing social media "progressives" largely don't. Therefore for all the screaming they do, their views do not get incorporated into the actual results, which is a damn good thing for us.

So in short: No, as of right now, I don't think there is in fact a substantial anti-Biden protest vote, and the people threatening it the most were never going to vote for him anyway. This has gone on long enough that if it was going to flag up as a major thing, I think it would have. There will always be the idiots throwing away their vote on some stooge like Cornel West or Jill Stein (lol), but once again, these people were never going to vote for Biden in the first place and it is not necessarily the case that we need to put undue credence in their threats. Not that we can slack our vigilance, as we cannot and every single person who can vote blue in 2024 needs to fucking do so if they're interested in continuing to live in a democracy, but the situation is not apocalyptic, and yet again, the Online Leftists are far from the most reliable metric of how effective their screaming actually is. So, yeah.

[mcgnagallsarmy]

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (Jan 2024)

20 20 24 Minutes Go by smellslikecorruption [PG]

Buffy and Spike and a birthday that goes unmentioned.

A Different Kind of Hell by OffYourBird [NC-17]

Jumping through Glory's tower portal, Buffy and Spike find themselves in a hell dimension they never expected. One that looks suspiciously like 1880's London. Will they find a way back home? Will the truth behind William the Bloody at last make itself known? Will Buffy ever stop butchering the Queen's English? Join them and find out. Starts off at the end of "The Gift."

A Waxy Gent Chuckled Over My Fab Jazzy Quips by violettathepiratequeen [PG-13]

The Scooby gang is sick and tired of Spike and Buffy being so on edge after the engagement spell, and they have a plan to restore peace to Giles' apartment.

A Wonderful Awful Idea by The Danish Bird [NC-17]

With nothing apocalyptic looming on the horizon and hoping to avoid a certain thick-headed commando, it seems like the perfect opportunity when Giles mentions a monster terrorising the good people of Lake Tahoe. What could be more merry than a Christmas trip to the mountains to investigate? The gang is all coming along, defanged vampire in tow. Buffy should totally be able to deal with the demon, ignore Spike and their recent “engagement,” enjoy some resort-town shopping, and be back with Mom on Christmas Eve. Right? What could possibly go wrong? Set in season 4 at the beginning of Doomed.

All Five by acekoomboom [PG]

Buffy goes through the stages of grief as she tries to move on from his death at the hellmouth.

The Forbidden Bone by bewildered [NC-17]

Buffy always knew Spike was hot. But now that he's their prisoner and she has the leisure to really look at him, she understands why. It's the cheekbones. She cannot resist. Dedicated to r/buffy and all the Very Intelligent Men there who have kindly mansplained that James Marsters's cheekbones are compelling, hypnotic mysteries of creation that we poor, weak women are powerless to resist, and the only reason anybody likes Spike as a character. I am so grateful that they have graciously pointed it out on so many occasions, and can only hope that someday my wanton ladyparts will stop forcing me to adore Spike. One of these days, I may find the strength to tear myself away from the Forbidden Bone's diabolical influence, but in the meantime, here is some cheekbone-inspired maybe-a-little-dubcon cracksmut. Enjoy!

Hills of Iowa by the_moonmoth [PG]

She felt bigger here, like the landscape. Like she could unfold everything she was and still find space for it all.

I Can Get Money by scratchmeout [NC-17]

Spike puts his past to good use to get money for Buffy. However, things become complicated when her ex shows up and targets Spike.

The Rub-Down by Grief Counseling [NC-17]

Buffy has one hell of a sore back. Spike has exceptional hands and massage oil. How can this be resolved? Sex, guys. It's resolved with sex. Let this post-Intervention, Season 5 porn adventure commence! With oil!

Winter Wonder Hell by Synefred [NC-17]

Shaken by the memories that flooded through him when his soul was returned, Angel took off into the night, leaving Buffy and an ever growing portal to a hell dimension behind him. With no other choice, Buffy stabbed Spike, condemning him to an eternity in Hell. The only problem was that as he was sucked in, he pulled Buffy in with him. Buffy always expected Hell to be full of fire and brimstone, but now she is trapped in a twilight realm, where the cold bites and the darkness waits. As she and Spike battle their new reality, and each other, the lingering question is, what will they do when the snow finally falls?

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenyan-protesters-promise-more-rallies-after-deadly-parliament-violence-2024-06-26/

[lonestarbattleship]

January 21, 2024 Update from the Battleship Texas Foundation

"DRY DOCK TOURS

Dry Dock Tour dates have been added in February. To sign up, visit: https://battleshiptexas.org/plan-your-visit/

Brave participants mark the end of their Dry Dock Tour with a picture at the ship’s bow.

Dry Dock Tour participants look for ways to straighten the rudder.

Troy from Battleship IOWA stopped by today! Come on, Iowa?

Bob discusses the ship’s action off the coast of Cherbourg, France.

