The only thing this mountain needs now is a cigarette.

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I remember the first time I saw the Ring Nebula through my Dobsonian and thought "man, that thing is really far away". Then I swung my scope to Cassiopeia's "W" and looked at the ghostly smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy. I tried to fathom the distance and came up lacking. My eyes were better then and I could see things in the mid-6s, but even with full night vision and using averted vision, I couldn't make out any detail; it was just a little wisp of light where the middle was a touch brighter than the edges.
That was the day I fully became an atheist. It made no sense that God would put a smudge of light 2.5 million light years away that was actually a trillion purposeless stars. I had no answer for that. Standing on that runway in the Sierra mountains, enveloped in blackness and looking at Andromeda, I felt a direct link between myself, time and the universe. I didn't need heaven anymore and I never felt the existential dread of death ever again. I understood that I was part of infinity and that was enough.

had the same thought...kinda of.

"could he have said that better or is he letting us know in advance?"

strangely sort of legendary way of going. "he fell into the grand canyon". make grandpa seem more mountain man-ish.

but maybe not...
https://www.mygrandcanyonpark.com/park/faqs/falling-to-death-grand-canyon/

Odd, i don't remember cops being killed at each of those anarchistic (not leftist) events, and another committing suicide after each one.
I don't remember the anarchists killing 3-4 of their own at each event either.
And four years you say....that's quite a mountain of dead cops and anarchists that no one heard about. What's your source? They are amazing to uncover these thousands of dead police and anarchists previously overlooked by both right and left media.
Don't I remember you supporting charging those anarchists as terrorists and or traitors that should get a minimum of 10 years for surrounding a federal courthouse? But hunting congress and the vp through the halls of congress, murdering and permanently disabling police, costing over $1/2 billion in extra security measures and repairs should just be a trespassing warning. Hmmmm. You're going to have to persuade me.

I find it quite funny, you love to moan about leftists wanting an Orwellian, enormous and all powerful nanny state controlling everything but you can't tell the difference between them and anarchists. Lol.

This fake news has the far right stirred up believing Trump would come save them from evil supergenius Biden and his cadre of vampiric blood sucking eternally young pizza and child rape enthusiasts. What's the next exQuce for the storm not coming??

Small fucking world. I live in Mountain View now, just a block off Latham. I don't have a backyard transformer to point a webcam at, sadly...

I gotta squirrel story.
So when I lived in Mountain View, for Christ only knows what reason, the idiots in charge of power put this big-ass transformer thing on the corner of my property. The thing hummed with menace and I knew that shit wasn't right. But I didn't worry none because there was a big green metal cover over it that provided the same protection against horrendous death that a box of Kleenex would have provided the World Trade Center on 9/11.
One day, I'm standing on my balcony and drinking a beer. I mighta been stoned, too, only there's no 'mighta' that day. I'm watching the whorehouse across the street (really) and generally buzzing when I see a squirrel on the lawn. I hate squirrels. A motherfucking squirrel ate my bar fridge and fucked me outta the $50 I was selling it for on Craigslist (really).
Anyway, I got this longneck of Bud in hand and I'm working out whether I can brain the goddamn rodent with it when the neighbor's cat come rippin' ass from under the balcony and goes after Skippy.
Well here's some amusement!
The squirrel is running for it's pointless life and the cat is banking like a F-16 chasing an Iraqi MIG and I've already got $10 down on the kitty with a $3 over/under. I already know how this was gonna end and I was rootin' for it every step of the way.
Only it didn't.
The goddamn squirrel found the ONE way to get under that green metal cover I mentioned previously. The cat stops in amazement and I'm all pissed because I've been gypped outta Wild Kingdom's money shot.
A second later there's a flash like Ivy Mike going off from under the cover and an a concussive BOOM!! The fucking cover blasts off like a Space-X project gone horribly wrong -- or, in this case, delightfully right.
The cat jumps like 5 feet in the air and an arc of turds flies outta its butt, the cover returns to earth as a traffic hazard in the middle of Latham St., and the squirrel is basically vaporized. And now I'm the happiest motherfucker in Mountain View because dude, that shit was AWESOME!
I call out, "Babe! You won't believe what just happened!" 'cause you gotta totally share shit like that.
Then I realized everything is TOTALLY silent, like Little House on the Fucking Prairie silent.
"The power's out," my wife responds.
And it STAYED out for like two goddamn days while the putzes from the power company had to rewire pretty much everything that blew up.
Honey Badger didn't give a shit because Honey Badger'd copped an oz right before this shit happened. And as Fat Freddy taught us, "Dope will get you through times of no power better than power will get you through times of no dope." Or some shit like that. I dunno, I'm totally fucking baked right now.

