Jump to content

flatdawgs

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    718
  • Joined

Posts posted by flatdawgs

  1. 4 hours ago, Bevo said:

    We own some land there, and supposedly (from speaking with the locals) neo nazis were more prevalent 20 years ago than today and they weren't in Sandpoint as it has always been a tourist destination. When they were there, it was more in the Bonners Ferry area which is a little farther north. The locals also say that they like the implication as it keeps the Washington and Californian coastals from increasing housing prices. 

    Sandpoint's a nice town, beautiful surroundings. Buddy grew up and has a lake house about 45 minutes away, on the WA side of the border (headed over there in a couple of weeks). Priest River and up towards Priest Lake is where you'll find a lot more of the white supremacist crowd (and Bonners Ferry, as you mentioned). Oddly enough, Pend Oreille county on the WA side is certainly very conservative but not quite the same vibe as across the river; I've enjoyed visits to the tiny county fair and other community events there. It's probably because it's close enough to Spokane to get the weekender lake house people.  (If you’re ever in Usk, you owe it to yourself to stop by Mellany's for a shockingly good meal made by the kindest people you'll ever meet.)

    • Hook 'Em 3
  2. 30 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

    AKA the typical magat. Especially in a place like Idaho. There is a serious problem with extremists in rural Idaho, Washington, and Montana

    And Oregon (Bundy/Malheur), and California, and... well, pretty much everywhere in the country, particularly those places where there is actually wilderness left to hide in/around.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. 1 minute ago, C-Man said:


    Big time white nationalist groups up that part of Idaho, I think, right?

    Yes, very much so - although the people of CdA itself have fought back successfully against some of these groups via the courts.

    • Like 2
  4. Check Spokane media (KREM TV, etc.) - they are the largest city near Coeur d'Alene and will have live coverage. 

    Kootenai County sheriff live press conference right now. Two dead, "many" injured. 

    I know this area a bit; my parents were married in CdA.

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 1
  5. 23 minutes ago, elfenix said:

    double off year elections are really anti-democratic, so i'm in favor of getting rid of them. 

    Yeah, there's been a movement here (Seattle) to switch to even years; the state lege forced all municipalities into off-year elections in 1969, so both municipal and state law would need to change. Turnout in off years even in a vote by mail state like WA is about half of even-year elections. That said, terms would be shortened by a year at the bridge rather than adding an extra year as Miami is doing.

    Oh well, at least we're going to ranked-choice primaries in two years.

    • Hook 'Em 2
    • Like 2
  6. 25 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    And that's our bottom line.  You don't need 51% of people to be fascist-loving asshole cultists to ruin a country.  The threshold number is probably around 30%.  We're at 40%.  We are fucked, and there's no unfucking us.  They are firmly dedicated to sinking this ship, and taking all of us down with them.

    30-35% +/- is baseline in most countries; it's the fact that we have a two-party system that exacerbates it (Portugal's far-right Chega party, for example, took 35% in last month's elections but they did not take power as the other two major parties locked them out; similar percentages are found in recent elections from France to Brasil). Not great, but certainly not an outlier. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. 5 hours ago, Im_smarter_then_you said:

    1. Spokane is in a red area. Maybe not Spokane itself.  So hell yeah. 
    2. Battered citizens and press?  Where have I heard that?

    Spokane is a purply-bluish city (fun fact: Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley represented Spokane's congressional district, albeit 40 years ago; much more recently the state House speaker was a Democrat from Spokane). That said, 5 miles out of town in any direction and you hear banjos; 10 to the east and you're in northern Idaho. Every year some Republican backbencher from the area floats secession from the state; this year they kind of gave up on that and now are onto "autonomous region", meaning "we don't want you to tell us what to do, but please keep sending us that sweet, sweet tax money to pay for all of our services."

    So - hell yeah, Spokane!

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Like 2
    • Haha 3
  8. 4 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

    OK. Maybe move the begin point back a bit. 

    Well, that was post-Balfour, which came from that imperial British genius of promising everything to everyone, all at once.

    • Like 2
  9. 2 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace is a great read on the topic, although at 35 years old or so it's not fully up to date. That said it's a very good survey on the end of the Ottoman Empire from the Young Turk movement pre-WWI to Ataturk; the effect of the war on Türkiye, the Levant, and Palestine; and the creation of the modern Middle East. 

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 3
  10. 51,600 in Seattle to see a result everyone knew would happen, 3pm on a Thursday. Kudos to Atlético Madrid for taking it seriously and trying to close their goal differential in the group. (I would have loved to have found those Miami $4 tickets, but the prices never dropped and the cheap seats went for $65.)

  11. 21 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

     

    You sound white.

    NTTIAWWT

    Ah, but I speak enough Portuguese to have fun with the Brazilian fans, and am enjoying drinking with them. 

    The match was actually entertaining. 

    • Hook 'Em 1
  12. Going to Sounders v Botafogo this evening in the Group o' Death - wouldn't likely be competitive even if the Sounders weren't banged up, but I'm still looking forward to seeing some of these teams I'd probably never see otherwise.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  13. Conflating Arab-Americans and Muslims isn't completely accurate - according to the Arab American Institute, only about 25% of Arab-Americans are Muslim, with about 2/3 being Christian (five of the most populous Muslim nations - Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Türkiye - aren't Arab at all). The terms shouldn't be used interchangeably.

    • Like 2
  14. 3 hours ago, Tuco said:

    Cal Anderson Park (in Capital Hill), Seattle WA.  

    UW campus one in Seattle (it's two stops closer on the train, lol).

    I'm actually sorry I'll have just missed the one in Lisbon - yes, Democrats Abroad Portugal is holding one there.

    • Hook 'Em 5
  15. 5 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

    Eritrea is a country of importance to me due to the proximity to Ethiopia and the senseless war between the two this century.

    I have a really good friend that is from the country next to Chad. He's from Niger (Almost everyone says oh he's from Nigeria.) which was a former French colony. His story about the country's first railroad and the day it opened made me laugh so hard I cried. Niger is on my list of countries I want to see solely for the railroad debacle.

    Both interesting places. Eritrea has a surprising amount of decent art deco and Italian Modernist colonial architecture, mostly in Asmara - as an architect with an interest in colonial design and local adaptations, I found it fascinating. 

    Unfortunately Niger is not the most welcoming place right now, due in no small part to our Russian/Wagner PMO "friends," so ya know, fuck the Russkies.

    (yeah, yeah - take this shit to the Food & Travel board -->) 😆

  16. 6 minutes ago, Ghost of NMAS said:

    Sorry, but federal law requires countries to be called by their birth name.

    I for one look forward to the matchup between Upper Volta and Zaire, followed by a scintillating tilt between Burma and Persia.

    (yes, I realize some of those countries may not qualify, but we still might get to see the Austro-Hungarian Empire face off against the Orange Free State....)

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  17. 3 hours ago, royiv said:

    You’re letting your big city bias show. Get outside of the big cities and the PNW gives the Deep South a run for the money in crazy. I’ve seen more confederate flags and MAGA shit driving to my in-law’s lake house in Washington than I’ve ever seen on my regular drives between Houston and Austin. There are some seriously backwards rednecks up in that part of the country.

    lol I'm aware, and you're not wrong - I've literally driven every single mile of state highway in WA and have been to the vast majority of both ID and OR. It's just that in WA the squidbillies are substantially outnumbered, unlike in (checks notes) most other states. 

    We do call it "Spoklahoma" for a reason, though 😂

    • Hook 'Em 1
    • Haha 2
×
×
  • Create New...