grossjerk

[athenaschild5]

there's a video circulating of a so-called "comedian" at a Trump rally saying, and I quote: "There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico." So with that, let me introduce myself. Hi, my name is Rania. I was born, raised, and still live in Puerto Rico. I’m writing this because I need to rant about what we face here. Puerto Rico is officially a U.S. territory, or more specifically, an unincorporated territory. This essentially makes us the last colony in the world (look it up if you’d like). We don’t have sovereignty, we can’t vote for the U.S. president, we fight in the US military, but we still pay federal taxes. For over a century, we’ve been colonized and exploited. Our women were once used in forced birth control experiments, and we’re currently experiencing heavy gentrification that displaces locals and erases our culture. Our history has been whitewashed to cast the U.S. in a better light. When Hurricane María, a Category 5 storm, struck the island in 2017, it left a devastating impact that we’re still recovering from. Our power grid is fragile, with constant blackouts nearly every week. In the aftermath of the hurricane, Puerto Ricans pleaded for help. And what did we get? Donald Trump came down here—to toss rolls of paper towels to us. This actually happened; you can look it up. And while we struggle, local politicians mismanage funds (rob us) and exploit the system, especially those from the party that pushes for statehood. Puerto Rico deserves better than this colonial status and the constant overlooking of our struggles. We are resilient, but it’s time people understood the reality we live in. This is just the tip of the iceberg. While this is what’s generally known, most people don’t realize that often the only way things get done is through singers and artists who create businesses to help our communities, because the government fails to take action.

You invade us, you exploit us, you erase our identity, you abandon us and still, you have the audacity to applaud this.

I want to live on this island! I refuse to be just another young person who leaves because I can’t find a job or because the cost of living is skyrocketing! We keep talking, protesting, and fighting just to survive, and yet nothing changes. The U.S. still sees us as nothing more than a floating island of garbage. It’s infuriating!

We. Deserve. Better. Than. This.

[redcon-enthusiast]

come to the mojave! we have

60s sci fi mad scientists that put their brains in robot jars and can’t put a square peg in a square hole and think vivisection or dissection is the solution to all problems and have become childish idiots that are a far cry from the scientists they were

california, but it’s a country! and democratic like the US! and hopelessly corrupt to the point it makes the worst american cop look like a saint! at least they repealed their draconian gun control laws…

literally roman LARPers that are trying way too hard to come, see and conquer and are making Julius Caesar and the Senate that murdered him roll in their graves

what if all the casinos and unincorporated communities in Nevada made a country? spoiler alert, it’s inherently unstable and likely to collapse without a real government

OC factions and people

literally vietnam war reenactors (or soldiers from the rest from the military before it exploded) but hopelessly indecisive even though they could make the roman LARPers beg for mercy

“hi chat, I’m a creepy scientist that makes their dead wife from mad science, cybernetics, a little gene splicing (the only scientific part) for some reason!!!!

go away we don’t want you in this community”

“what if I made vulpes a three dimensional character *not even 3 weeks later* oh wait he somehow took the Strip, has depression and is sexually confused”

“i miss my wife and I’m confused and terrified Six”

*[+DISRESPECT] [+DISRESPECT] [+DISRESPECT]”

“i don’t want to take the strip i want my wife and to go back to my us military but tribe, also I put furry magazines in places dogboi will find”

“pete where the hell have you been for three months, I can’t raise the kid and be a soldier at once”

“hi i’m the creepy scientist’s cloned wife! wanna try this radscorp casserole?”

“i’m THE mailman”

“i’m the other mailman”

“i’m a pawn shop owner that- oh wait, now I’m partially responsible for vulpes falling off the deep end”

“i am a caterpillar that ate vulpes” *RIPPER NOISES* *DOOR INSTALLING NOISES*

“i’m theoretically trained in physics” “ow ouchie my soul”

“ursus major and taurus-“ *ICBM LAUNCH SOUNDS*

“ever heard of war crimes?”

“i am the definition of a modern major gener- *loud laser explosion* *CYBORG NOISES* al, an expert in specimens vitamin and mineral”

“i can’t make up my mind if I want to join or desert the legion, i’m going to leave- no wait, I’m going to die of thirst hiking the Mojave”

“hey vulpes want to fu-* *[+DISRESPECT]*

“i…. am DEPRESSION!* *APPLAUSE*

[dapurinthos]

so i finally got around to actually reading @dedalvs's the art of language invention for the purposes of its purpose (nine years later. this is why you buy the books, people! that giant pile is going to be read). i have copious highlights and notes on paper and here are some of the replies i had for parts of the book.

(i always get a kick out of when someone positions themselves as the ‘default’ for pronunciations because i have some quirks in my pronunciations, like the absence of the cot-caught (lot-thought, also father-bother which makes me go ??? those aren’t even near the same vowel) merger present in nearly all canadian english (most north american english, really) in my vowels. that was a fun day in linguistics class (everyone else: /kʰɒt/ /kʰɒt/. me: /koːt/ /kɔːt/).)

anyway, select passages behind the cut as to not crowd up your flist dash.

oh hildegard. you would have loved the bardcore version of 'hips don't lie'.

this is the gospel truth. go look at how japanese verbs function. they’re categorized as godan, ichidan, and irregular. how are they categorized? like a nightmare. godan verbs are ones that end with -u and move through the whole fucking vowel row of the hiragana chart, which is why they’re called ‘five-level’ verbs. u want to know where this vowel change takes place? oh it’s not a suffix or a prefix. nooooo it’s in the middle of the word (only the end when it’s the -u form). kikanai > kikimasu > kiku > kikeru > kikou, for the base godan verb bases (negative, polite, dictionary form, potential, volitional conjugations).

