Hey, remember back in early November when I said I was going to take a week or so off? So, I think I’m back. The plan is to not do links but to maybe have a paragraph or so as the open thread, and then have more time/effort to write longer form stuff. I don’t know if that will pan out.
I think except over the holidays, the conversation was fine in the abbreviated open threads. But I do like the community aspect of linking to other blogs always including local ones. So we’ll see how it goes. If you want more links, or whatever, let me know.
Happy
New Year12/4/16, HA libbies.General Motors invests $500 million in Lyft, plans self-driving cars
http://www.marketwatch.com/sto.....2016-01-04
I don’t get it. Why pay a premium for a Lyft stake when GM could instead buy a whole mess of taxi medallions at a substantial discount to prior price levels?
@1 “Happy New Year 12/4/16, HA libbies.”
Figures, considering the poster. You gotta stop getting loaded on rubbing alcohol, Bickle. Surely you can afford the good stuff? After all, you’re a multimillionaire radiologist.
Some genius tweeter came up with creative terminology to describe the morons occupying a federal wildlife refuge building in Oregon: “Y’all Qaeda waging Yeehawd.” Meanwhile, someone else noted the irony of armed white guys “taking back” land their armed white ancestors took from Native Americans.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/.....index.html
The Yeehawdists apparently are upset about federal ownership of western land, period. Never mind that the Malheur Refuge is a major wetland on the Pacific Flyway and a resting stop for hundreds of bird species. It probably never occurred to these selfish bastards that we all own this land together, and that millions of non-ranching Americans care about the birds and other wildlife that depend on this land for their survival. These fucks think nobody counts except farmers and ranchers.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
“Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was established on August 18, 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt as the Lake Malheur Reservation. Roosevelt set aside unclaimed government lands encompassed by Malheur, Mud and Harney Lakes “as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds.” The newly established “Lake Malheur Reservation” was the 19th of 51 wildlife refuges created by Roosevelt during his tenure as president. At the time, Malheur was the third refuge in Oregon and one of only six refuges west of the Mississippi. … The refuge now encompasses 187,757 acres of wildlife habitat. The 65,000 acre Blitzen Valley was purchased in 1935 and added to the refuge to secure water rights for Malheur and Mud Lake. With the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933, the refuge was able to use this additional manpower in 1935 to begin major improvements on the refuge. The CCC constructed most of the infrastructure in the Blitzen Valley including the Center Patrol Road which travels through the center of the refuge. The 14,000 acre Double-O unit was added to the refuge in 1942 and provides important shorebird habitat, as well as waterfowl nesting areas. Malheur Refuge is situated within the Harney Basin in southeastern Oregon. Located in the Northern Great Basin, this portion of the State is lightly populated, generally arid with cold winters, and characterized by wide open spaces. The Refuge constitutes a small percentage of the Northern Great Basin’s total acreage but is a tremendously important source of wildlife habitat relative to other portions of the Northern Great Basin. The Refuge represents a crucial stop along the Pacific Flyway and offers resting, breeding, and nesting habitat for hundreds of migratory birds and other wildlife. Many of the species migrating through or breeding here are highlighted as priority species in national bird conservation plans.”
As Woody Guthrie sang, “this land is my land, this land is your land,” it’s not their land for the taking.
When I saw these domestic enemies cooking on the electric stove, I asked myself why they still have electricity and water. Cut them off. Surround them and let them beg to be let out.
@3,
One of the most baffling conversations I’ve ever had was with a group of these open range advocates. To be clear, the folks I talked with have nothing whatsoever to do with Bundy and his tribe of criminal racist nut jobs. They were just local land owners whose economic practices depended upon extensive private use of publicly owned resources. They essentially placed tradition ahead of sound stewardship. And they insisted that proximity trumped legal ownership. I found it impossible to explore those basic assumptions with them. And even once it was demonstrated to them that these were the fundamental claims they were making, they refused to discuss the issue on those terms. Unless I was willing to agree to their “David vs. Goliath” frame, they would not talk. Pointless.
@5 I think you’ve accurately described the mindset of ruralists. Farming and ranching west of the Mississippi River is able to exist only because of massive federal subsidies for reclamation projects, nearly free use of public lands for private economic activities (grazing, mining, etc.), plus their roads, schools, electricity, mail delivery, etc., are all subsidized by urban dwellers. So how do they express their gratitude? By hating the city people who prop up their lifestyle, by being anti-government and threatening public servants, and by voting Republican (i.e., for “small government”).
These people are, in fact, functional socialists and America’s biggest beneficiaries of public largesse. Even dogs, who are stupid, know better than to bite the hands that find them. I don’t think they’re stupid, though. They’re smart enough to read a balance sheet and profit-and-loss statement. Nor does stupidity drive their rhetoric and behavior; the correct term here is “dishonesty.” They’re big-time takers, and can only be understood from this perspective.
