Hijack This Thread

[Kriselda Gray]

With all that Andy is going through I'm almost embarrassed to write this, but it's been a crappy week or so.

Don't feel bad about sharing your own trauma - it's not a contest and there's plenty of empathy and love to go around, eh?



I'm sorry things have been so bad for you. Good on your wife for taking care of your dad and you - she sounds like a keeper! 409 is scary - I get a bit freaked if I go over 200 or so. I can't imagine going from having it well controlled with just diet to what you're having to do now!

Sending you love!.

[Kriselda Gray]

from the political toons thread:


Made me look if I still could locate the cartoon on Cheney at the WH, he had ordered the nekkid virgins in some room to be covered, and the cartoon depicted them covered in weapons. No luck this time.

It was Ashcroft and a statue of Lady Justice, IIRC. And absolutely ridiculous - as was the spat in that article you found...

[Shizzle Popped]

With all that Andy is going through I'm almost embarrassed to write this, but it's been a crappy week or so.

Anyway, I'm slowly starting to feel better. I'm tired and still have a little brain fog but it's improving. Looking back I wonder if there were signs that my blood sugar was going off the rails but I honestly couldn't tell you at this point what was COVID and what was diabetes.

400!! OMFSM!!!!!!!! What a way to find out that it wasn't COVID!

Yeah, lesson learned. Even if I get back to controlling it by diet I'll continue to test so that I know exactly what's going on. If I had just been testing once a day I would have caught it before things got too far out of control.

[Shizzle Popped]

With all that Andy is going through I'm almost embarrassed to write this, but it's been a crappy week or so.

Don't feel bad about sharing your own trauma - it's not a contest and there's plenty of empathy and love to go around, eh?



I'm sorry things have been so bad for you. Good on your wife for taking care of your dad and you - she sounds like a keeper! 409 is scary - I get a bit freaked if I go over 200 or so. I can't imagine going from having it well controlled with just diet to what you're having to do now!

Sending you love!.

Thanks!

When I was on meds I was a little nuts with keeping my numbers in line. My before meal numbers were in the 90s eighty percent of the time and below 110 ninety-five percent of the time. I continued that for about a year after I went off meds, by which time our diet had changed enough I stayed close to normal without actively managing it.

[Phoenix520]

Glad your dads ok, too, Shizzle.

[RTH10260]

from the political toons thread:


Made me look if I still could locate the cartoon on Cheney at the WH, he had ordered the nekkid virgins in some room to be covered, and the cartoon depicted them covered in weapons. No luck this time.

It was Ashcroft and a statue of Lady Justice, IIRC. And absolutely ridiculous - as was the spat in that article you found...

Cover-Up At Justice Department

BY CBSNEWS.COM STAFF CBSNEWS.COM STAFF
JANUARY 29, 2002 / 1:18 PM / CBS

No longer will the attorney general be photographed in front of two partially nude statues in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice.

The department spent $8,000 on blue drapes that hide the two giant, aluminum art deco statues. For aesthetic reasons the drapes were occasionally hung in front of the statues before formal events. The department used to rent the drapes, but has now purchased them and left them hanging.

Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said the decision to install the curtains was made by Attorney General John Ashcroft's aide who handles advance work. "It was done for TV aesthetics," she said.

ABC News reported that Ashcroft ordered the statues covered because he didn't like being photographed in front of them.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Ashcroft has been photographed several times in front of the female statue that represents the Spirit of Justice. The statue has its arms raised and a toga draped over its body, but a single breast is completely exposed.

The other statue, of a man with a cloth covering his midsection, is called the Majesty of Law.

Both statues were installed in the 1930s when the building was finished, according to the Justice Department.

The statues were hidden by curtains on Nov. 20, when President Bush came to the Justice Department to name the building after the assassinated former attorney general,
Robert Kennedy.