ichidan bases are easy in comparison. the -ru ending is the only thing that changes. and then there’s the godan ones that disguise themselves as ichidan verbs.

the irregular ones are fine. they're normal. there are only two of them — suru: 'to make'; and kuru: 'to come'. they're like particles so you get things like kaiten suru: 'to rotate, spin', where it's made up of the noun kaiten: 'revolution, rotation' and my verb friend suru: 'to make', so it's literally 'to make' + 'rotation'.

i took one look at japanese godan and ichidan conjugation, kidnapped the way the irregular verbs work (suru: to do/make/etc, kuru: to come; used like particles, after an action & such, like kaiten suru: to rotate, spin, lit. rotation + to do/to make), and then backed away slowly, not making eye contact. this was the correct choice. i also believe it was why i chose not to go further in my japanese study when i was eleven/twelve-ish. that and it was impossible to study japanese in a 20 000-person town excuse me unincorporated community in southern ontario during the previous millennium.

this poor caribou. i need to work this word into my vocabulary immediately.

i have the opportunity to do something really funny with what the word for the number four will be in taizhan-jen, in the grand tradition of four = death like: sì/sǐ (mandarin), sei3/sei2 (cantonese), shi for both (japanese), tứ/tử (vietnamese), sa for both (korean). like how i decided andobi (the name of a mountain range on ando) was a compound of ando + obi, so obi now means 'mountain', 'fixed/firm' and adding the adjectival suffix gets obi'i: 'steadfast'.

[fatehbaz]

When Mike Davis thought about California, he thought about concrete. In 1998, [...] [Davis] took the stage at the founding conference of Critical Resistance, the Los Angeles prison abolition organization, and held up a hunk of his driveway. To a kid in the 1950s, “this is what the California Dream was made of,” Davis regaled the audience. In those days, concrete embodied the postwar promise of liberal capitalism: “great dams,” good union jobs, and tuition-free colleges. Now, Davis looked at his prop and saw “something rather sinister.” Concrete meant the prison-industrial complex -- and the life-affirming investments that mass incarceration had crowded out. “Each of those prisons,” lamented Davis, “is a school or a hospital that’ll never be built.”

If public works are the material expression of political priorities, then we can learn a lot about a place from what gets built. Davis’s focus was on prisons, as the antithesis of the colorblind “California Dream” he grew up on in Fontana, a steel town fifty miles east of Los Angeles. But follow the concrete into another outlying region, and the relationship between race, infrastructure, and abandonment becomes even more tangible.

Beginning in the 1960s and accelerating after the election of Tom Bradley in 1973, the City of Los Angeles transformed its port from a lowly backwater into the nation’s “gateway to the Pacific Rim.” The San Pedro Bay Port Complex -- an amalgamation of the facilities in L.A. and neighboring Long Beach -- is today the busiest port in the Western hemisphere. Its growth stands as a triumph of political imagination, made possible by concrete and other raw materials. In the port’s shadow, however, live some of L.A.’s poorest and most marginalized communities. Places like the aptly named Harbor Gateway: a thin ribbon that links inland Los Angeles to the harbor region to the south. What might this area -- the gateway to the gateway to the world -- teach us about the struggle against inequality under global urban capitalism?

---

L.A.’s port was not always so central to the city’s economy and self-image. Its turbocharged expansion under Tom Bradley was part of the mayor’s larger project to make Los Angeles a “world city” [...]. Bradley’s L.A. sat at the vanguard of what liberal technophiles called the “New Economy”: a growth machine organized around finance, high-tech, and logistics, unlike the industrial factories of the Northeast and Midwest. The rising cohort [...] saw the financial sector and Silicon Valley as potential sources of inclusive economic development [...]. To proponents and critics alike, the emergent New Economy conjured images of an ethereal world of fictitious capital and instant communications. [...].

Rhetorically and literally, the “New Economy” was still grounded in specific places and structures, as L.A.’s logistics sector made clear. [...] The volume of containerized cargo passing through Los Angeles more than quadrupled in the 1980s, from 476,000 “cans” in 1981 to over two million in 1989. The cost of shipping from Asia dropped by as much as 60 percent. Today, L.A.’s is the busiest port in the Americas and ranks ninth worldwide. [...]

“What develops in the outer fields of Los Angeles and other megacities,” writes activist and scholar Charmaine Chua, “is an architecture of urban capitalism that has shifted away from ‘public works’ -- infrastructure as a public good -- and toward remaking the globe as a logistical leviathan.” The restructuring of the U.S. economy, in other words, can be understood in terms of the things that governments built, and the places that were allowed to languish.

---

Much of the wealth of the port must also pass through Harbor Gateway -- a working-class, mostly Latinx community in the area known as Southeast L.A. [...] Harbor Gateway is a cartographic contrivance, and because of this, it’s also a jurisdictional orphan: some of its homes fall within the tortured polygon of Los Angeles, while others lie in unincorporated L.A. County. Historically, this has allowed officials in both governments to take on, or skirt, responsibility. It’s often made Harbor Gateway a “No Man’s Land,” with neither the city nor county eager to meet the needs of its working-class Latinx community.

This and other overlooked areas have not benefitted from L.A.’s logistics revolution. But to say Harbor Gateway has been “left behind” would be incomplete. As Geismer argues, policymakers’ worries about those Americans whom globalization “left behind” has reinforced the belief that pockets of poverty and unemployment are exceptions to national economic growth, as opposed to features of economic restructuring.