You utter fuckwit.

(not you, Morhaus, the dude in the video).

What exactly do you think happens to the people and funds holding those shorts? They have to pay the difference. They are contractually obligated to pay up -- period.

Everyone involved in the short was probably broke long before GME even hit $50. But, as we all learned from Goodfellas, "Fuck you, pay me!"

They're broke and on the hook for shit-tons of money. Guess where they're going to get that money? By selling solid assets. They're gonna dump everything they have to make up for the short loss. Who's holding the shares that're about to start tanking? The funds 401ks are invested in because they have to hold solid, reliable assets. The same funds people are relying on for their futures. These are the people who'll REALLY get fucked by this. If you've got a long enough timeline, hopefully, you'll get your money back (although at a loss of compounded value). If you're 65 and looking at your golden years through a lens of 20%+ returns, you're about to find out what happens when an irrational market decides to return to sanity.

Those are the first order effects. The second order effects range from the merely worrying to the outright fucking terrifying. There's a reason Goldman sent out its little missive last night after Mark Cuban pulled his stunt. This isn't just playing with fire, this is sitting in a room full of gasoline while Skippy, The Face-Ripper Ape On Meth, goes berserk with a blowtorch. God help us if this triggers some latent long-tail event.

The good news is that the idiocy of the crowds has apparently decided to dump GME in favor of silver. GME tanking will be bad, but mostly to people who should pay the price for dabbling magic they didn't understand. GME dumping will be good if you're worried about 2008 repeating itself, only without the whole "not letting AIG" fail thing.

People do not understand how fragile and insanely-interconnected the markets are, and how easily the whole goddamn thing could be brought down. We never solved the problems of 2008, we just dumped money on them; we never solved the underlying issues that lead to the Temper Tantrum of December 2018; and we sure the fuck didn't fix the fundamental issue that almost brought the whole show down on September 17 of 2019. And all this was before Covid. There's a reason I went all-in on bonds back in August and that Warren Buffet is sitting on a mountain of cash, and this is pretty much it.

So yeah, congrats to the little guy and all that shit, but don't think for a second that people at the top are going to be the ones who pay.

Once again, after weeks of waiting for your evidence, I'll ask....can you name ONE?! So far, every person identified is a hard core Trumpist, every armed terrorist identified, everyone hunting Pence, everyone carrying cuffs and zip tie cuffs, everyone beating police, everyone breaking Windows, everyone giving tours to insurgents for recon on secret offices, everyone live tweeting Pelosi's location....ALL Trumpsters, not one identified as Antifa. Nice fantasy you think somehow absolves the violent terrorist Trump mob that tried to violently overthrow the government, but as usual you have zero evidence besides self serving lies. Even if it's true (and there's no evidence it is) there were a few non Trumpsters egging on the crowd of thousands, do you think that absolves your ilk of responsibility, or do you see that it means they were so primed and itching for insurrection that a few scruffy anarchists convinced them to attack their own country.

Also, you must ignore the mountains of evidence these morons left of their plans, plans to attack congress, kidnap elected officials, and somehow install Trump as president. Those plans weren't from Antifa, they were proud boys, boogaloos, militias, white power groups, and bat shit crazy Karens and Kens....all Trumpists.

So....Antifa destroying democratic headquarters and waving banners saying "we don't want Biden, we want revenge" pretty much blows up your "Antifa=Democrats, Democrats=Antifa" claims. What now?