27,000 tons isn’t so bad!

STEEL REPAIR - Steel repairs have been completed on the hull of Battleship Texas.

HULL - The ship’s hull has been coated in PPG SIGMASHIELD 880 GF to protect the hull. While the hull is supposed to be red below the black band at the waterline, the Battleship Texas Foundation has chosen to not spend the extra funds on a something that will not be seen once the ship is back in the water. The coatings that have been applied are plentiful, and should protect the ship for many years to come.

The stern of Battleship Texas.

NAVY BLUE 5-N - Above the boot top (above the black band) the ship has been painted Navy Blue 5-N. This color was matched from existing examples found aboard (both internally and externally) the vessel.

New paint job!

The rest of the ship will be painted once repairs in those areas conclude.

The ship was painted in this camouflage scheme (Measure 21) prior to deploying to the Pacific Theater in World War II. At this time Battleship Texas is the ONLY museum ship painted in this scheme and only one of two Battleships in their WWII measure.

HULL NUMBERS - The new hull numbers have been extensively researched so each number is not only the correct font, but applied in the appropriate position it was in 1945. The numbers have been applied to both bow and stern.

Looking forward while inside main battery control.

Looking aft while in main battery control.

Galveston island from the highest point aboard Battleship Texas

Don’t look down!

The painted map inside the captain’s cabin. The missing section has been professionally recreated.

Where are we? (New store item coming soon)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

KEEL BLOCKS - Yes, the keel blocks supporting Battleship Texas can be moved. Each block is moved so the area atop of them can be blasted, repaired (if need be), and coated.

SPLASH! - The ship will be put back into the water in February 2024, but is dependent on the weather.

WHAT ABOUT THE RUDDER? - The rudder will remain where it is. Funding is best spent elsewhere.

REOPENING? - There is a lot to be done before the ship is ready for touring at its new home in Galveston, Texas. Reopening is projected to happen sometime in 2025 or 2026.

WHAT’S NEXT? - Battleship Texas will remain at Gulf Copper Shipyard for the time being. Additional steel work, removal and replacement of the ship’s deck, and superstructure/aft fire control restoration will continue.

Live, Laugh, And Flood your Torpedo Blisters.

To donate to the preservation and operation of Battleship Texas, please visit: https://battleshiptexas.org/

Support Battleship Texas by making a purchase through the ship's store: https://store.battleshiptexas.org"

Posted on the Battleship Texas Foundation Group Facebook page: link

[michael-massa-micon]

More Flooding - May 2024 The Iowa River continues to climb each time it rains. It rained again last night and the river is back up. We are supposed to have a week of dry weather so it will go back down fairly soon. I wasn’t going to post another low water dam image, but the geese swimming into the image made me do it. MWM

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 6.7

Holidays

Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)

Battle of Arica Day (Chile)

Beatles Day

Betamax Day

Croatian Diplomacy Day (Croatia)

Daniel Boone Day (Kentucky)

Dunmow Flitch Day

Father’s Day (Lithuania; Switzerland)

Festival of All Possible Worlds

Financial and Economic Sector Workers Day (Kyrgyzt=stan)

Flag Day (Peru)

Fleur-de-Lis Day

International Supply Chain Specialists Day

International Tourettes Awareness Day

Journalist Day (Argentina)

June Bug Day

Kataklysmos (Flood Festival; Cypress)

Land O’Lakes Day

Liberation Day (Norway)

Lime Tree Day (French Republic)

Love Island Day (UK)

Mother’s Day (France; French Antilles)

National Alexandra Day

National Arc Flash Awareness Day (UK)

National Benjamin Day

National Blepharoplasty Day

National CAPHPACH Day (a.k.a. National Citizens Against Police Harassment Police Against Citizen Harassment Day)

National Elias Day

National Goonies Day

National Journalist Day (Argentina)

National Military Working Dog Day (Australia)

National Oklahoma Day

National RV Day

Prince Day

Prince Joachim Day (Denmark)

Sette Giugno (Malta)

Shirone Takogassen (Kite Fighting Festival; Japan)

Sir Randol Fawkes Day (a.k.a.Labour Day; Bahamas)

607 Day

Trial Technology Day

Union Dissolution Day (Norway)

VCR Day

Vivien Kellems Memorial Day

World Caring Day

World Day for the Sanctification of Priests

World Day of Birth Rights

World Hemochromatosis Day

World LPG Day

World Swift Day

Write to Your Father Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bartender Day

National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

World Food Safety Day

World Poha Day

Independence & Related Days

Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)

Erephisian Technocracy (f.k.a. Orbis; Declared; 2005) [unrecognized]

Norway (from Sweden, 1905)

Parliament Day (Northern Ireland)

Temotu Province Day (Solomon Islands)

1st Friday in June

Action Mesothelioma Day (UK) [1st Friday]