In historical terms, the fate of Southeast L.A. is closely linked to the rise of logistics via the process that Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “organized abandonment.” While policymakers built up the logistics leviathan, Southeast L.A. lost many of the resources -- including decent jobs and housing, well-funded schools, and healthy environments -- that allow people to live meaningful lives. [...]

---

[C]ommunities near the port must live with the environmental consequences: diesel fumes, noise pollution, and chemical spills among them. In the early 2000s, researchers determined that the port complex was the largest air polluter in Southern California, emitting the equivalent of sixteen thousand tractor-trailers idling 24 hours a day.

Chua describes the considerable ecological and health problems associated with logistics, which include elevated rates of cancer, asthma, heart disease, and depression. In many of these places, however, the etiology of serious illness can be hard to pinpoint. From 1947 until 1982, Harbor Gateway was home to Montrose Chemical, the nation’s largest manufacturer of the notorious pesticide DDT. The plant remains an active Superfund site; in some areas, DDT levels exceed 700,000 parts per million. For years, Montrose also dumped barrels of “acid sludge” -- totally legally -- just off-shore. As many as half a million lay on the ocean floor, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.

---

There was no golden age of capitalism in Southeast L.A. The California Dream served to mask corporate abuse [...].

But the abandonment of places like Harbor Gateway has also intensified in times of austerity. Longstanding ecological violence is exacerbated by an approach to governing that privileges the logistics sector above all else. The human costs of that choice -- cancer, respiratory damage, heart disease -- are well documented.

This makes Southeast L.A. the underbelly of global capitalism -- of cities’ reliance on logistics amid grave social and environmental harms. Behind the promise of the just-in-time supply chain is a world of slow violence and premature death, distributed through racial and spatial disadvantage.

---

All text above by: David Helps. “The Politics of Concrete.” Protean (online). 21 July 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, personal use, criticism purposes.]

[rauthschild]

There are numerous layers of Peacekeepers at work in America; these men and women differ from Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) and occupy both concurrent and, in some cases, separate jurisdictions from LEOs.

Peacekeepers enforce the Law of the Land in international jurisdictions, and the Law of the Soil in national jurisdiction. They also interface with their counterparts operating in the international jurisdiction of the sea (Maritime Commerce) and the global jurisdiction of Admiralty.

Our Autochthonous American Government has superior concurrent general jurisdiction on air, land and sea. This means that our courts are enabled to judge both the Law itself, and the facts of any case brought before it.

American Admiralty does exist and we do have the ability to consider maritime and Admiralty issues with a few strictly limited exceptions delegated to our British Territorial Federal Subcontractors.

Our Peacekeepers uphold the international Law of the Land (Constitutions included), County Law (Law of the Nation) and State Law; they interface with Law Enforcement Officers in the international jurisdictions of the Sea (Maritime and Admiralty) and global jurisdiction of the Air (Roman Civil Law, Law Merchant) who enforce State-of-State Statutes, Administrative Codes, Regulatory Codes, Municipal Codes, Military Codes, and so on.

The important distinction to be made is that our Peacekeepers and courts enforce the actual Law, while Law Enforcement Personnel deal in Code Enforcement.

Our Continental Marshals are filling the spot vacated by the Federal Marshals Service: International Land Jurisdiction. Their expertise is international crimes committed on the land and soil, including human trafficking, interstate bank fraud, counterfeiting, contraband smuggling, interstate identity theft, credit fraud, embezzlement between two or more States, inland piracy, and similar crimes.

The thing to keep in mind is that Continental Marshals are international/interstate officers. Two or more States or foreign nations have to be involved in their investigations and enforcement activities. They can travel freely between States and carry on multiple investigations in diverse locations at once.

The Continental Marshals can be called upon for assistance including multi-state investigations and armed enforcement operations in their international jurisdiction. They are the guys to call when you need to bust an international child trafficking ring, interstate smuggling, multi-state racketeering, and similar crimes that may be impacting your State.

The Peacekeeping Task Force is similarly an international/interstate organization chartered by our Federation of States. PKTF's job is to network the various levels of Peacekeepers together, interface with and educate new Peacekeepers and Law Enforcement Officers, encourage cooperation and when necessary, enable joint operations.

If a Hurricane devastates a multi-state area, like Hurricane Katrina did in the Gulf States a few years ago, so that lives are endangered, utilities severed, and looting is rampant --- the PKTF will be able to quickly provide emergency communications and pull in help across a broad spectrum of local, state, federal and private organizations, deftly providing for their coordination and service delivery.

If there is ever an armed incursion, such as an invasion through Canada, the PKTF will be able to use their boots on the ground, their ham radio network, and other affiliated resources to coordinate military, militia, and peacekeeper response operations.

Our Unincorporated County Sheriffs are Peacekeepers holding the highest Peacekeeping Office in the country; they literally outrank all other Peacekeeping and Law Enforcement Officers, within the borders of the County they are elected to serve.

In addition to these Peacekeeping Officers and Elected Officials, we have Land Jurisdiction Marshals at Arms who are responsible for the security of our State Assemblies and State Assembly Militias that may be Deputized to engage in Peacekeeping operations.

We hope this gives everyone a clear and explicit picture of the authorities, jurisdictions of operation, and functions of our Peacekeepers as presently organized. These forces are all unincorporated and are operating on behalf of the American Public in the interests of Public Safety.