Enjoy the patriot party, don't think about the fact that splitting the Republican party means never winning any elections. You just go on with Donny, who likely won't be able to hold office. Clearly he hasn't thought it through or he would have waited until after his impeachment trial to announce his new party, because now Republicans understand the only way to save their party and jobs is to ban Trump from politics.
Also, how is he going to start a political party in prison. Hard to set up a press conference from solitary.
Sorry sunshine, like everything he touches, Trump is destroying the right on his way out the door.



bobknight33 said: Didn't help that ANTIFA was there as Trump supporters inciting action.

Why do they call this a ski jump? It looks like they're just skiing off the edge and falling down the side of the mountain. They should just rename it to ski fall.

Sorry sunshine, neither of these statements have any basis in reality. If you weren't such a constant liar people might believe this nonsense.

When you lie to 74 million voters (and make no mistake, this is saying all 74 million voters believe the Trump vote fraud lie supported the Trump terrorist attack on congress and deserve to be treated as treasonous terrorists) and tell them they're being robbed of their country by massive fraud and cheating, and the guy stealing your country is going to send the thuggish black mobs to your neighborhood to steal your home, you're bound to set a few off. That's why Trump is culpable, he did that and called for his proud boys and second amendment people to stand up and act (the paired order to "stand down and stand by").

Even McConnell has finally admitted that the attack on democracy by your ilk was at the provocation and direction of the president himself, not looking good for his impeachment trial if McConnell won't stand with and protect Trump.

Who dismissed you and your thuggish comrades? You've been coddled and listened to for months despite having absolutely no evidence of your baseless claims and mountains of evidence against it, and your lies continue, ignoring all facts, pretending you were simply ignored, not that you were heard ad nauseam and found to be dishonest and plain wrong in every single claim. It's like we've had a two month drag out fight over whether the Easter bunny is real, and after two months of attempting to get you back to reality with factual information you claim you were just dismissed and never once listened to or allowed to give your side or evidence of a giant magical egg hiding bipedal rabbit.

Antifa was NOT part of that crowd, they would have been lynched if they were. That's just another right wing fantasy that they think absolves them of the responsibility for their actions somehow. Most of the +- 1000 morons who entered the building looking for representatives to murder and state secrets they could steal and sell to Russia were also anti maskers, making it easy to identify them as long term Trumpsters and debunk your baseless lie designed to shirk responsibility for the attack your president directed and your ilk perpetrated and blame it on political rivals with no evidence. Every person asked said they were there because they were listening to Trump's instructions, not a single one was there because Antifa said to go attack the capitol and stop the steal.

Give us the name of this fake antifa person Newsmax has told you was there inciting action with the thousands of murderous Trumpsters there at Trump's explicit direction, fighting like hell to take their country back, forcing a trial by combat, trying to take out senators, representatives, and the VP in some moronic murderous attempt to install Trump as president by force and murder....you can't. They don't exist, and anyone you name will have a great multi-million dollar lawsuit against you for libel, well worth their investigators tracking you down irl. You can join Trump's lawyers in being sued for 100 times the amount you could possibly make in your lifetime. They're liable for $1.5 Billion in losses in just one case. You might get off easy with only a $10 million judgement against you.

I took a 2,500 mile mountain bike trip back in 2011. I was aware of the problem of loose dogs chasing bikes. With two saddlebags strapped to my bike with my belongings I knew I would not be able to outrun a Chihuahua let alone a pitbull, German shepherd or a bear.

I carried an air horn from Walmart that I attached to the bike with Velcro for a quick grab. I had no less than 7 dogs surprise me during my trip. The air horn was very effective in showing them who's boss. Their ears fold back and their tail tucked between their legs while running in the opposite direction.

Even if a dog managed to grab me, I doubt it would be able to withstand the hurt it would inflict blasting in its ear at close range.

Edit: I'm assuming no one thought I would shove the air horn in the dogs butt.


https://ibb.co/xJTfSj7

Trump has blamed State governors for fires on federal land for 3 1/2 years+ but has done nothing to solve the problems on land he controls.

The failure has been in the making longer than that, try since the industrial revolution. I live in a rain forest starting it's third decade of drought. It's a major climate shift. The science is settled, not in question for decades.

No, he needs to listen to the professional forest managers already there instead of ignoring them because he knows more about everything than anyone. See his recent meeting with California's forest managers for examples of his stupidity, his plan is just like for Covid, do nothing, blame others, deny there's a problem, claim it will just go away, blame others again, pat himself on the back for a job perfectly done.