Clean Air Day (Canada) [1st Friday]

European Dental Technicians Day [1st Friday]

Flashback Friday [Every Friday]

Fry Day (Pastafarian; Fritism) [Every Friday]

Horseradish Weekend begins [1st Friday]

Hospitals Against Violence Day [1st Friday]

Hug an Atheist Day [1st Friday]

International Socks4Docs Day [1st Friday]

National Banana Split Weekend (Begins 1st Friday]

National Day Against Gun Violence (Canada) [1st Friday]

National Donut Day (a.k.a. National Doughnut Day) [1st Friday]

National Fish & Chip Day (UK) [1st Friday]

National Gun Violence Awareness Day [1st Friday]

National Lemonade Days begin [1st Friday]

National Wear a Jockstrap to Work Day [1st Friday]

Salvation Army Day [1st Friday]

Senior Race Day (Isle of Man) [1st Friday]

Weekly Holidays beginning June 7 (1st Full Week)

Shampoo Week (thru 6.13)

Superman Week (thru 6.9)

Wear Orange Days [thru 6.8]

Festivals Beginning June 7, 2024

Action in Jackson (Jackson, Wisconsin) [thru 6.8]

Bloodroot Ramble (Healdsburg, California) [thru 6.8]

Cajun Heritage Festival (Larose, Louisiana) [thru 6.9]

Capital Jazz Fest (Columbia, Maryland) [thru 6.9]

Children KinoFest (Kyiv, Ukraine) [thru 6.16]

Fan Expo Dallas (Dallas, Texas) [thru 6.9]

Farmington Strawberry Festival (Farmington, Iowa) [thru 6.9]

Flemington Opa Festival (Flemington, New Jersey) [thru 6.9]

Fredericksburg Craft Beer Festival (Fredericksburg, Texas) [thru 6.8]

A German Sommerfest (Lancaster, Texas) [thru 6.8]

Gheens Bon Mange' Festival (Gheens, Louisiana) [thru 6.9]

The Great New York State Food & Wine Festival (Clayton, New York) [thru 6.9]

Greek Festival (Randolph, New Jersey) [thru 6.9]

Grove City Strawberry Days (Grove City, Pennsylvania) [thru 6.9]

Guadalajara International Film Festival (Guadalajara, Mexico) [thru 6.15]

Hartford Taste (Hartford, Connecticut) [thru 6.8]

Huntington Trails Beer and Wine Festival (Huntington, Indiana)

International Documentary Film Festival Artdocfest (Tbilisi, Georgia) [thru 6.9]

International Horseradish Festival (Collinsville, Illinois) [thru 6.8]

Lander Brew Fest (Lander, Wyoming) [thru 6.8]

Lincoln Square Greek Fest (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 6.9]

Norfolk Harborfest (Norfolk, Virginia) [thru 6.9]

Orange Warsaw Festival (Warsaw, Poland) [thru 6.8]

Pork Rind Heritage Festival (Harrod, Ohio) [thru 6.8]

Rhubarb Fest (Aledo, Illinois) [thru 6.8]

Rock am Ring (Nürburg, Germany) [thru 6.9]

Rosedale Strawberry Festival (Rosedale, Indiana) [thru 6.9]

South Dakota BBQ Championships (Huron, South Dakota) [thru 6.8]

Strawberry Festival (Forestville, New York) [thru 6.9]

Strawberry Festival (Hartford, Michigan) [thru 6.8]

Strawberry Festival (Mystic, Connecticut) [thru 6.8]

Sundance Solstice Festival (Anchorage, Alaska) [thru 6.9]

Taste of Charlotte (Charlotte, North Carolina) [thru 6.9]

Taste of Muskegon (Muskegon, Michigan) [thru 6.8]

Taste of Syracuse (Syracuse, New York) [thru 6.8]

Up North Beerfest (Eagle River, Wisconsin) [thru 6.8]

Walleye Weekend (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) [thru 6.9]

WHITE SQUARE International Advertising and Marketing Festival (Minsk, Belarus)

Wimborne Minster Folk Festival (Wimborne Minster, United Kingdom) [thru 6.9]

Feast Days

Amazing Mumford (Muppetism)

Antonio Maria Gianelli (Christian; Saint)

Antony of Gianelli (Christian; Saint)

Captain Jack Sparrow Impersonation Day (Pastafarian)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Artology)

Chief Seattle (Lutheran Church)

Colmán of Dromore (Christian; Saint)

Commemoration Day of St John the Forerunner (Armenian Apostolic Church)

Damien Hirst (Artology)

Edtors’ Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Flowers Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Gottschalk (a.k.a. Godeschalc, Prince of the Western Vandals; Christian; Martyr)

Gwendolyn Brooks (Writerism)

Judgment Day (Leaping Songs; Shamanism)

Landulf of Yariglia (Asti; Christian; Saint)

Lanfranc (Positivist; Saint)