All Code systems, Municipal, Territorial, Federal, or State-of-State or otherwise, including Administrative Code, function via constructive contract, not law.

(Self v. Rhay, 61 Wa. 2nd, 261, 264-65, (Washington, 1963).

[alliswyattonthewesternfront]

i was trying to explain to someone that the huge influx of west coast conservative transplants are not only flipping historically blue areas red, but also impacting the few places in this state where you can actually get a decent education, specifically Oak Ridge. you know, my usual soap boxes.

and then they said something flippant like "well damn, if that place is the best the state had to offer before, it must really be bad now." and i just.

how. HOW do you know enough to realize Oak Ridge is part of Appalachia (and so voice extremely tired and boring stereotypes) but not enough to realize it was the headquarters of The Manhattan Project?? they are still doing uranium clean-up to this day for christ's sake. there are tons of opportunities for scientists in that town as is, not to mention the percentage of people still living there descended from the original scientists that founded* the town. you think a bunch of PhD having motherfuckers are gonna send their kids to a shitty school if they don't have to? i am so tired. people learn just enough about this area to make hack jokes, and then nothing else.

*Oak Ridge exists bc the U.S. government seized land from the rural unincorporated farming communities in the area, literally making some folks homeless overnight. so "founded" is a reach, even more so than it usually is in this colonized nightmare of a country. it is also yet another example of our government forcefully imposing segregation in areas of East Tennessee as punishment for opposing the Confederacy during thr Civil War, which continues to this day btw. i don't even know that half the bureaucrats who engage in that shit are fully conscious of its roots at this point, but i don't care i still hate them :)

[jaymesdoodles]

Bruh I don't live in a rural area. but it's unincorporated area. AND IT SUCKS. no transport. no sidewalks. but like I would go to the story is the road I live on isn't literally dangerous. UGH. UN WALKABLE COMMUNITIES /NEG

[folklaurr]

I live in a military town and we’re have a housing crisis rn. The house down the street from me is literally 2 bedrooms with one bathroom and just sold for almost $600,000 and I’m LOSING IT

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

I needed to make a whole separate post for the strange American Gothic phenomenon of the Cross in the Woods, the world’s tallest crucifix built in the middle of the woods in an unincorporated community in Michigan, right before you hit the Mackinac Bridge.

It’s built like a roadside attraction (complete with “Don’t Miss the Cross in the Woods!” signs and a huge gift shop) and, apparently, also includes a Nun Doll Museum in one of the shrines. 

We decided, spontaneously, to follow the signs for it on this past Christmas Eve. It was mid-afternoon and the roads were pretty busy, but the parking lot was empty and there were no tracks on the little path from the parking lot to the cross, even though it hadn’t snowed for a few days. The trees around the parking lot were absolutely filled with starlings, which were all screeching at one another as we made the little walk to the crucifix. The path was basically a sheet of ice, covered in a thin layer of snow, and we essentially had to skate the whole way, holding onto the hand rails where they were present.

This is the first view you get, through the trees, after you’ve walked past several snowy saint statutes. There’s a lake not far behind the cross which you can’t see from the path, but you can hear the creaking of the ice in the winter echoing through this little clearing. There’s an open area further along where you can sit on benches in front and, presumably, attend mass, but it looked like no one had been there for months. I’d have expected there to be a Christmas Eve service, but I cannot fully explain how empty the place looked when we were there. I checked online afterwards and yep, there was a Christmas Vigil held at 4:30, literally an hour and a half after we were there, but there was no sign of life throughout the oddly silent quarter of an hour we spent on the little path. 

[pointreyesjournal]

Inverness : ep16

It’s time to depart from the cafe and confirm what I think I know about Point Reyes.

Here’s what I know about Point Reyes.

There’s a point with a lighthouse

There’s a tree tunnel

And that concludes what I know about Point Reyes.

To reach Point Reyes from Point Reyes Station, you head south and then west out of town. After you cross the bridge, make a right and head toward the tiny unincorporated community of Inverness.

Sir Francis Drake Boulevard heads north with the Inverness Ridge towering above to the left and the Tomales Bay Ecological Reserve (and swampy coastal estuary) to the right.

There are a couple of bed and breakfasts on the left side before reaching the “main” part of town. Looking ahead I can see two buildings, on the left the Saltwater Oyster Depot and on the right the Inverness Store. These two buildings seem to make up the entirety of downtown Inverness. As I’m passing the Inverness Store something catches my eye. There's a shipwreck behind the store! It looks like there’s a damn boat in the parking lot!

I jam on the brakes and whip into the parking lot.

I can hardly believe what I’m seeing, but there, about 100 feet behind the little grocery store, is an old wooden fishing boat sitting stranded on the sand. It’s gorgeous! My photographic mind is racing. This scene is so incredible, so iconic, that I’ve got to imagine every man, woman and child with a camera or iPhone has stopped here to take a photo.

That actually brings me to a philosophical point of discussion.

If every place has been photographed a zillion times, how can you blaze new trail as a landscape photographer?

Let’s see if we can break this down.

There are known photographic locations. ALL of those known photographic locations have been photographed, literally countless times, over and over again, day after day. A perfect example would be the Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley or the Pyramids of Giza.

Then there are unknown photographic locations. These might consist of a stand of redwood trees deep in a forest, or an alpine lake high in the mountains that would take days or even weeks of hiking to reach.

But let’s focus on known photographic locations (let’s call them popular spots), as I’m absolutely certain that this boat is a popular spot. The moment I get home and google “shipwreck inverness” the search will inevitably return about 123,000 image results.

