Market Street/downtown has been a declining shithole for decades. Other parts of the city are thriving. It’s not one of the most expensive cities in America because of the weather.

Yes, petty theft is a problem, but incarceration didn’t solve it, it just cost the state hundreds of millions to house shoplifters. I don’t have the solution, but clearly effectively decriminalizing theft isn’t it.

Looked at the source’s videos, apparently according to him every city in America is failing rapidly and will be a wasteland by 2024….but then he said America’s economy was over, total collapse imminent 9 months ago….and the auto industry was collapsing, tech sector collapsing, Turkey collapsing, Chicago collapsing, New York collapsing, California collapsing, China collapsing, global shipping collapsing, stock market collapsing.
This guy is ridiculously pessimistic even by my standards….and tends to ignore most of the facts. Booooo.

Another high ranking Republican who is apparently the best friend of another convicted child porn trader has quit in disgrace.

"BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator announced Monday that he would resign following a report that he had traded scores (over 70) of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges.

Republican Ray Holmberg, who rose to become one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years, said he would resign effective June 1. His term was scheduled to end on Nov. 30 and he already had announced in March that it would be his last.

“Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings,” Holmberg, 79, said in a statement announcing his resignation. “I want to do what I can, within my power, to lessen such distractions.”

Maybe don’t be friends with convicted child molesters and kiddie porn purveyors, that might be a good way to lessen, even avoid such distractions…but that would mean ostracizing some of their Republican colleagues and the party leader(s).

You like to shout baseless claims of debauchery among Democrats, I like to point you to specific cases of actual proven debauchery among Republicans, and there’s a never ending stream of them to choose from….child molesters, kiddie porn purveyors, sex traffickers, best friends and wives to child molesters, etc….I know facts and convictions vs baseless claims can’t convince you of anything, you still say the 2020 election was stolen despite there being more evidence that 2016 was stolen, you still say Covid was a Democratic hoax and blame Democrats for Trump’s lack of response and shirking responsibility, you still claim CRT in grade school is a thing, you still claim Jan 6 was a peaceful tour of the capitol by patriots and also an attack on democracy by BLM and ANTIFA, you think Portland is a lawless wasteland of smoldering cinders….facts are for liberals.
(Btw- if Jan 6 wasn’t a Republican led, planned, and executed crime like we all know it was, why were republican representatives (Congressman Ronny Jackson, Congressman Andy Biggs, and Congressman Mo Brooks) petitioning Trump for pardons for their parts in it directly after the failed coup? You know that accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt, both logically and by law.)

Now I'm picturing that "tube of angry bees" sound approaching as I'm hiding in the debris of a post-robot-apocalypse wasteland. The last of humanity, trying to evade the Leonardo slaughter bots just one more day.

DOHC! You get that in a civic now. Lol.
600 hp! I remember when that sounded insane, now it's only half a hoonitruck.

It always seemed odd to me that, in the post apocalyptic gas station free wasteland, he would want a car that doesn't sip but instead shotguns guzzeline. Sure it goes fast, but not that far.

This video somewhat glosses over how Dr. Strangelove-level nuts Holland was. His little stunt in Yakima was the least of his batshittery. He almost augured a '52 into his daughter's softball game when he stalled the fucking thing pulling a maneuver similar to the one that caused the Spokane crash. Yes, the crazy bastard used a B-52 to show off -- over a goddamn kid's softball game.

Also not mentioned is how close he came to turning a large part of Spokane into a radioactive wasteland when he missed plowing into a nuclear weapons storage depot by about the length of one of Roger Waters' better spits.

If there's one lesson I hope all members of the USAF take from this incident, it's that B-52s are not toys.

As if that place didn't already look like a wasteland BEFORE the explosion...

Seems like they could use a poop map like San Francisco.
watch your step.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/human-wasteland-map-plots-all-of-san-franciscos-poop

I'm almost never in Sift Talk, but I noticed this too. Used to be that to make the top 15 a video would have to get well over the 10-vote generic "sifted" status, but recently I've seen several occasions when there aren't enough videos with 10+ votes to even fill out the top 15 completely.

I'm not an extremely long-time sifter, I've had an account here for 8 years and lurked for probably a couple before that. But in general, the main reasons that I actually joined the community here when I rarely do anything more than lurk (no facebook / reddit / whatever for me) still apply:

Standard YouTube isn't a community, it is a toxic wasteland. Trolls are the rule, not the exception. By far.

On the Sift, I rarely participate by actually posting videos, but the comments sections on videos here are a massive breath of fresh air compared to other sites (particularly YouTube). That's what drew me here and has kept me here.


That being said, I think we've been losing some of the openness to different opinions that has been a real strength of the sift community. With such a divisive US President, I'm sure some of that is inevitable. But, while we've always been better about that than elsewhere on the internet, I think we're losing some of that advantage.

I think the sift leans left -- not extreme, but noticeably. I used to lean moderately right, although generally more in the middle on social issues. My time on the sift (and also NOT living in the US) has pushed me more to the left, again particularly on social issues, but even on the meat-and-potatoes stuff that I think actually belongs in the realm of government. I'm still to the right of sift average, but closer than I was. Credit for that shift in my viewpoints is definitely in part due to the sane, open-minded, and accommodating debates in comments here.

I recognize that it is hard to be accommodating to some of the sifters that are further to the right than I ever was. A certain basketball coach comes to mind. But even when viewpoints from sources like that veer into territory that we find intolerable, I think we here at the sift used to be better about rationally but firmly voicing disagreement without sort of ... picking a fight. If that makes sense.