Louise Erdrich (Writerism)

Ludi Piscatorii (Ancient Rome)

Meriadoc (Christian; Saint)

Meriasek (Christian; Saint)

Paul I of Constantinople (Christian; Saint)

Paul Gauguin (Artology)

Robert of Newminster (Christian; Saint)

Marie-Thérèse de Soubiran La Louvière (Christian; Blessed)

Pioneers of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (Episcopal Church (USA))

Smilin’ Ed (Muppetism)

Vestalia begins (until 15th; Old Roman festival to Vesta, goddess of the hearth, home & family)

Vulfagius (a.k.a. Wulphy; Christian; Saint)

Willibald (Christian; Saint)

Christian Liturgical Holidays

Sacred Heart Day [Friday after 2nd Sunday after Pentecost; 68 days after Easter] a.k.a. ... 

Divine Compassion of Christ (Anglican Franciscans)

Feast of the Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic)

Sagrado Corazon (Colombia)

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (f.k.a.)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [19 of 32]

Umu Limnu (Evil Day; Babylonian Calendar; 26 of 60)

Premieres

Alexander’s Ragtime Band, recorded by Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan (Song; 1911)

Captain Fantastic and the Brown First Cowboy, by Elton John (Album; 1975)

City Slickers (Film; 1991)

Cloak & Dagger (TV Series; 2018)

Dark Phoenix (Film; 2019)

The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth (Novel; 1971)

Dance of the Weed (MGM Cartoon; 1941)

Dinky Finds a Home (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1946)

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Film; 2002)

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (Film; 1991)

El Dorado (Film; 1967)

Face/Off (Film; 1997)

Feedin’ the Kiddie (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1957)

Fields of Gold, by Sting (Song; 1993)

Ghostbustrs (Film; 1984)

The Goonies (Film; 1985)

Grease (Broadway Musical; 1972)

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (WB Animated Film; 2011)

The Hasty Hare (WB LT Cartoon; 1952)

The Heat of the Day, by Elizabeth Bowen (Novel; 1948)

High School Confidential (Film; 1958)

The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré (Novel; 1977)

Horse’s Mouth, by Joyce Cary (Novel; 1950)

I Am Mother (Film; 2019)

The Johnny Cash Show (TV Series; 1969)

Jungle Fever (Film; 1991)

Kim Possible (Animated TV Series; 2002)

Mr. Fore by Fore (Phantasies Cartoon; 1944)

Mr. Money Gags (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1957)

The Mummy (Film; 1999)

Old McDonald Had a Farm (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1946)

The Old Rugged Cross, by George Bennard (Christian Hymn; 1913)

Peep in the Deep (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1946)

Perfect (Film; 1985)

Peter Grimes, by Benjamin Britten (Opera; 1945)

Post, by Björk (Album; 1995)

The Producers (Film; 2002)

Purple, by Stone Temple Pilots (Album; 1994)

Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too! (WB LT Cartoon; 1969)

The Rock (Film; 1996)

Salmon Loafer (Chilly Willy Cartoon; 1963)

A Satire of the Three Estates, by David Lyndsay (Play; 1552)

The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Animated Film; 2019)

The Seven Deadly Sins of the Bourgeoisie, by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (Ballet; 1933)

Simple Man, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Song; 1970)

Squatter’s Rights (Disney Cartoon; 1946)

Vincent, recorded by Don McLean (Song; 1971)

What—No Spinach? (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1936)

The Wily Weasel (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1937)

Wimmin is a Myskery (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1940)

The Wise Little Hen (Silly Symphony Cartoon; 1934)

X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Film; 2019)

Today’s Name Days

Anita, Eoban, Gottlieb, Robert (Austria)

Valeri, Valeria (Bulgaria)

Antun, Radoslav, Robert (Croatia)

Iveta (Czech Republic)

Jeremias (Denmark)

Robert, Robi (Estonia)

Robert, Robin, Roope, Suvi (Finland)

Gilbert (France)

Anita, Gottlieb, Raimund, Robert (Germany)

Panagis, Sebastian, Zinais (Greece)

Róbert (Hungary)

Geremia, Landolfo, Roberto, Sabiniano (Italy)

Arnis, Gaida, Gijs (Latvia)

Lukrecija, Radvydė, Ratautas, Robertas (Lithuania)

Robert, Robin (Norway)

Antoni, Ciechomir, Jarosław, Lukrecja, Paweł, Robert, Roberta, Wiesław, Wisław (Poland)

Teodot (România)

Róbert (Slovakia)

Isaac, Roberto (Spain)

Robert, Robin (Sweden)

Theodot (Ukraine)

Keenan, Melody, Nidia, Nydia, Nylene, Whitney (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 159 of 2024; 207 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 23 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 27 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Geng-Wu), Day 2 (Ren-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 1 Sivan 5784

Islamic: 30 Dhu al-Qada 1445

J Cal: 9 Blue; Twosday [9 of 30]

Julian: 25 May 2024

Moon: 2%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 18 St. Paul (6th Month) [Lanfranc]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 81 of 92)

Week: 1st Full Week of June

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 18 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Sīwān (a.k.a. Sivan, Siwan or Simanu) [סִיוָן / סיוון‎] (Hebrew Calendar) [Month 3 of 12]

[theculturedmarxist]

Nothing is on the horizon to block Iowa’s steady march to the right and off a cliff.