I have a couple of theories on popular spots.

First, if there is only one reasonable composition of a spot, I as a photographer should do everything in my power to execute that composition masterfully, making sure to scrutinize the composition to ensure that the image is level, in focus, has the correct exposure duration, and there are no distractions like cars or power lines hanging in the image. Furthermore my goal is to create a photograph that is superior to any similar image that is returned on the google results. Thus it’s likely that I will first photograph the scene in broad daylight to study the results carefully on the home computer, then I’ll return to the location during the right season, at the right time of day (typically sunrise or sunset), and also during a time when there are interesting weather events (such as clouds) occurring. This means that, to photograph a popular spot, I will likely return multiple times, over many days, weeks and months (even years) in order to create a masterful image of that location.

I want the best fucking image ever taken of that spot.

Some popular spots only support a single composition. Other popular spots allow for the photographer to compose and create something original. This is fun. This is where the photographer becomes an artist, creating something truly new and unique. This separates the men from the boys … the wheat from the chaff.

In sporting terms, photographing a popular spot with a single compositional opportunity is like doing compulsory maneuvers in gymnastics and figure skating. In figure skating, before learning to jump and spin, you must master drawing compulsory “figures” in the ice as you skate. Can’t draw a figure of eight? Then you can’t even compete.

But creating an original composition in photography … that’s like busting out a triple axel for a gold medal.

Irrespective of whether I’m creating a new composition, or trying to replicate a tried and true composition, I want to execute at the highest level. I fully understand and am telling you directly, there is no best in art. Art is subjective. Music is subjective. Aesthetics are subjective.

But since a little cognitive dissonance is a good thing, I’ll also tell you quite contradictorily, that my goal is to create the best damn image that’s ever been taken of each spot. I’ll return to a spot year after year if needed to achieve that goal.

I want my images to just slay every other image of the spot.

That’s not weirdly competitive is it?

[incognito-princess]

Sometimes (not often) I forget how amazing it is to get to live where I live.

It's Independence Day. I've already been to the local fire department pancake breakfast.

I decide to go for coffee afterward and then take a drive around my community. It's about 13.5 miles to circumnavigate. The eastern most part is out on the high prairie. The community (not a town, we're unincorporated) is built on slopes of a valley that is the ancient flood plan of Fountain Creek. There's an area that has an irrigation reservoir that's surrounded by open prairie with no development. There's a place on the road where all you can see is the Rampart Range of the Rockies, dominated by 14,115' Pikes Peak and the prairie. We've had a lot of rain lately, so the grasses are green and tall. Some have golden tops. It's a little breezy today, so the grasses waved and rippled. There wasn't a cloud in the blue sky. Around me, pronghorn grazed, prairie dogs scampered, and hawks soared.

I could literally see every word of the the first verse of "American the Beautiful" which makes perfect sense, since K. L. Bates was standing on top of Pikes Peak when she wrote it.

O beautiful, for spacious skies,

for amber waves of grain.

For purple mountains majesty,

above the fruited plain.

And I realized that she was literally looking at the land my house is built on when she wrote that. That something...

[lodgestyleeventcenter]

Watts, Oklahoma

Watts is an unincorporated community in Oklahoma's northern Adair County. It was assigned the name John Watts, also known as Tassel, a Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Young Chief Young Tassel (1802), or died in the 1830s. In the 2010 census, 324 people were counted, up 2.5 percent from the previous decade's figure of 316.

Back in the Pines is nestled in the picturesque landscapes of northeast Oklahoma near Tahlequah and northwest Arkansas near Siloam Springs. A brand new, massive facility with a preserved rustic barn built literally inside the lodge, making it the ideal country style wedding and party location.

Tulane Green Wave

The Houston Cougars beat the Tulane Green Wave by a score of 33 to 23. For the first time since 2016, the Sooners will begin the season on the road. Willie Fritz's Houston Cougars are coming off their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance. The Oklahoma Sooners kick off their season against Texas A&M on September 4 at home. The Cougars finished last season with a 10-3 SEC record and were the conference's top seed heading into this season.

Fort Wayne Historical Marker

Fort Wayne was established in 1838 by Lt. Col. R.B. Mason, 1st Dragoons, United States Army, at the request of Arkansas citizens concerned about Cherokees being withdrawn from the southeastern United States. The fort was originally located in the NE corner of present-day Watts, on a hill overlooking the Illinois River, and was named after Gen. Mad Anthony Wayne. The fort was decommissioned in 1839 and relocated to Beatie's Prairie, west of Maysville, Arkansas. In 1842, the site was abandoned, and troops were relocated to Fort Scott, Kansas.

When the Civil War broke out, Cherokee leader Stand Watie took control of the area and founded the Confederacy's Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The Union suddenly attacked the Confederates at the Battle of Old Fort Wayne in 1862, forcing them to withdraw. According to what I've read, most people in the city were apparently unaware of Fort Wayne's existence before the landmark was completed.

Link To Map

Head south on S 4680 Rd toward E 630 Rd/E0630 Rd

Turn right onto E 630 Rd/E0630 Rd

E 630 Rd/E0630 Rd turns left and becomes S 4680 Rd/N4670 Rd

Turn left onto E 648 Rd/Chewey Dr

Turn left onto US-59 N

Turn left onto Pine St

Back In The Pines 62101 South CR 4680 Watts, OK 74964

[antoine-roquentin]

In 2018, residents of the town of Grand Island near Niagara Falls in upstate New York fiercely opposed a solar farm currently under construction on 42 acres of undeveloped land nearby. On the West Coast, San Bernardino county residents vehemently reject large-scale solar projects in the region’s massive plots of desert. Similar battles are playing out in Eaton County, Michigan; in Anderson, Indiana; and near Madison, Wisconsin, to name a few.