His idea, rake the forests, is just dumb and impossible. Only a complete moron believes you can rake up 33 million acres of mountainous forests, including removing all forest litter which is necessary habitat for many forest creatures and downed trees like redwoods that are useless as lumber. Only a stupid ignoramus believes that's a solution.

Let's say it costs about $1000 per acre, a vast underestimation, that's an extra $330 billion per year for raking California's forests alone. Is Trump offering to fund that, or is he cutting funding instead? (Hint, he cut funding)

Much of the mismanagement is from fighting fires. For decades the plan was don't let any fire burn, that's left forests with 2-5 times the fuel it would naturally have. The last decade that's been realised and when possible fires are allowed to burn. It's too little too late.

Trump's idea of draining the swamp has been plugging the outlets and pumping millions of gallons of sewage into it. That means removing career civil servants and selling positions to friends and contributors with no experience and massive conflicts of interests. Trump's is the most criminal administration ever, with more convictions than any other including Nixon. Politics are incredibly more swampy than before Trump, and the state of the union is crumbling and poised to dissolve into another civil war.

🤦‍♂️

Likely not.

Wait.
You're saying there's video of him being chased from his gun toting friends by one guy with a pistol? For blocks? And none of his friends helped him at all? That might change my mind completely....but only if they essentially dragged him away, not if he followed along arguing, and if they physically forced him away from his friends, why didn't his friends try to help?

Again, I'll need some evidence of the pepper spray to believe it, because the videos of him running he wasn't acting like a person who had been pepper sprayed, not that it would excuse killing someone else, and I'm assuming the spray came after the first homicide.

(Edit: if the pepper spraying happened, and happened before he shot, then he has zero excuses for any of them. He couldn't see, so had no idea what was happening around him, who threw what, what was thrown, or who he was shooting. You can't see after being pepper sprayed. That makes every shot fired attempted murder of any random person in the area, not self defense. To be self defense, you must know who and what you're defending yourself from. If he was sprayed, he couldn't possibly know, nor could he properly aim.)

A plastic bag mistaken for a Molotov? Not by any American kid, all boys over 7 know what a Molotov looks like from movies and video games, they don't resemble empty plastic bags.

I think you're being biased. I may be too. I'm not excusing any threatening acts by protesters before he killed one, but do excuse any acts committed trying to apprehend him afterwards. (Edit: anything they did at that point would be real self defense, not just in their own minds.)

I can't find any way to excuse him, from going armed looking for trouble to leaving his group where he felt safe to mistaking a harmless object for a deadly one and killing someone out of fear to running away armed to shooting at his pursuers to not reporting it, every act indicates intentional murder and an attempt to escape. He might have had a reason, he may have even feared for his life, but he had no real reason, put himself in the situation that scared him, and opened fire for no GOOD reason.
Children often do things for bad reasons, that's one reason they shouldn't be let loose with firearms unaccompanied, especially not in high stress events like this.
It's not that he had no reason, it's that his reasoning was flawed on all points. He had no legitimate reason, and no legitimate excuse.

Btw, in case you don't recall, I'm not anti gun at all. I am anti armed groups traveling the country intent on killing unarmed people they disagree with, even if those people are being mean and scary, even if they're stealing. If they're committing arson, well maybe, that can be mass murder.

If you find a still live version of him being chased by armed protesters away from his friends, or threatened, I would be interested in seeing them. I find it impossible to envision. It's not that I'm not open to new info, it's only that I've seen none that excuse his killings.

(Edit: I'm looking at it like this....If a 17 year old kid wants to do extreme mountain climbing with little to no training, gets on the mountain and gets panicked and, thinking it will make him safer to have two ropes disconnects his partner's harness and they die, he had a reason, but not a legitimate reason, and not an excuse. This kid wanted to do extreme policing totally untrained, he panicked, people died because of his panicked actions. It's really that simple to me.)

All cars can go 0-100km/h in seconds. I've even done that on a bicycle(in the mountains). Not saying you're wrong about killing yourself quickly, just that it doesn't only apply to exotics sports cars;)