Comstock said the Justice Department bought the drapes to avoid having to rent them every time the agency had a formal event. The drapes cost about $2,000 to rent.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cover-up-a ... epartment/

Justice Department ends nude cover-ups
After more than three years of being blocked by large blue drapes, two Art Deco aluminum statues of semi-nude figures in the Justice Department's Great Hall can be seen again.

June 26, 2005, 10:09 AM CEST / Source: Reuters

After more than three years of being blocked by large blue drapes, two Art Deco aluminum statues of semi-nude figures in the building’s Great Hall can be seen again.

The “Spirit of Justice” and the “Majesty of Justice,” which loom over the stage in the Great Hall, were blocked from view by curtains installed by the department in January 2002, when former Attorney General John Ashcroft was in office.

The curtains were quietly removed on Friday after a decision by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8360632

[keith]

I just got back from a play where one of the actors wore a t-shirt with this logo on it.

As I was leaving I told the staff I wanted that t-shirt because I used to play volleyball in Arizona.

I found the logo, maybe I can find the merch site.

[neonzx]

As I was leaving I told the staff I wanted that t-shirt because I used to play volleyball in Arizona.

I found the logo, maybe I can find the merch site.

Did you compete against George Katiria Santos?

[keith]

As I was leaving I told the staff I wanted that t-shirt because I used to play volleyball in Arizona.

I found the logo, maybe I can find the merch site.

Did you compete against George Katiria Santos?

How would I know?

[Sam the Centipede]

As I was leaving I told the staff I wanted that t-shirt because I used to play volleyball in Arizona.

I found the logo, maybe I can find the merch site.

Did you compete against George Katiria Santos?

How would I know?

Oh, you'd surely remember playing against a siperb volleyball artist who was forcefully smashing and accurately spiking while clad in a sequined lamé gown and 4 inch heels.

[keith]

Did you compete against George Katiria Santos?

How would I know?

Oh, you'd surely remember playing against a siperb volleyball artist who was forcefully smashing and accurately spiking while clad in a sequined lamé gown and 4 inch heels.

That sorta sounds like Karch Kiraly, but in truth, I don’t remember the sequins or heels.

[Sam the Centipede]

Aw, the sequins an' shit were just me babbling channeling the spirit of Santosiana.

[RTH10260]

Cannot evaluate the seriousness of Louis Rossmanns concerns on the pending anti-TikTok legislation, but offer his opinion:

Patriot Act v2 MUST be stopped! Prisontime for VPNs, no FOIA, lobbyists get to work for govt; BAD!!

Louis Rossmann
29 Mar 2023

The bill: https://docs.reclaimthenet.org/BILLS-118s686is.pdf
White House saying they like this: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... trict-act/
FOIA stuff cited in bill as NOT APPLYING: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USC ... sec553.pdf
Limits on lobbyists serving in government cited in bill as NOT APPLYING: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?pat ... ion=prelim

Reading bill 686 RESTRICT act

Louis Rossmann: RANDOM LIVE
Streamed 15 hours ago

https://docs.reclaimthenet.org/BILLS-118s686is.pdf

[Phoenix520]

of Tik Tok

Trans Handy ma’am Mercury Stardust and her crew are doing a fundraiser live. Their goal today is $1m for trans health. They’ve raised $520k in a little over one hour!!!

If you are so inclined..,.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRvowj7G/

[RTH10260]

‘Absurdity to a new level’ as Russia takes charge of UN security council
Monthly rotation of presidency of 15-member council has been unaffected by Ukraine war

Julian Borger in New York
Fri 31 Mar 2023 05.00 BST

In Ukraine, Moscow is pursuing an unprovoked war of aggression. In The Hague, Vladimir Putin is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes. But at the UN, Russia is about to take charge of a powerful international body, the security council.

From Saturday, it will be Russia’s turn to take up the monthly presidency of the 15-member council, in line with a rotation that has been unaffected by the Ukraine war.