Other “not in my backyard” pushback comes from literal backyards: Unhappy neighbors and homeowners associations have blocked homeowners from installing solar panels on rooftops and in yards, deploying familiar-sounding complaints about “neighborhood character” (also: glare). In October, for example, Washington, D.C.’s Historic Preservation Review Board rejected efforts to allow owners of historic homes to install solar panels on the front-facing rooftops of historic homes. “I just have this vision of a row of houses with solar panels on the front of them and it just—it upsets me,” said one board member, according to Greater Greater Washington. Only recently did that board loosen its guidelines to allow non-visible solar panels “if it is necessary.”...

This summer, a group called Citizens for Responsible Solar, founded by the Republican political consultant Susan Ralston, announced plans to help residents across the U.S. fight solar projects after successfully defeating a proposed 1,600-acre plant in its hometown of Culpepper County, Virginia, according to E&E News....

Objections to a 400-acre solar farm in Rowan County, North Carolina, for example, led developers to withdraw their application; county commissioners then enacted a six-month moratorium on future solar projects. In San Bernardino, the county board of advisors voted to ban large, non-community renewable energy projects on one million acres of unincorporated private land owned by the county.

[someguyscaliforniavoterguide]

Select L.A. County/California Races, March 3, 2020

Hi friends, it’s me again. I am here to offer my opinions on how you should vote. As before I am up front about my biases: I am a Warren supporter, I live in L.A. and I am actively pro-density (Yay SB50, you deserved better) and pro-transit. I live in the east Valley, so I tend to focus more closely on the issues that directly impact my side of town, though I try to keep an ear out on things countywide. 

Last time I did this a couple of folks reached out to give me gifts to say thanks for doing this guide. This year, I would encourage anybody who wants to say thanks to donate $5 to Fair Fight,  a group founded by Stacey Abrams to fight voter suppression in the 2020 election. We’re gonna need all the help we can get in November to defeat the GOP, and Abrams is doing it in a smart way. 

Other voting guides

This is my voting guide and reflects my general opinion on things. However, I am indebeted to many other guides, including the Knock L.A. Voter Guide and the L.A. Podcast Voter Guide for their takes. I don’t always agree with them, but both of these are invaluable resources for the progressive voter in Los Angeles. 

L.A. City Council 

This year the even numbered seats are up for re-election. Half of them are effectively uncontested, a couple are very much contested, and two are free for all because of term limits. 

CD2: Ayinde Jones

Look none of these candidates set my heart afire. I work with Councilmember Krekorian’s office a lot (remember, I live in the east Valley) and he’s a competent politician with a ton of endorsements and community ties, I have no illusion he’s going to win his full term comfortably on March 3. However, I believe it’s good to encourage competition, and Ayinde Jones did a good (not great) job at the candidate forum I attended hitting on themes of how the parts of CD2 north of Victory are being left behind as the area evolves. I wish he were better on S50, but then again all three candidates were opposed, so that’s kind of a wash. I look forward to hearing more from Jones in the future. 

CD4: Sarah Kate Levy

From a paucity of options to a surplus of options next door. CD4 is currently represented by David Ryu, a politician who came out of the Neighborhood Council system and went on to become...a city hall politician. Both his opponents are great. Nithya Raman is the founder of SELAH, a group that does amazing work helping the unhoused in Los Angeles, and recently led Times Up! Hollywood for a year. I’d vote for her in a heartbeat, but I am encouraging people to vote for Sarah Kate Levy for two reasons: first, Levy is unabashedly supportive of SB50 and we need this kind of leadership, and second I am hoping these two excellent women will get so many votes that they overwhelm Ryu and leave him in third place. Fingers crossed. 

CD6: Bill Haller 

This is another shoo-in. Nury Martinez is the City Council president and has the backing of the County party and all the local clubs. I am endorsing Bill Haller because he supports an agenda that includes more public funding for affordable housing, more and better transit, and climate justice.  

CD8: Marqueece Harris-Dawson 

There are no other candidates in this race, so congratulations on your re-election Councilmember Harris-Dawson. 

CD10: Aura Vasquez 

This is an open seat, and the smart money has Mark Ridley-Thomas as the frontrunner. Ridley-Thomas is a current member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors (more on them later) who is termed out of that position. I’m endorsing Aura Vasquez, a progressive activist with ties to Mid-City who has served as a commissioner for LADWP and led fights for renewable energy, banning single use plastics, and housing affordability in her community. 

CD12: Loraine Lundquist 

Dr. Lundquist rules. She takes public transit to debates, she is an honest to goodness scientist, and she nearly beat a Republican in what is the most conservative district in L.A. during a special election. I have donated money to this lady because we need to win this one. Her opponent, John Lee, wasted no time in trying to block housing for the homeless in his district and in attacking a successful safer streets project on Reseda Blvd. The city has a chance - a really great chance thanks to the realigned municipal elections - to toss out the worst possible councilmember in favor of the most progressive voice, don’t mess it up. 

CD14: Cyndi Otteson

This race is Kevin de Léon’s to lose, but he won’t commit to serving a full term since he really wants to be mayor. I say let him have his spare time to run for mayor and select Ms. Otteson, a grassroots activist who has the support of the UTLA and who is the only voice in favor of the Colorado Blvd alignment of the NoHo to Pasadena BRT project. Transit equity matters, and Ms. Otteson deserves your vote this March. 

