dimitrig said:

---

I went to visit some relatives in Alabama some years ago. It was when Obama was first elected.

They threw a party so I brought some microbrews with me to share.

All the young (20 something) guys were strutting around and talking about how California sucked. If they said anything nice it was about USC's football team (Pete Carroll era). They wouldn't even try the (pretty expensive) beer. They didn't need any fancy microbrews. Miller and Bud was all they needed, yessir. They told me that to my face which embarrassed some of their wives.

We had been in Georgia earlier in the week and they were all Georgia microbrews.

When I told them that they still wouldn't try them. Some of the wives did and a few even thanked me privately later, but none of the men did.

Strange folks down that way...

Yes, most of them (but not all) STILL support Trump.

It's like there's some sort of willful ignorance that is a source of pride for the folks down there.

I don't know that it is that they like Trump so much as they absolutely won't support anything they see as different from what they are used to and expect even if it it's just beer.

How Donald Trump, a elitist New Yorker, tapped into that is one of life's great mysteries.


It's no mystery. It's been carefully manipulated on line. I suspect it is a cooperative effort between American oligarchs (AKA Koch brothers), Russian oligarchs, Republican strategists and media experts like Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica.

There is a way to analyze data on populations and subpopulations so that you can target it, create division and accentuate a herd or tribal identity.

Trump stumbled into the advantages of that by appearing to be a political outsider, a populist and someone who would take down the system that was standing in the way of the fascism these folks really desire.

---

own post you're replying to was deleted? and reply is combined with quoted text??
# confusing
> dimitrig said:
> went to visit some relatives in Alabama some years ago. It was when Obama was first elected.

look inside a Uighurs pretrial re-education camp. warnings: ugly as sin / long

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/uighur-xinjiang-re-education-camp-china-gulbahar-haitiwaji
Quote:

Quote:

---

..I was held in the camp at Baijiantan for two years. During that time, everyone around me the police officers who came to interrogate prisoners, plus the guards, teachers and tutors tried to make me believe the massive lie without which China could not have justified its re-education project: that Uighurs are terrorists, and thus that I, Gulbahar, as a Uighur who had been living in exile in France for 10 years, was a terrorist. Wave after wave of propaganda crashed down upon me, and as the months went by, I began to lose part of my sanity. Bits of my soul shattered and broke off. I will never recover them.

During violent interrogations by the police, I kowtowed under the blows so much so that I even made false confessions. They managed to convince me that the sooner I owned up to my crimes, the sooner I'd be able to leave. Exhausted, I finally gave in. I had no other choice. No one can fight against themselves for ever. No matter how tirelessly you battle brainwashing, it does its insidious work. All desire and passion desert you. What options do you have left? A slow, painful descent into death, or submission. If you play at submission, if you feign losing your psychological power struggle against the police, then at least, despite it all, you hang on to the shard of lucidity that reminds you who you are

I didn't believe a word of what I was saying to them. I simply did my best to be a good actor.

On 2 August 2019, after a short trial, before an audience of just a few people, a judge from Karamay pronounced me innocent. I barely heard his words. I listened to the sentence as if it were nothing to do with me. I was thinking about all the times I had asserted my innocence, all those nights I had tossed and turned on my bunk, enraged that no one would believe me. And I was thinking about all those other times when I had admitted the things they accused me of, all the fake confessions I had made, all those lies.

They had sentenced me to seven years of re-education. They had tortured my body and brought my mind to the edge of madness. And now, after reviewing my case, a judge had decided that no, in actual fact, I was innocent. I was free to go.

---

Here are some clues that you are a cult member and beholden to propaganda/brainwashing:

1) Your leader and the language of the movement uses the term "they" constantly. The unnamed enemy. There is a "they" out there who are doing "things" to you. You have reason to be outraged at this "they" though they are never explicitly named or the direct evidence of what this "they" has done is ever given and there is no attempt to discuss or negotiate with this "they", and of course no compromise with the "they". It is the "they" who must stop and give everything you believe you deserve to you without you listening or giving to the "they". Trump uses they as both the unnamed enemy and the unnamed expert who endorse him all the time ("they" say my speech was totally appropriate).

2) You agree that you have been wronged and there is something you must return to in some mythic time. Today we hear the "take back our country" and "make our country great again," but no explanation of great as in when. What are the specific features of that great time you wish to get back? Who are you taking the country back from? What has specifically been lost or stolen from you? For the most part it is made up loss or misplaced anger. There is no personal responsibility. There is no specific goal or set of values, just ongoing evolving moving target emotion while you mock the emotions of others (F your feelings, snowflake, TDS). It never ceases to astound me that these Trump supporters feel that the nation must be taken back from THE GOVERNMENT THEY ELECTED AND WHO CONTROL ALL POLICY. The cult thinking deposits the cult leader is both infallible and omnipotent, and wronged and powerless and victimized. It's the same cognitive dissonance victimhood thinking on display when Christians complain about being under attack even though they have owned and shaped the cultural identity of the nation. Essentially, those in hegemonic control see any "give" in the system to those who have had less to no power as "stealing" from them. It's embarrassingly un-generous and blind to their privilege, and antithetical to the nation's values as a melting pot that builds prosperity through diversity and social mobility.