Just speaking for myself, I think I've probably been upvoting videos less because a higher percentage of what is being sifted is political, and I get fatigued with the volume of that. That's very much tied in to the current situation and media environment, so there isn't necessarily anything to be done about it, but I'd wager that is partially responsible for the lower traffic beyond just myself.

i have to agree that when the election was nearing the end,and it was time to vote.the choice was pretty clear.

i never liked the "lesser of two evils" argument,but when faced with a choice of:

soft fascist,narcissistic used car salesman,who spoke in bombastic and racially charged rhetoric,but really said nothing.

or...

a war-mongering corporatist,who never saw a war she didn't want to send your kids to go die in,or a corporation she didn't want to extract donations from for political favors and who basically said nothing as well.except for 'well,at least i am not that THAT guy"--->points to trump.

i am still gonna say...go with the corporatist.

because in the end,at least on domestic policy,hillary would have been adequate.oh she would have signed the TPP,and fucked millions of american workers,and she would have most likely expanded the drone campaign,and continued with the american empires policy of "regime change",but she had/has the knowledge and capabilities to actual lead a government.

hillary knows how to politic,and understands how shit gets done in washinton,and things would have remained relatively unchanged here in america.maybe..maybe.... some incremental change due to the political pressure the sanders campaign brought.

so i get it,and maher is not exactly wrong per se",but i think he is missing the bigger picture that so many in the beltway have missed,and CONTINUE to miss,because they reside in their own,tiny and insulated bubble.

the american people were desperate for change,and they have been for decades.after obama's campaign of 2008,and his "hope and change" platform,which ignited the american people,only to see,not "hope and change" but rather "more of the same".

and what was hillary offering?
a new message or vision? a new path for america that would include everybody to blaze a new path of invention,creativity and imagination to create an america everyone could be proud of? and feel a part of?

nope..she was offering "more of the same".

well,americans had already had their fill of "more of the same".they had lost faith in a system that appeared to no longer represent them.so they chose the nuclear option for change.terrifying and horrifying change.

so go ahead and blame the "bernie bros".feel free to slap responsibility on those "uneducated and redneck hillbillies".cry and whine and point the finger at those liberals who refused to abandon their principles,and by all means bask in the glory of your own self-righteous moralizing,and condescendingly condemn anyone who voted for trump,or who refused to vote at all.

you can sit in a small room with everybody else who voted for hillary,and self-righteously smell each others farts and call it a rose,because you are obviously a better quality human being than the rest of us.

and by all means,refuse to examine the fact that hillary ran a shit campaign,and had no real message,vision or path to the future.ignore the corruption and blatant,and politically motivated shenanigans of the DNC.god forbid you experienced a moment of honesty.

is trump going to be a disaster of presidency?
well,it sure is shaping up to look that way isn't it?
but we have survived horrible presidents before,and we shall survive trump.

and on a positive note:
trump has brought many people out of their apathetic slumber,and they are scrutinizing everything he does with a fine toothed comb.the amount people who are becoming politically engaged is quite impressive.

there is nothing in our representative democracy quite as powerful as people gathering together to put pressure on our elected representatives.

town hall meetings,that used to be wastelands,are now being packed to over-flowing.with citizens calling out their representatives..to their FACE..on how unhappy they are.

so go ahead and ridicule those who voted for trump,but it is due to trump that so many have gotten off their couches and are taking it to their congressmen and senators.

just a non-controversial,and easily predicted side effect,when you put someone like trump in power.

man,the politics in my country is getting really fucking interesting!i cannot WAIT to see what happens in the next episode!

what do you guys think?
/end rant

*promote

I would downvote this video just to shut up this guy. What shortsighted stupidity.

That guy from Kansas who is on a field trip to Estonia is there to demonstrate NATO commitment. No "massive numbers", no "offensive threat to Putin".

This guy speaks of the "border" with russia like its some desert wasteland where NATO and russian troops can move in and out at will. These are civilised countries with hundreds of millions of people living in them, currently in a defensive partnership with the USofA. I wonder what the "good deal" will be that the clown gets to sell out.

Poland doesnt even border the main part of Russia, only the Kaliningrad exclave.

Also dont forget that all these other countries also contribute troops to NATO. The only thing that the clown has right is that they should be contributing more.

I somewhat disagree, although I don't think much of the average American's grasp on current affairs, especially foreign affairs.

N Korea, however, is so incredibly well known as a mostly desolate wasteland populated by the abused slaves of the despotic dictator that runs it that we made multiple stupid stoner movies about it (one that got Lil' Kim's goat so bad they hacked Sony). To me, that means at least Hollywood sees it as unavoidable information almost everyone knows, even stupid stoners, and really the way it's portrayed in movies and TV indicate that most people think it's worse than it actually is there. It's not really Mad Max times over there like many believe, but it is awful.

Actually, your anecdote is slightly off. This election wasn't a choice between your responsibilities and a vacation, it was a choice between sitting in your dead end job, or taking a chance that you actually might be good at scavenging apocalyptic wastelands.

Alfred J. Pennyworth once said, "Some men just want to see the 1% infested Federal Government burn."

At least I think that's what he said.

Not a great song, a little heavy handed, but some fantastic visuals. Pikachu in the wasteland... haha.

I actually experienced something like the bit @1:24 a few weeks ago, while hiking in a national forest (in the fall, in New England). I whipped out my phone to snap a pic of a fern,and noticed that, despite being surrounded by absolute beauty, my S3 still pushes the saturation up on the display when I'm taking a picture. Everything was already so colorful that it was immediately noticeable, and gave me the horrible impression of facsimile. Very much the real version of that bit from the video.

Lots of tech shit is getting freaky lately.