LAUSD School Board 

Deferring to the teachers’ endorsements on this one. 

Board Seat 1: George McKenna

Board Seat 3: Scott Schmerlson

Board Seat 5: Jackie Goldberg

Board Seat 7: Patricia Castellanos

Glendale City Council: Dan Brotman 

An environmental activist with progresive views, Brotman will be a useful voice in Glendale’s city hall. 

District Attorney: Rachel Rossi 

George Gascón and Rachel Rossi will both be light years better than the current county D.A., Jackie Lacey. Both have promised to make substantial reforms in the office. I am really torn on this one, since I think Gascón’s experience as a Deputy DA in San Francisco is a big deal, and since he has the backing of the County Party. I am endorsing Rossi in a tilt-at-windmills hope that somehow she and Gascón make it to the final ballot in November and give us a thoughtful debate between a career prosecutor bent on reform and a public defender whose goal is reform about methods and ideas. Anyway, don’t vote for Jackie Lacey is all I am saying here. 

Superior Court

Voting for judges is stupid. We shouldn’t be doing this, but since we have to, I’ll make some suggestions. My math is based on other progressive endorsements, Party endorsements, and reverse-engineering some well known conservative voting guides to, if nothing else, make sure I am not voting for their endorsement. 

Office 17: Shannon Kathleen Cooley (the race is uncontested) 

Office 42: Linda Sun

Office 72: Myanna Dellinger

Office 76: Emily Cole (Cole is a prosecutor, but her opponent is a man who literally changed his name to “Judge” after serving as a judge in Stanislaus County) 

Office 80: Klint James McKay

Currently an administrative law judge, he impressed Public Defender Union representatives with his thoughtful and articulate answers to their questioning.

Office 97: Sherry L. Powell (Powell’s opponent ran as a conservative Republican for state assembly in 2018, this is a defensive vote)

Office 129: Kenneth Fuller

Office 131: Michelle Kelley (the race is uncontested)

Office 141: Lana Kim (the race is uncontested)

Office 145: Troy Slaten (Slaten’s opponent has a troubling history of misconduct and should not be elected to a judgeship) 

Office 150: Tom Parsekian

Office 162: David D. Diamond

L.A. County Board of Supervisors

The Supervisors oversee policy for the County, including all unincorporated areas, the LASD, County Health services, etc. For a county of TEN MILLION PEOPLE, there are only five supervisors, so they have a hugely outsized influence. 

Seat 2: Jorge Nuno 

A lot of progressives are endorsing Holly Mitchell in this seat. Me, I just can’t go there when she’s speaking at events for Livable California and when she gave a floor speech opposing SB50. Though he’s the front runner, Herb Wesson doesn’t deserve your vote - he was City Council president when the homelessness crisis exploded and he’s done little to address it. Nuno is a progressive and has an ambitious platform. 

Seat 4: Janice Hahn 

She’s solid, and nobody’s pushing her from the left. 

Seat 5: John Harabedian 

Kathryn Barger, the incumbent, is a Republican who supports Trump’s immigration policies. John Harabedian is a solidly Center Left Democrat who has the backing of the county party and who could, in this presidential election year, win an upset in what is traditionally a Republican stronghold of L.A. County. Vote for him. 

County Ballot Measures

Measure R: YES YES YES 

This will provide crucial tools to the already existing civilian oversight committee for the LASD, including subpoena powers. It also requires the commission to study ways to divert offenders from jail. You need to vote yes on this. 

State Ballot Measures 

Prop 13: Yes

$15B in bonds to invest in public schools and “local control” to allow local school districts to issue larger bonds. The only real opposition is from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a revanchist organization that is singlehandedly responsible for much of our state and local problems in the past few decades. Don’t listen to them. 

Congressional Elections 

Despite some misgivings, I am generally supporting the progressive challengers here to hopefully lead to a Progressive/Center Left election in the fall. 

CD 25: Christy Smith 

She has a good track record in the state assembly and a strong local support network. She’s not a carpetbagger with a YouTube show, and she’s not a Republican. 

CD 28: Adam Schiff 

He’s not the most progressive guy in Congress but he’s been critical to holding Trump accountable. He’s earned this vote. 

CD 29: Angelica Duenas 

Tony Cardenas is a bit of a non-entity on the national stage but he does good local work and he was an early vote in favor of impeachment. The rape allegations against him which troubled me last time were dismissed with prejudice in 2019. Cardenas has a progressive challenger, Angelica Marie Duenas, who has run in the past as a Green Party candidate. I don’t trust her decision to abandon that label and come into the Democrats after getting drubbed in 2018, but overall I like her ideas and I’d be happy to see her and Cardenas in a runoff this year. 

CD 30: CJ Berina 

Brad Sherman is an okay Congressmember. CJ Berina is a young, progressive challenger who’s attracted the attention of the Sunrise Movement. I’d vote for him to try to push the GOP out of the runoff and make this a race between the Center Left and the Progressive Left. 

CD 34: Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla

Jimmy Gomez is solid; let’s push the GOP out of the runoff though by supporting this progressive. 