^ weillkommen b&g

re (recently married) darrin bell..

Quote:

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Darrin Bell is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator known for the syndicated comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park. He is a syndicated editorial cartoonist with King Features. Bell is the first African-American to have two comic strips syndicated nationally.Wikipedia
Born: January 27, 1975 (age 45 years), Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Editorial Cartoon

---

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210119.html
> A Lunar Corona with Jupiter and Saturn
click pic biggens


-----
unrelated..

https://scitechdaily.com/all-468-stars-in-milky-way-stellar-stream-theia-456-are-related/
> All 468 Stars in Milky Way Stellar Stream Theia 456 Are Related "It's Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack"

Quote:

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A stellar stream is a rare linear pattern rather than a cluster of stars. After combining multiple datasets captured by the Gaia space telescope, a team of astrophysicists found that all of Theia 456's 468 stars were born at the same time and are traveling in the same direction across the sky.

---

which old witch.. the wicked witch

whoo hooo..
in the (at least) 65y.o. cadre booked a covid vaccination appt march 23rd at a santa clara county south bay hospital.

source..
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/pages/covid19-vaccine-information-for-public.aspx

found across the isle, sniff..

special bonus content


no comment..

unrelated, from http://www.xkcd.com

wayback so-called topical song from the legendary Phil Ochs 1940-76 (driven-mad at Chicago '68), dedicated to cybears' own Yogi Collective..

signature ddr bonus, cut-pasteable from www.youtube.com/watch?v=lswZWlSWYfM

https://www.arcamax.com/politics/editorialcartoons/claybennett/

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210205.html <- click makes bigger

Explanation: Fifty years ago this Sunday (February 7, 1971), the crew of Apollo 14 left lunar orbit and headed for home. They watched this Earthrise from their command module Kittyhawk. With Earth's sunlit crescent just peeking over the lunar horizon, the cratered terrain in the foreground is along the lunar farside. Of course, while orbiting the Moon, the crew could watch Earth rise and set, but from the lunar surface the Earth hung stationary in the sky over their landing site at Fra Mauro Base. Rock samples returned from Fra Mauro included a 20 pound rock nicknamed Big Bertha, determined to contain a likely fragment of a meteorite from planet Earth. Kept on board the Kittyhawk during the Apollo 14 mission was a cannister of 400-500 seeds that were later grown into Moon Trees.

the sound of mars, a lonely place (turn speakers up to 11)..

there's an idea there somewhere..

^ need closeup glasses for the prescription? fixed it for you -> Anti-Psychotics

non-political for once..
> Watch the last billion years of Earth's tectonic plate movement in just 40 seconds
> byline Aylin Woodward of Yahooooooo News
https://news.yahoo.com/watch-last-billion-years-earths-131800244.html


^ pause at ~39 seconds to scope who's who

Portal gamer throwback, 2020 edition "i'm still alive", as voiced by a computer..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)

Quote:

---

This was a triumph!
I'm making a note here
Huge success!

It's hard to overstate
My satisfaction

Aperture Science:
We do what we must
Because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead

But there's no sense crying
Over every mistake
You just keep on trying
'til you run out of cake
And the science gets done
And you make a neat gun
For the people who are
Still alive

I'm not even angry...
I'm being so sincere right now
Even though you broke my heart
And killed me

And tore me to pieces
And threw every piece into a fire
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!

Now, these points of data
Make a beautiful line
And we're out of beta
We're releasing on time!
So I'm GLaD I got burned!
Think of all the things we learned!
For the people who are
Still alive

Go ahead and leave me...
I think I'd prefer to stay inside...
Maybe you'll find someone else
To help you
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke. Ha Ha. Fat Chance!

Anyway this cake is great!
It's so delicious and moist!

Look at me: still talking
When there's science to do!
When I look out there
It makes me glad I'm not you

I've experiments to run
There is research to be done
On the people who are Still alive
And believe me I am Still alive
I'm doing science and I'm Still alive
I feel fantastic and I'm Still alive
While you're dying I'll be Still alive
And when you're dead I will be Still alive
Still alive.. Still alive

---

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo..

hi / bye status, months ago fully vaccinated, and nearly finished putting together a 2020 income tax return

holding hands instagram style..
https://instagr.am/p/CNn7VPUsdA9

California's view of a total lunar eclipse comes early weds morning..
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4903

> On May 26, 2021, during early morning in the western Americas, the Moon enters the Earth's shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse, the first in almost two and a half years. This animation shows the changing appearance of the Moon as it travels into and out of the Earth's shadow, along with times at various stages. Versions of the animation have been created for both Universal Time (UTC) and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) within the U.S. Lower 48, those in the Pacific time zone are best situated to see the eclipse.

see also https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210524.html

sharing today's guardian article..

title: I was an imam at Guantnamo Bay
sub: The official military line was that torture did not happen. As an insider, I knew this was a lie



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/04/experience-i-was-an-imam-at-guantanamo-bay

Quote:

---

I was one of the first Muslim imams in the United States military. Clergy defend the right of US military personnel to practise their religion. This means providing religious support, taking services and advising the commander in religion, ethics and morale.

