Lucky for Chile!

Meanwhile, in the US:

Context: Next month, Washington State, USA will vote on a proposed law, Initiative 638 “Protecting Girls’ Sports”. If it is approved, girls who want to participate in school sports will first need to undergo a genital exam, DNA test, or testosterone test.

Just a reminder to vote No on this trash initiative next month.

Chapman was interesting for a lot of reasons, but I am posting this particularly because I just learned about his public memorial service. The surviving Monty Python crew stayed true to form for their friend. Among other silliness and shock humor, John Cleese "became the first person at a televised British memorial service to say 'fuck'." Later, Eric Idle closed his own remarks by saying, "I'd just like to be the last person at this meeting to say 'fuck'."

I did not realize that early support for a state income tax in Washington came largely from farmers, and was spearheaded by the Grange.

On a related note: Vote no on Initiative 26-645! Keep the new income tax on millionaires! This change to the tax system is a century in the making.

Source: Now I Can't Lose

A recent post in c/main has sparked interest in finding a new sidebar banner for our instance. The current one is AI generated, and was chosen by our users from a bunch of other AI-generated submissions. It has been three years since then. Also, the mood toward AI has shifted. Maybe it's time for something new, and human-made?

This post is a place to collect submissions for new banner artwork. Put your art in the comments below! We plan to leave this post open for two weeks, and hold a vote on Friday, Sept. 11.

For context, here is the recent post in c/main: https://sh.itjust.works/post/65729579

Here is the old banner discussion: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1022097

And here is the old banner vote: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1432783
(Unfortunately, some of the image links are broken.)

I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen's memoir Born to Run. It's surprisingly good; I highly recommend it. Bruce reads the audiobook himself. I went in with a casual appreciation for Bruce and his music, and am coming out as a massive fan.

For context on the pic: Clarence and Bruce were incredibly close friends for decades. They didn't have a romantic or sexual relationship AFAIK, but a "you are my missing half" sort of relationship. The on-stage kisses happened more than once at emotional high points in their shows.

I get it, local papers are struggling to survive and ad revenue is down. And there is a note on the page to identify that it is "sponsored content." But at first glance it's visually indistinguishable from any other story or op-ed the paper publishes. This is misleading to casual readers.

For context, there is an ongoing multi-decade legal fight to get the government to remove four large dams on the Snake River in the northwest US. The paid content here is written by a consortium representing organizations which have financial incentives to keep the dams in place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River#Proposed_dam_removal

There may be hope for Idaho yet.

Though the state Republican party, which has thoroughly controlled the state government since the mid 1990's, has already resolved to repeal the initiative if it passes in November.

The nearly 4,000-acre Old Trails fire sparked north of Airway Heights and jumped the Spokane River. That and two other fires in Spokane County forced 60,000 evacuations, threatening more than 14,000 structures within the city’s evacuation boundaries.

The flames spread easily in 35-45 mph winds, tearing through Riverside State Park and razing at least 640 structures as of Sunday, mostly within the city. Many of the lost homes were identifiable only by the chimneys left standing.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64302418