State House 

District 39: Luz Rivas

District 41: Chris Holden 

District 43: Laura Friedman 

District 44: Jacqui Irwin

District 45: Jesse Gabriel 

District 46: Adrin Nazarian

District 48: Blanca Rubio 

District 49: Edwin Chau 

District 50: Richard Bloom

District 51: Wendy Carillo

District 53: Godfrey Plata

District 54: Tracey Jones

District 55: Andrew Rodriguez

District 58: Margaret Villa

District 59: Reggie Jones-Sawyer

District 62: Autumn Burke

District 63: Anthony Rendon

District 64: Fatima Iqbal-Zubair

District 66: Al Muratsuchi

District 70: Patrick O’Donnell

State Senate

SD 21: Kipp Mueller

SD 23: Abigail Medina

SD 25: No Endorsement - I rarely do this but honestly Anthony Portantino does not deserve your vote. Write in Mickey Mouse. 

SD 27: Henry Stern

SD 29: Josh Newman

SD 31: Richard Roth

SD 33: Lena Gonzalez

SD 35: Steven Bradford

County Committees 

Look this is getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaay into the weeds. What I am going to say is this: I know that a lot of “progressive” slates are out there and I encourage you to try your best to vet them. In my district, one of the candidates is somebody I know personally - she actively campaigned for Jill Stein, she circulated the decades-old “Clinton Death List” to voters, and she pushed Pizzagate theories. I am not voting for this person, but she is endorsed by “Progressive California” so...just be careful. 

[annesphoto]

I've been feeling more reflective than usual with all the recent coronavirus social distancing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ True or false: Humans and plants are strangely similar. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hear me out on this one, because I just realized something: we both have roots. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Yes, plants have literal roots, but humans have roots that ground us on our journey through life. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ For example, my roots stem back to an unincorporated Midwestern town in the rural region of middle-of-nowhere USA where everybody knew everybody. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Growing up in a small community where everyone worked hard and appreciated friends and family really made an impact on me, and I’m a better person because of it.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ As time goes on, we, like plants, may grow more branches and sprout more flowers, but everything depends on a strong foundation. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Tell me friend, where are your roots, and what have you learned from them? https://ift.tt/2xdGnyO

[pizzabandsyoutube]

Moving To Littleton Colorado 

Prehistoric men once inhabited this area. Their settlements date back to about 7,000 B.C. A prehistoric site of early hunters was discovered at Lamb Springs, two miles southwest of Littleton, by Charles Lamb in 1960. The Spanish military expedition of Pedro de Villasur to this area took place in 1720. From 1770 to 1800, Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes of Native Americans migrated to this region.

Fur trappers and traders frequented the area in the early and mid 19th century. The community was named after one of the early settlers, Richard Sullivan Little. The local economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing during World War II. Plants grown here were used for the production of pneumatics, munitions and aerospace products.

The best places to live in Colorado include Boulder , Castle Rock , Colorado Springs , Fort Collins , Lakewood , Littleton , and Pueblo Universities like Colorado, Colorado State and the U.S. Air Force Academy grace the education scene, while pro sports teams include the Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies and Avalanche.

Ask a Littleton local what to do, and they will more than likely point you in the direction of one of Littleton's countless trailheads, especially Deer Creek Canyon Park The 2.7 mile round-trip jaunt for mountain bikers or hikers of all levels provides vantage points of downtown Denver and scenic fall foliage.

About 18,000 students attend Arapahoe Community College, one of Colorado's largest, and Littleton Public Schools is one of the state's premiere school districts with the highest graduation rate and lowest dropout rate of any high schools in the metro area.  Littleton Public Schools has won Colorado’s highest academic accreditation rating seven years in a row and is listed among the Top 20 in the nation for safety and security. In fact, Littleton’s schools consistently claim some of the top spots on Niche.com for best school district, best places to teach, and best teachers.

The City of Englewood is served by the Englewood Public Schools (EPS), a district with two high schools, Englewood High and Colorado's Finest High School Of Choice Small parts of the city are served by the Littleton Public Schools and the Sheridan Public Schools. South of town the large suburbs of Littleton and Centennial offer good schools and housing, and still further south Castle Rock offers family living in more of a country setting, though growth in this direction has been maybe a little too rapid

Whether you're drawn to the capital city of Denver (Colorado's largest city by a wide margin) or to one of the smaller cities or mountain communities, you'll find plenty of apartments for rent to explore before you settle in and find a home to call your own.

Thus, many addresses written as "Englewood, Colorado" are actually in the Arapahoe County cities of Sheridan , Cherry Hills Village , Greenwood Village , or Centennial ; or in Meridian in unincorporated Douglas County This area includes part of the Denver Tech Center and the surrounding commercial development along the I-25 corridor, which is often erroneously attributed to Englewood; the city actually lies several miles west.

Whether you're into extreme sports or prefer to simply take in the breathtaking views, Colorado has the scenery and adventures to keep drawing people out of their apartments. By approximately 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 other people.

According to USA Today, nearby Denver is one of America’s top 10 “thinnest” cities. The ranking is based on only 19.3% of its population being obese, which is low compared to other locations.The original founder of Denver’s oldest restaurant, the Buckhorn Exchange, met Buffalo Bill when he was 10 years old and, within two years, was riding with both Buffalo Bill and the great Indian Chief, Sitting Bull. The later even gave him the nickname, “Shorty Scout,” because of his small stature.

Also Denver International Airport is the largest airport in the country in terms of land area. It’s so huge that the four busiest airports in the US (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, O’Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport) could fit into Denver Airport’s 53-square miles of land. 

With its great schools clean air and wide open spaces Littleton Colorado is an attractive place to call home. If your considering relocating to the area be sure to get multiple moving quotes from Long Distance Moving Companies. By doing so you can literally save 30% - 40% off your moving costs.