I grew up in New Jersey as a Lutheran and was still a Christian when I graduated from the military academy at West Point, but I met someone who opened my eyes to Islam and its similarity to the other Abrahamic faiths. I converted in 1991.

After West Point I left the army to follow my own spiritual path, living in Syria and learning to read the Qur'an properly. By the end of the decade, the US military, perhaps out of political correctness, was looking to recruit imams, so I had my first posting in Fort Lewis, Washington.

A few years later, I was asked to go to Guantnamo Bay.. .. ..

---

> Towards the end of my tour, I took two weeks of leave, with the intention of going back to Fort Lewis to set everything up for the return of my wife and daughter. I left the base and got on a plane to the Jacksonville naval station in Florida.

> When we landed, I was taken to a room and questioned by the FBI. I was charged with spying, espionage, aiding the enemy, mutiny and sedition.After being imprisoned in Florida for six days, I was moved to the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, where I spent 70 days, mostly in solitary confinement. On the way there, I was subjected to the same sensory deprivation and shackling I'd seen at Guantnamo. It was a harrowing ordeal.

signed, agnostic tree hugger

smh said:

---

sharing today's guardian article..

title: I was an imam at Guantnamo Bay
sub: The official military line was that torture did not happen. As an insider, I knew this was a lie



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/04/experience-i-was-an-imam-at-guantanamo-bay

Quote:

---

I was one of the first Muslim imams in the United States military. Clergy defend the right of US military personnel to practise their religion. This means providing religious support, taking services and advising the commander in religion, ethics and morale.

I grew up in New Jersey as a Lutheran and was still a Christian when I graduated from the military academy at West Point, but I met someone who opened my eyes to Islam and its similarity to the other Abrahamic faiths. I converted in 1991.

After West Point I left the army to follow my own spiritual path, living in Syria and learning to read the Qur'an properly. By the end of the decade, the US military, perhaps out of political correctness, was looking to recruit imams, so I had my first posting in Fort Lewis, Washington.

A few years later, I was asked to go to Guantnamo Bay.. .. ..

---

> Towards the end of my tour, I took two weeks of leave, with the intention of going back to Fort Lewis to set everything up for the return of my wife and daughter. I left the base and got on a plane to the Jacksonville naval station in Florida.

> When we landed, I was taken to a room and questioned by the FBI. I was charged with spying, espionage, aiding the enemy, mutiny and sedition.After being imprisoned in Florida for six days, I was moved to the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, where I spent 70 days, mostly in solitary confinement. On the way there, I was subjected to the same sensory deprivation and shackling I'd seen at Guantnamo. It was a harrowing ordeal.

signed, agnostic tree hugger

---

Why did this guy skip from GWB to Obama and then Biden?

There was a certain putrid orange fellow in charge in-between.

^ https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210611.html



unrelated..

Death Valley National Park hit a high temperature of 128° today. This breaks the old record of 122° for this date set in 1917. #DeathValley #cawx

— NWS Las Vegas (@NWSVegas) June 17, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/18/us-heatwave-west-climate-crisis-drought
> This is really, really bad: scientists on the scorching US heatwave
> Researchers had long forewarned of this crisis,, they're seeing their studies and models become real life
# curse god and die

unrelated..
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/06/27

^ best seen turned up to 11

https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2021/07/otherworldly-sunset-and-rock-spire.html

By CNN.COM WIRE SERVICE /* snipped from sjmn twitter feed */

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/23/the-july-full-buck-moon-will-illuminate-the-sky-tonight

Quote:

---

July 23, 2021 at 11:12 a.m.
By Sarah Molano and Ashley Strickland | CNN
Lunar lovers, grab a cozy spot outside and set your sights to the southeast to gaze upon July's full moon, dubbed the "buck" moon, as it rises Friday after sunset.

The moon will reach peak illumination at 10:37 p.m. ET Friday, according to NASA. In all its glory, the celestial treat will hang in the night sky for about three days around its peak, so onlookers can enjoy the glowing moon all weekend
.
Why the nickname? July marks the time when male deer bucks grow out their antlers, granting this month's full moon the "buck" moniker, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac. Bucks' antlers go through a cycle every year of shedding and regrowing, getting progressively larger as the animals age..

---

Much greater extent of wildfire smoke across interior NorCal and Oregon/Nevada this morning. This is mainly from #DixieFire, but also some contribution from #BootlegFire and #TamarackFire. #CAwx #NVwx #ORwx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/7fDH5pL5hW

— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) July 24, 2021

NZ bonus content..

“Three Worlds” would be the most challenging astro photo I've shot so far, and it's now for sale on @withFND! 🌐

Make sure you click on the image to expand it :) Link in the thread. pic.twitter.com/lXT0ns0HM6

— Mark Gee (@theartofnight) August 2, 2021