The last time Russia held the gavel was in February last year, when Putin declared his “special military operation” in the middle of a council session on Ukraine. Fourteen months on, tens of thousands of people have been killed, many of them civilians, cities have been ruined and Putin has been indicted by the international criminal court for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

In such circumstances, putting Russia in the driving seat of a world body tasked with “maintaining international peace and security” seems like a cruel April fools joke to many, not least the Ukrainian mission to the UN.

“As of 1 April, they’re taking the level of absurdity to a new level,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian permanent representative. “The security council as it is designed is immobilised and incapable to address the issues of their primary responsibility, that is prevention of conflicts and then dealing with conflicts.”

The ambassador said Ukraine would stay away from the security council in April except in the case of an “issue of critical national security interest”. Ukraine is not a current council member, though it is often called to speak on issues related to the war.

The US, Britain, France and their supporters on the council are likely to show their disapproval by downgrading the level of their representation at Russian-hosted events over the course of the month, but no member state is known to be planning any form of boycott or other protest.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ty-council

[RTH10260]

Houston TX

(this youtuber otherwise does 1A auditing / cop watching)

[p0rtia]

Where's our merch store?

I want a Fogbow hat.

[neonzx]

Where's our merch store?

We don't need one.

Then what is Fogbow is the Q? -- and then an extended conversation.

We are not a cult. Pretty sure we are not a cult. People are going to get us on their own or not.

[jez]

Small vent, because I gotta.

The roommate sings. She'll put on headphones and start belting out whatever tune is on. Most of the time she knows the words. On occasion it's just weird sounds that should be words. Or something.

Probably wouldn't be so bad if she was any good. But she is flat. And tries to the do the operatic singing style, which just leads to a weird warble. That is kind of flat and sharp at the same time. Nowhere near what the tune is.

Now, I can't carry a tune in a bucket to save my life. My singing has been compared to torturing an asthmatic goat with a sore throat. And yes, I've talked to her about the singing and how it bothers me. Have several times over the years. Not too bad for awhile, then she starts up again.

I mean, if she sang quietly at her computer, or whatever, no problem. Probably couldn't hear it. But she is belting out the tunes in full throated glory. And it's bad.

Ok. Leaving the house and going to spend quality time cleaning out my car. Hopefully she will stop soon.

[keith]

Don't beat yourself up over it Jez. It's OK.

SWMBO has the same attitude to my singing around the house, headphones or no, and I CAN sing.

[RTH10260]

alternate reality - kind of

Panic and emotional pain as alleged deep-cover Russian spies vanish
Pair of suspected ‘illegals’ are thought to have been a married couple living separate lives in Brazil and Greece

Shaun Walker in Ljubljana, Pjotr Sauer in Amsterdam and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Mon 3 Apr 2023 05.00 BST

Halfway through a trip to Malaysia in January, Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich stopped messaging his girlfriend back home in Rio de Janeiro and she promptly launched a frantic search for her missing partner.

A Brazilian of Austrian heritage, Campos Wittich ran a series of 3D printing companies in Rio that made, among other things, novelty resin sculptures for the Brazilian military and sausage dog key chains.

The Brazilian foreign ministry and Facebook communities in Malaysia mobilised to look for the missing man. But Campos Wittich had simply disappeared.

News about him eventually came from an unexpected source on the other side of the world in Athens, and it was as shocking as it was unexpected.

Campos Wittich was allegedly a fake identity, said Greek media, citing sources in the Greek intelligence service. According to these reports, he was not, as he had told his girlfriend, the child of an Austrian father and Brazilian mother, raised by his grandparents in Vienna.

He was allegedly a Russian “illegal”, a deep-cover spy working for an elite intelligence programme, who had been trained for years in Russia to be able to impersonate a foreigner. He was allegedly secretly married to another illegal, who posed as a Greek-Mexican photographer named Maria Tsalla and ran a knitting supplies shop in Athens. Both had, it was claimed, been dispatched on a decades-long mission to serve Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services.