As for talking about it, they don’t want to participate in reasoned debate of these issues because they know they can’t possibly justify their demands. So they fall back on emotional “tradition” arguments to avoid the debate. Like highway robbers everywhere, they converse with the rest of society on a “your money or your life” plane.
@3
I’m going with Yokel Haram
Donald Duck should be talking about this. Not sure we should pretend we are better than Illegal Immigrants because they Rape, if we Rape ourselves too. Right Donald? Or is Donald and the rest of his ilk condoning this type of rape and abuse?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....58f65c0dcd
What do you think Boob? You all set because your happy?
Life will be so great for Boob when everyone else is dead and Boob is living by himself with his money.
@4 I was think the same thing…but I was thinking that they should build a wall, like the great wall of china, similar to Trumps Mexican wall, and then never let anyone in or out, and tell them that they can have the lodge or building. Just don’t give them too much land, as limited as possible. Send them a few Bibles so they don’t get bored.
@10,
best to wait and see what develops. No need to hurry. Time spent by the Bundys camping out at the BLM office is less time to make real trouble elsewhere. We know where they are. And it makes it much easier (and legal) to carefully identify each member of the group and build the file. They’ll enjoy the attention for a few days until Trump does something to distract the media. Then they’ll just go home. Meanwhile FBI and DHS have each one of them named and fully detailed in an ongoing federal criminal investigation. Nobody gets hurt and we all get to be a little bit safer.
@ 3 and 7
I’ve heard the term “Vanilla ISIS” bandied about. Funny thing, the supposed “leader” of this little wanna be terrorist cell, literally is a man who was severely kicked in the head by a mule when he was a teenager and spent several months in a coma. These idiots expect to be made martyrs. They’re openly demanding that the big bad government come in gunz-a-blazin’ and fuck them up.
I heard a suggestion on another blog I read on occasion. That was, to hire a shitload of 11-14 year old kids, pay them $100 a day each to sit around the building and throw rocks at the windows and the roof and the Rednecks trucks. Then dump a couple dozen cubic yards of egg-sized stones. No set time limits and the kids can do whatever they want otherwise as long as those rocks keep flying.
Hell, thats as sound an idea as I’ve heard in a long time.
Then there’s this guy.
Sigh.
@7…
I’m partial to ‘vanilla isis’:
I like “Yeehawdis” myself.
@12 Wouldn’t work because these terrorists would shoot the kids.
Meanwhile, Paul Ryan and other Republicans are condemning President Obama’s planned executive actions on guns as “dangerous overreach,” even though they haven’t a clue what the president plans to do, although it apparently will consist mostly of enforcement activity. So now, according to GOPers, it’s unconstitutional for the executive branch to enforce laws already on the books. How much sillier can they get?
Republicans have morphed into toddlers who throw tantrums to get what they want, and Democrats now have to be the parents who say “no.”
A new Trump ad promises to seal off the U.S. – Morocco border.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/.....index.html
A new Trump ad promises to seal off the U.S. – Morocco border. Really R senile?
Metaphors are always lost on DUMMOCRETINS!
Republicans have morphed into toddlers who throw tantrums to get what they want, and Democrats now have to be the parents who say “no.”
Really R senile?
Anyone who attacks Heilary Clinton is a misogynist! Anyone who attacked Obummer was a racist!
Uncle Puddles,
Are you willing to be the HA rep who will drive to Burns, OR to deliver snacks we collect for the FREEDUMB fighters?
Let me know where we can meet up so I can get you the bird seed.
FlubScout,
Puddy is NOT the HA Rep. Think about it. HA DUMMOCRETINS cheered when “Dr.” Oedipus wrote some silly script to hide Truth and FACTS from leetle DUMMOCRETIN eyes.
Hence Puddy suggests you do it Flubscout!
Or send the race baiter rujaxoffallthetimestillprovingnuthinappears! That will work!
Moooooslim Cleric = Evanfuckigal Pastor.
Uncle Puddles,
You certainly are the HA rep to the FREEDUMB fighters in Burns, OR.
Who else it you can so eloquently voice the talking points of OBUMMER oppression through BLM bird sanctuaries?
Step up & need their call to deliver snacks to save us from tyranny.
Bundy, per and fils, and associates are Mormons; they use the LDS phraseology. The LDS expected to install a new “country” in that area. They’re not just anti-fed rednecks.
Sorry Flubscout you are still confused. HA is represented by DUMMOCRETINS like yourself!
Bundy, per and fils, and associates are Mormons; they use the LDS phraseology.
So Sarah, TPPS ( Triple Packed Pressure Steve) can figure them out since that’s his religion too!
North Korea claims to have conducted a “hydrogen” test, and news sources report a “man made” 5.1 earthquake at NK’s nuclear test site.
@19 So now lies are “metaphors” in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Republican-speak?