From https://xcancel.com/fearghaskelly/status/1833826081754808363?s=42

!michael-laugh I can't believe this is real holy shit

>In a statement on Tuesday about the lawsuit, X’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, said: “People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted. No small group of people should monopolize what gets monetized.”

!waow-based

>The residue on the paraphernalia tested positive for methamphetamine, as did the water in the bong and the substance in the glass jar. Deputies further reported that the bong water weighed 8 ounces and, somewhat confusingly, that the crystal substance weighed 13.2 grams “in total with the packaging.”

>For charging purposes under state law, 8 ounces of bong water is considered the same as 8 ounces of pure methamphetamine. That’s well over the 50-gram threshold necessary to trigger a first-degree felony offense.

Absolutely shameful and grotesque that this law is so written and exploited to ruin innocent peoples' lives. But no tale like this would be complete without the !cops doing what they do best:

>Deputies also seized Beske’s car and $2,400 in cash and intend to permanently forfeit them under a state law that allows authorities to take vehicles used to transport controlled substances “intended for distribution or sale,” and cash that represents “the proceeds of a controlled substance offense.”

>Beske says she won the cash at the casino that night, and when she was pulled over she had a tax form from the casino to prove it.

Song of Choice

Early every year, seeds are growing Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground Would you know before the leaves are showing That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears Hold your mouth, how can you know? The seeds you cannot see may not be there The seeds you cannot hear may never grow

In January you've still got the choice You can cut the weeds before they start to bud If you leave them to grow higher, they'll silence your voice And in December you may pay with your blood

Close your eyes, stop your ears Close your mouth and take it slow Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear And later you can say you didn't know

Everyday another vulture takes flight There's another danger born every morning In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite How can you fight if you can't recognize a warning?

Close your eyes, stop your ears Close your mouth and then you know Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear And later you can say you didn't know

Today you may earn a living wage Tomorrow you may be on the dole Though there's millions going hungry, you needn't disengage For it's them, not you, that's fallen in the hole

It's alright for you if you run with the pack It's alright if you agree with all they do If the fascist's party slowly climbing back It's not here yet, so what's it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they're growing It will soon be too late for the knife If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing You may pay for your silence with your life

Close your eyes, stop your ears Close your mouth, they're never there And if it happens here, they'll never come for you Because they'll know you really didn't care

>The proposal would allow felony charges for people in possession of drugs such as fentanyl as well as for thefts under $950, for people who have two prior drug or theft convictions respectively. Both crimes currently can only be charged as misdemeanors, according to a statement from the California secretary of state’s office.

So cool to see a three strikes law being considered for non-violent offenses. Hoping the !vote rs give a big f-u to this one.

At least they get to write their bad taste off as a business expense I guess

https://archive.is/FGHKt

Some incredible mental gymnastics and moral cowardice on display in this essay. A couple choice bits:

>Turns out, I could not give up my relationship with New York City for the future of the planet. I’d just about managed to stop buying plastic bottles (except when very thirsty) and was trying to fly less. But never to see New York again? What pitiful ethical creatures we are (I am)! Falling at the first hurdle!

>Yes, this is the point at which I stake my rhetorical flag in that fantastical, linguistical, conceptual, unreal place—built with words—where rapes are minimized as needs be, and the definition of genocide quibbled over, where the killing of babies is denied, and the precision of drones glorified, where histories are reconsidered or rewritten or analogized or simply ignored, and “Jew” and “colonialist” are synonymous, and “Palestinian” and “terrorist” are synonymous, and language is your accomplice and alibi in all of it.

At least she's truthful about it being an unreal place.

Further evidence of Cuba's deviousness that their super weapon leaves no physical trace !fidel-sarcastic

A little !adventure-time song

>"If people think that an IPO means we're going to … push prices up, push the margins up, push down the feature sets, the only answer we can give is, watch us. Keep watching," he said. "Let's look at it in 15, 20 years' time."

I'm pretty sure those are the first things your new shareholders will be demanding but okay

Whines: But Mommmm, I wanna arm my fascists!

>Demonstrate, but don’t mistake demonstrating for political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” and elicit lots of honks, but that’s as politically effectual as taking a warm shower. Organize people who don’t normally vote to vote for Biden. Mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved.

While I'd agree there's a limit to the effectiveness of protest alone, it takes a certain kind of brain to think !voteing is the more politically effective move.

> When “defund police” became a national cry in 2020, police organizations mobilized to beat it back by laying every uptick in crime or high-profile violent incident at the feet of Black Lives Matter and any public official in support of the movement. This national reckoning happened to come at a crucial juncture in Oakland’s budget cycle, and the city council surprised activists by voting, in June 2020, to create a task force to Reimagine Public Safety with a goal “to reduce OPD budget by 50 percent by investing in crime prevention and community.”

>One year later, then-police chief LeRonne Armstrong, the department’s 10th chief in 10 years, linked “out-of-control” crime in the city to the first actual budget cut, which had been approved by the council only days before. [emph. mine] Shortly thereafter, then-Mayor Libby Schaaf made international headlines for “reversing course,” saying “defund the police went ‘too far,’” though no cuts had yet been implemented and Schaaf had always publicly opposed them.

>In October 2022, ABC News investigated claims that defunding has contributed to increasing crime numbers and found that in the vast majority of cities, police funding has increased since 2020. Oakland followed this national trend, with an 18 percent increase between 2019 and 2022.