Gov. Kim Reynolds came off a historic legislative session that has Ron DeSantis calling the Tall Corn State the “Florida of the North.” There’s book banning, gay bashing, welfare demeaning, private school vouchers and more from solid majorities in both the House and Senate for her to celebrate.

The public appears to be rolling with the agenda, while holding reservations about the vouchers.

The state’s congressional delegation is entirely Republican.

It’s going to take a seismic event, or series of them, and a messianic messenger for Democrats to even get back in the conversation.

There are no statewide races on the 2024 ballot. Iowa will be flooded with conservative propaganda — it’s already started — with the Republican presidential nominating process. Being anti-woke, whatever that is, will be the thing. The environment will heighten Reynolds’s visibility and burnish her image as a politician of national prominence. Democrats will ignore Iowa because there’s nothing at play here.

Iowa needs a two-party system but doesn’t have one. That’s been a long time coming. The GOP has played the long game in rural states since 1980 by investing in media, messaging and organization. It’s paying off in flyover country.

If the election were held today, you would want to bet on Trump winning Iowa bigly.

The next legislative session will be just as harsh as Republicans try to fire up their base heading into the general elections. Reynolds wants to eliminate the state income tax, for starters, and again the public appears to agree with her. The loyal opposition can barely get a message through.

It will take something seismic and someone messianic for the Democrats to even get into the conversation.

Abortion? Perhaps. The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a bill that could ban abortion. Historically, abortion politics have not played well for Democrats in Iowa. It is not clear they can turn the issue to their advantage in statehouse races.

Education? Huge tax cuts are popular, but the bite will be felt in public schools as we dole out vouchers for private education. It won’t be an immediate disruption, more like a slow erosion that increases class sizes and closes rural schools with declining enrollment.

Gay rights? Eighty-three congregations, in places like Pocahontas and Marcus, just pulled out of the Iowa Methodist Conference over allowing gay pastors and marriage.

Economic issues? Voters are going with tax cuts in the absence of a strong Democratic message.

As for a messenger, the minority party has State Auditor Rob Sand, the only statewide Democratic officeholder whose authority was eviscerated by the legislature. Not many people seem too worked up about him being stripped of investigative authority. He is a Decorah native who has worked assiduously to develop a reputation as a moderate turkey hunter who eschews party politics.

Harold Hughes broke through in 1962 under somewhat similar circumstances with a campaign built around liquor by the drink. Hughes had a fire in his belly. Does Sand?

The only other elected Democrat of prominence who understands rural areas is Rep. JD Scholten of Sioux City. He has the fire in his belly but does not appear to be in the inner circle of Des Moines. He continues to make appearances around the state and is not afraid of being associated with labor unions. Democrats fail to appreciate how important western Iowa is to winning statewide elections, and how their abandonment of rural voters has led to their demise.

They have until 2026 to figure something out. Sure, a lot can happen to change things. Who knows what happens with Sen. Chuck Grassley, age 89? Or abortion politics. For now, the Republicans are having a ball while on a roll, and there isn’t a whole lot the other side is doing about it. They need someone to fly the flag and lead the charge out of the weeds, with a message that can be heard out here. Starting with: Whatever happened to the family farm, an open market and the good union jobs? Somebody needs to change the conversation.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

[jay-justjay]

As I struggle to cope with Trump’s target practice ass being elected, have a little thing I wrote.

“We Didn’t Start the Fire”

Parody by Jay-JustJay, covering the year of 2024 (and a pinch of 2023) as of Nov 6th.

Mickey Mouse is public, Taylor Swift with Kelce

Proud Boys, School shot in Perry, Iowa.

Audacy bankruptcy, cybertruck, self-driving cars

Clashes break out, Lubavitch, Skibidi gyatt rizz

Palestine, online trends, border crisis, air strikes

Texas shoots immigrants, causes strife, who would’ve guessed?

Israel, Hamas, protests in the U.S.

Economy, barely saved, stopgap, we’re all depressed

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

War breaks out, overseas, israel comes up again

Nova-C on the moon, Sweden joins NATO

AI, Climate Change, ice is melting, what a shame.

Cease fire, guess again, the war’s ongoing even still.

Taiwan, G5 storm, Trump is guilty. Dang, who knew?

Borno bombings, people die, riots in the U.K.