At least six such suspected illegals have been unmasked in various locations over the past year, suggesting there could be one or more defectors passing information to the west. Alternatively, Russian intelligence may be asking more of its illegals, thus exposing them to additional risk, because so many of its “legal” spies based in Russian embassies have been expelled over the war in Ukraine.

A high-ranking Greek official with knowledge of the current case confirmed previous Greek reports to the Guardian and gave further details.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... nusual-yet

[RTH10260]

Majority-Black town fights to stop land being seized for gravel quarry rail link
Residents of Sparta, Georgia, are trying to stop the Sandersville railroad and its influential owners from building a spur to a quarry

Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter
Mon 3 Apr 2023 11.05 BST

A majority-Black rural community in Georgia is battling to stop a railroad company from seizing private land for a new train line they say will cause environmental and economic harms.

Residents of Sparta, a poor community of 1,300 people located a hundred miles south-east of Atlanta, are opposing the construction of a rail spur that would connect a local quarry to the main train line, enabling the gravel company to vastly expand mining that already causes dust, debris and noise pollution.

Residents, including direct descendants of James Blair Smith, the African American farmer who against all odds obtained and farmed the land almost a century ago, have so far resisted efforts by the railroad company to convince landowners to sell portions of their properties needed for the project.

Now, fears are mounting that the company, which claims the project will generate a dozen well-paid jobs and boost the county economy by $1.5m (£1.2m), could impose the 4.5-mile (7km) spur on their land, generating environmental hazards and depressing property values.

Last month, the Sandersville Railroad Company filed a petition with the Georgia public service commission (PSC) – the first step to seize land by taking advantage of the state’s 19th-century eminent domain law. Eminent domain refers to the process by which the government or an authorised private entity may expropriate property for public benefit – without the owner’s consent but with compensation.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... d-seizures

[RTH10260]

Unlike in Trump case, Secret Service kept this one secret

DEL QUENTIN WILBER
Mon, April 3, 2023 at 8:02 PM GMT+2

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last time Secret Service agents escorted a U.S. leader to face criminal charges, they kept their mission a secret — even from their own bosses.

It was Oct. 10, 1973, and just a few agents knew the history they would make in ensuring that Vice President Spiro Agnew appeared in a federal courtroom to enter a plea and resign from office.

“It was a big day for the country, and a sad day,” said Jerry Parr, one of those agents, in a 2010 interview. “And we didn’t tell anyone it was happening. For better and worse.”

There is no secret the second time around: The Secret Service on Tuesday is expected to deliver former President Donald Trump to a New York City courtroom to be arraigned on state charges tied to hush money payments made in the weeks before the 2016 election. The event is sure to be a spectacle and Trump himself plans a news conference that evening.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/unlike-trump ... 18380.html

[raison de arizona]

Interesting, we really are becoming two countries.

Much has been made of the declining life expectancy in the US.

The reality is regional. Think of the US as two countries:

Some blue counties with increasing life-expectancy better than (84) & many red counties with plummeting life expectancy worse than (71).
1/

[Maybenaut]

Everybody seems to agree that COVID blew up my diabetes but it'll be a while before we know if it did any permanent damage. In the meantime, I'm back on insulin and metformin and testing six times a day. It's not great but the finger prick for testing and giving myself shots has never really bothered me like it does some.

I was pre-diabetic for a long time, controlled with diet and exercise. Last regular A1C (a few years ago) was 7.5 - doc said if it gets over 8 I need medication.

Then I got lazy. I’m so effin sick of the alpha-gal allergy that thinking about food is majorly depressing. I quit worrying about what I eat (other than things that will kill me quickly), even though I’m fairly active.

Just had my A1C tested again - 9.4. Doctor prescribed metformin. I start that tomorrow, as well as back to regular testing - annoying but not terrible.

Other than no alcohol (not the worst thing ever to happen to me, I guess), any insights on what I have to look forward to? The doc said diarrhea is a potential side effect (likely to go away). Otherwise, I have no idea how this drug is likely to make me feel.