Ukraine, it’s still at war, cross-border offensive and

Mpox spreads, spacewalk, tiktok avoids the ban

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Elon Musk, makes Twitter worse, don’t know how, but he did.

Trump is shot, yet again, might be staged, jury’s out

Spain floods, Lebanon ballistic missiles

Trans rights, what’s that? Suffering’s the new drip

KSI, entitlement, tiktok dance through all of it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

Biden’s down, Harris, Election time upon us now

Abortion laws, tax cuts, 270, fast vote

Panic, manic, chaos, orange man’s in office, HOW?

Billionaires win the match, Middle class is losing fast

Elon jumps, discourse, a few call for regicide

Overtime, gone unpaid, is what he promised, I’m afraid

Future’s looking unsure, don’t know what we’re looking towards

But I believe that he won't last, he'll get impeached, I bet on that.

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone

It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning, since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it

[uniqueartisanconnoisseur]

Roadside Attractions in Northwest Iowa!

My husband Keith and I headed to northwestern Iowa. We attended the 2024 Red Power Round Up, an International Harvester event held in Spencer, Iowa. We found lots of roadside attractions during our travels. Hosted by Iowa Chapter 5 of the IHCC group, the location was the Clay County Fairgrounds. This beautiful show was well planned. Then the rains came and ended the event early. Floods caused…

[nityarawal]

11/4/2024

Election Eve

Morning Songs 

Election Eve

Who We Gonna Vote For

You Want The Best

Actress

Or Do You Want

More

Election Eve

Who You Gonna

Vote For

You Want Kamala 

Mamala

The Step Mother

To Castrate Your

Kids

Election Eve

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Is This Worse

Than Halloween

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Is This Worse

Than Halloween 

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Tarantino Terrors

Tarantino Hurricanes

Netanyahu's House

In Floods

Lies

Propaganda

Bribes

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Give It All

Away

To Mom

Election Eve

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Going Green

Will We Rush

Everything 

Election Eve

Who You Gonna

Vote For

If He Gives You

A Stomache

Ache

Many Won't Go

If He Gives You

A Stomache

Ache

Many Won't Show

Election Eve

Some Voting For The

First Time

A Sacred Thing

Who You Gonna 

Vote For

Whose Gonna Love

And Protect You

Who You Gonna 

Vote For

Moms

Nannies

We Want You

Who You Gonna Vote

For

Who Are You 

Seeking

Who You Gonna Vote

For

Who Will Shine

The Light Of

Trinity

Who You Gonna Vote

For

Step Mothers

Castrated 

Our Kin

Who You Gonna  Vote

For

This Court System

Didn't Let Parents 

In

This Court Systen 

Didn't Serve

Civilians

Who You Gonna

Vote For

Whose Blood Will

You Take

On Your Hands

Its A Jewish 

Team In A Two 

Party State

It's A Jewish 

Ruling

To Date

Even Green

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Through Warfare

Agnostic

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Do The Zionists 

Bombard

Their Own Regions

It's A Jewish

Ruling

A Jewish King

Returned

It's A Jewish 

Ruling

Can't We All Have 

Tea

And Just Be Heard

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Move Your Pawns

On The Global

Stage

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Like Bribes

In The Village 

Market Place

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Judge Benny Waggoner

Got His Iowa Lakshmi Cake

It's A Jewish 

Ruling

Our Nanny Alexandria

Seems To Own

Most Of The Radio

Today

With George Soros

Hungarian Spies

It's A Jewish 

Ruling

George Soros Bought

American Radio

For Dems

It's A Jewish Ruling

When Hungarian

Spies 

Steal Your

Beach Homes

It's A Jewish

Ruling

Time For The Way

To End

For Israel

Is Under Water

After Mocking 

Spain

Peeps Say

And Drowning

Florida New York

Jews

In Hurricanes

Globally

Mothers Are Begging

Can't You Be

Reasonable

Take Your Ivermectin

Drink Parsley

Cilantro

Basil

Juice

Can't You Be Reasonable

A Little Garlic

To Blast Your

Gut

Anti-Biotics

If You Must

Tulsi Peace

But Please Please

Please

Leave Our Mothers

And Children

Alone

Please Please

Please

Just Have Tea

Play Monopoly

On X Boards 

For All To See

Full Disclosure

Autonomy

And Return

Our Assets

So Big Mommies

Can Enjoy

Peace

And Get On

With Harmony

Big Mothers

Enjoy Peace

Sing Divine

Sacred Songs

Sublime

And Love Our

Babies 

For Infinity

Sing Sacred Songs

Choose Words

That Belong

Sing Sacred 

Songs

And Let Your

Heart Beat

Higher

Let Your Heart

Beat On 

Fire

Let Your Heart

Beat Higher

For A Better 

Hope

Let Your Heart

Beat Higher

For Me

My Love

Let Your Heart

Beat Higher

And Bring My

Babies

Home

For That's The

Priority

That Will Always

Be

That's The Priority

For Family

You And Me

Bring Our Babies

Home

For A Life

Of Peace

Infinite

Harmony

Peace

Blessings, Love, Eternally,

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal 

Encinitasbeachhome.com 

[newstfionline]

Thursday, October 31, 2024

The U.S. Army Prepares for War With China (NYT) Early one morning this month, 864 Army paratroopers bundled into C-17 transport planes at a base in Alaska and took off for a Great Power War exercise between three volcanic mountains on Hawaii’s Big Island. Only 492 made it. Some of the C-17s had trouble with their doors, while others were forced to land early. A few of the parachutists who did make it sprained ankles or suffered head trauma. And one—a 19-year-old private—began to fall quickly when his chute did not open. Pvt. Second Class Erik Partida’s 1,200-foot fall was a stark reality check as the U.S. Army transforms itself, and its hundreds of thousands of young men and women, for yet another war, this one a potential conflict with China. The Pentagon calls it a Great Power War, and it would be exponentially more dangerous. It would put the world’s two strongest militaries—both of them nuclear superpowers—in direct conflict, possibly drawing in other nuclear adversaries, including North Korea and Russia. U.S. troops would be killed, in numbers that could possibly go beyond the toll from America’s deadliest conflicts. Such a war would be fought on the ground, at sea, in the air and in space. So the Army is practicing for exactly that.

Where has all the rain gone? Bone-dry October strikes much of US (AP) A bone-dry October is pushing nearly half of the United States into a flash drought, leading to fires in the Midwest and hindering shipping on the Mississippi River. More than 100 different long-term weather stations in 26 states, including Alaska, are having their driest October on record, through Sunday, according to records by the Southern Regional Climate Center and Midwest Regional Climate Center. Cities that have had no measurable rain for October include New York, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Sioux City, Iowa, along with normal dry spots such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix, National Weather Service records show. In June, less than 12% of the country was experiencing drought. Now it’s almost 50% and growing, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Killings and Prison Torture Raise Alarms Over Gang Crime in Chile (Bloomberg) During Marcelo’s first week in Santiago I prison, he was glad when his fellow inmates handed him a phone so he could call his girlfriend and family. Before the night was over, the same people would film his screams as he was tortured, demanding that those on his freshly registered contact list send over money to make it stop. Marcelo says the incident was a consequence of a growing population of foreign detainees, who have brought along with them a more violent and exploitative prison culture to Chile. Marcelo’s sentiment—that foreigners’ influence is at the root of this violence—is one shared by many Chileans, 92% of whom think immigration has worsened safety and security in the country. Rising crime has consumed the government of leftist President Gabriel Boric, who is now trying to build a legacy of fighting violence and drugs over the platform of social security he campaigned on. Since 2022, the government has more than tripled its budget to tackle organized crime to $89 million. That’s significant for a country that has almost no history of criminal gangs and where the police once only carried revolvers and drove unarmored vehicles. Chile’s policing tactics are now starting to mirror those of its regional neighbors who have to dismantle cocaine labs in jungles and patrol dangerous favelas.

Who stole 24 tons of cheddar? (Washington Post) A leading cheese retailer has reported the theft of more than 24 tons of artisan cheese as a result of a “sophisticated fraud,” prompting a police investigation and a new local nickname: the “grate cheese robbery.” The London-based retailer said that 950 wheels of three award-winning artisan cheddars had been stolen—worth more than $389,000.

Spanish floods kill 95 as year of rain falls in a day in Valencia (Reuters) At least 95 people have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, local authorities said on Wednesday. Meteorologists said a year's rain had fallen in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing pile-ups on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter. Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.

Germany’s economy isn’t growing. But its quarrelsome government can’t agree on a way forward (AP) Germany’s economy isn’t growing and the governing coalition has a lot of ideas on how to fix it. But it can’t agree which the right one is. The latest outbreak of infighting in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has raised questions about whether it will get anything done in the 11 months before Germany’s next election is due—and whether it will survive until then. There’s agreement that the state of the German economy, Europe’s biggest, demands action. It is expected to shrink in 2024 for the second year in a row, or at best stagnate, battered by external shocks and home-grown problems including red tape and a shortage of skilled labor. But there’s no unity on the solution. As Finance Minister Christian Lindner put it last week: “There’s no shortage of ideas. What there is a shortage of at present is agreement in the governing coalition.”

Is China Going Softer on Tech? (Foreign Policy) Chinese authorities are quietly easing off the country’s 2021 ban on private tutoring, which wiped $100 billion off a once thriving sector. Rather than bringing costs down for families, tutoring grew even more expensive as businesses went underground. The latest pivot is part of a wider trend: In the last year, Chinese tech regulators have pulled back in areas including video games, artificial intelligence, and cross-border data transfers. After a crackdown that cost Chinese tech companies $1.1 trillion between late 2020 and 2023, Beijing is now desperate to restart a sputtering economy. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high.

North Korea’s elite troops are in Russia (Washington Post) As many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers are being trained in Russia and some have already been deployed in the war against Ukraine, an unprecedented move by Pyongyang to send its people into danger in a combat zone far from the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have dispatched some of his special operations forces to aid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort, including the elite “Storms Corps” unit that had long been training to infiltrate the South, according to South Korean intelligence officials. North Korea’s Special Operations units are trained with the best equipment, including explosives, chemical and biological agents, parachutes and aircraft—although rudimentary compared to the Special Forces units of other countries, according to a 2021 Defense Intelligence Agency report on North Korea’s military power. Although they are among the North’s best trained troops, these soldiers are likely to face difficulties adjusting to modern warfare, said Hyunseung Lee, a North Korean escapee and human rights advocate who trained with the Storm Corps for six months while he served in the North Korean Army’s Special Forces. Lee noted that for the vast majority of these Special Forces soldiers, deployment to Russia will be their first time encountering battle—and the outside world.

Ukraine is now struggling to survive, not to win (Economist) “After 970 days of war,” said Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, visiting Kyiv on October 21st, “Putin has not achieved one single strategic objective.” In public, Mr Austin offered certitude, confidence and clarity: “Moscow will never prevail in Ukraine.” In private, his colleagues in the Pentagon, Western officials and many Ukrainian commanders are increasingly concerned about the direction of the war and Ukraine’s ability to hold back Russian advances over the next six months. Ukrainian forces have managed to hold on to Pokrovsk, an embattled town in the eastern Donbas region. But elsewhere along the front, Russia is slicing its way through Ukrainian defences. And in Kursk, inside Russia, Ukraine has lost around half the territory it seized earlier this year. The problem is not so much the loss of territory, which is limited and has come at enormous cost to Russia—600,000 dead and wounded since the start of the war, on American estimates, and 57,000 dead in this year to October alone, according to Ukrainian intelligence—as the steady erosion in the size and quality of Ukraine’s forces. Ukrainian units are understrength and overstretched, worn thin by heavy casualties. Russia cannot fight for ever. But the worry among America, European and Ukrainian officials is that, on current trends, Ukraine’s breaking point will come first.

In Lebanon, a family’s memories are detonated along with their village (AP) Ayman Jaber’s memories are rooted in every corner of Mhaibib, the village in southern Lebanon he refers to as his “habibti,” the Arabic word for “beloved.” But Mhaibib, perched on a hill close to the Israeli border, was leveled by a series of explosions on Oct. 16. The Israeli army released a video showing blasts ripping through the village in the Marjayoun province, razing dozens of homes to dust. The scene has been repeated in villages across southern Lebanon since Israel launched its invasion a month ago with the stated goal of pushing Hezbollah militants back from the border. On Oct. 26, massive explosions in and around Odaisseh sparked an earthquake alert in northern Israel. Israel says it wants to destroy a massive network of Hezbollah tunnels in the border area. But for the people who have been displaced, the attacks are also destroying a lifetime of memories. Hisham Younes, who runs the environmental organization Green Southerners, says generations of southerners admired Mhaibib for its one-or two-story stone homes, some built by Jaber’s grandfather and his friends. “Detonating an entire village is a form of collective punishment and war crime. What do they gain from destroying shrines, churches and old homes?” Younes asks.

U.S. inundated with claims that American arms killed Gaza civilians (Washington Post) The Biden administration has received nearly 500 reports alleging Israel used U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that caused unnecessary harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims, according to people familiar with the matter. At least some of these cases presented to the State Department over the past year probably amount to violations of U.S. and international law. The reports are received from across the U.S. government, international aid organizations, nonprofits, media reports and other eyewitnesses. Dozens include photo documentation of U.S.-made bomb fragments at sites where scores of children were killed. Yet despite the State Department’s internal Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, which directs officials to complete an investigation and recommend action within two months of launching an inquiry, no single case has reached the “action” stage, current and former officials told The Washington Post. More than two-thirds of cases remain unresolved, they said, with many pending response from the Israeli government, which the State Department consults to verify each case’s circumstances.

Israel Hits Gaza Town for Third Time in Days, Killing Dozens, Officials Say (NYT) The Israeli military on Tuesday hit a town in the northern Gaza Strip for the third time in just over a week, striking a residential building and killing dozens of people, Gazan officials said, as Israel intensified its offensive in the territory after more than a year of war. The Palestinian Civil Defense, a Gazan emergency service, said at least 55 people had been killed in the strike in the town of Beit Lahia. Gaza’s Health Ministry put the toll higher, saying that at least 93 people had been killed, including 25 children. Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesman, called the strike in Beit Lahia “a horrifying incident with a horrifying result” and noted that many of the children reportedly killed had probably fled strikes in other parts of Gaza.