So the ICE facility needs assistance in Guarding the facility?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, September 27, 2025 - 10:48 pm: Edit

Ryan, Antifa Activists have been demonstrating in front of the Portland OR ICE facility every night for more than the last three months.

ICE makes arrests, local judicial authorities often dismiss the charges, or in other cases, the DA refuses to file charges, or reduce the charges to misdemeanor.

The defunding issue is not as complicated as a comment above implies:

Funds used for community enrichment or community relations are funds not used to pay salaries or overtime. 5% cut is still a decrease in the amount of money spent on local community security.

The statement that local police respond to calls at/near the facility appears to be not true.

A number of local residents have filed lawsuits against the city,police,county, and State of OR requesting protection for residents safety and protection of personal property.

No amount of messing with statistics will fix what is happening in Portland.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, September 27, 2025 - 10:57 pm: Edit

The crime stats in Portland (like the ones in Chicago, New York, DC, and other areas) are fake. Crimes are downgraded by supervisors to a lower category or to newly invented categories that don't show on FBI crime stats. The real crime rates are actually up in many cities.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, September 27, 2025 - 10:57 pm: Edit

The first Antifa Activist to be arrested and charged as a “Domestic Terrorist “ happened some three hours ago, in Portland.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 12:50 am: Edit

Sounds like Portland during the summer of 2020.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 08:05 am: Edit

Exactly.

There was a Fox news cast where the individual interviewed made a comment that Portland seems to be a sort of “Headquarters” of Antifa.

The example given was a “call to arms” on social media (X, instagram, etc…) calling for reinforcements to Portland in response to the military deployment to Portland.) to Antifa to send help from Washington state, Los Angeles, San Francisco.

Too early to tell if any Antifa members responded.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 09:31 am: Edit

I've stated facts; you folks have gone into some mixture of circular conjecture and "it's fake news". Have fun with that.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 11:50 am: Edit

It is a proven fact that crime stats are faked in city after city. One city hid the true murder rate by classifying some as “death by firearm”, a category not on the report to the FBI. Actual crime is up as any living in those cities knows. Officer after officer has testified to being ordered by superiors to list crimes at lower levels and avoid any crime designation including "gun".

Good luck with cognitive dissonance and TDS.

THIS SUBJECT ENDS NOW.

I have other things to deal with. Steve Petrick was rushed to the hospital this morning. I don’t have time to track the made-up facts today.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 12:16 pm: Edit

My best to Petrick.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 03, 2025 - 07:41 pm: Edit

The government shutdown is in some ways a disaster but it's not a topic for this BBS.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, October 09, 2025 - 01:42 pm: Edit

Steve, I have no idea where this should go, or indeed if it should be anywhere here (though I vaguely recall a thread somewhere about "if I was running my fictional country", for the love of me I cannot find it); for lack of a better place, I'll take a crack at it here (on the theory that Congress is generally understood to be a disaster), on the understanding that you will move, edit, and/or or delete it as appropriate.

So, about the filibuster...and Star Trek.

I have come to the conclusion that the current version of the filibuster (60-vote threshold for cloture, with other bills allowed on the floor whether or not there's a vote for cloture) is on par with the "war by computer" in the classic episode "A Taste of Armageddon". It allows for neat, clean obstruction of anything meaningful being done by Congress with none of the pain from it felt by those actually in Congress.

Take it back to a talking filibuster, with no other bills allowed during the filibuster, and you basically do what Kirk did by blowing up the reporting computer: force the sides to working together to avoid actual damage to the status quo.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 17, 2025 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Prince Andrew had a meeting with King Charles III and decided (or was told) the he will not return to public life and that further he will stop using his titles (e.g., Duke of York) because of the boiling controversy over Jeffrey Epstein.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, October 18, 2025 - 07:26 am: Edit

The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, has also lost her title and the Wife and I was thinking 'who might get the Duke/Duchess of York Title' now?

Best guess was Princess Charlotte on her 18th Birthday?

On Jeffrey Epstein - I can't see the ongoing issues dying for several more years? There is blood in the water and the Media will smell that for a while to come.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 18, 2025 - 07:47 am: Edit

The title is still his until death. Only an act of parliament can take it from him. He just agreed not to use it.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, November 17, 2025 - 09:55 am: Edit

Reuters just released another update on the Tehran, Iran water “crisis”.

Water Rationing is scheduled to begin in December.

Residents are being urged to install water storage tanks.

What I found interesting, is that the government does not put all of the blame on “climate change”.

Rather, the list of causes is “mismanagement” by prior governmental officials, over use of ground water resources, and “corruption “.

This is a continuation of reports earlier this year that the Iranian government plans to relocate to a city in the South eastern part of the country.

The government has further stated that it is considering mandatory evacuation of the current capital.

Curiously, a minor official in the water department is claiming there is no emergency, only a “temporary” shortage that will be lifted after the rain fall resumes this winter.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, November 17, 2025 - 11:07 am: Edit

What it comes down to is that they've diverted a ridiculous amount of water for irrigation in support of some of the least efficient farming practices on the planet.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, November 17, 2025 - 03:29 pm: Edit

We can't forget the disaster the Russians made of the Aral Sea....
Blocking off water for cotton production....

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Monday, November 17, 2025 - 03:44 pm: Edit

To me, what was so shocking was how in just a few decades the Soviets managed to completely trash an ecosystem. The pictures of what were once coastal fishing communities with docks and boats, are now...desert! So sad. Although the dam project seems to be bringing back water to at least the northern part of the Aral Sea. The southern part looks like it will be desert perhaps forever.

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 02, 2026 - 10:33 pm: Edit

AFFORDABILITY
Bear with me, I'm going to post this, trying to be fair, but there will be no replies or further discussion. I will be attending a political discussion group dinner soon and need to get my thoughts in order. Feel free to email me your thoughts if you must.

The Democrats have (rightly) settled upon "affordability" as their campaign issue (they don't have any others). It's a good one, especially since Republicans fumble their replies by running against Joe Biden who isn't on the ticket. Republicans also complain that it is just a code word for "wealth transfer" meaning "tax those who make the money and (after deducting a slice for the government to mess with) give it to the lower (democrat-voting) classes, which is true but nobody understands it. And don't let "eggs" distract you. They were up due to a bird pandemic which went away on it's own, so Biden didn't make egg prices go up and Trump didn't make them come down.

The Dems have a good idea here since Trump promised to lower prices "on day one" which no one thought could possibly happen but which has now been hung around the Republicans' necks like a dead albatross. Even better, Trump's tariff programs that no one understands (economics is beyond human comprehension) are widely thought to be inflationary. (Maybe they are, at least a little.)

Yes, "prices" went up a lot in the Biden years. Yes, Trump hasn't brought them down very much (certainly not enough, absolutely not what Trump promised). They went up for a number of reasons:
1. Inflation from Biden's obscene overspending.
2. Higher oil prices which make everything more expensive.
3. Interest rates went up, making business more expensive and prices go up.
4. Massive immigration, which put more consumers into the market without really increasing supply.
5. Regulations, which made business more expensive.
6. Blue state minimum wage increases, which were passed through as price increases.
7. Wages did not go up during the Biden years; the average family lost $3000 in actual spending power and Trump has only returned $1000 of that so far.

So what has Trump actually accomplished? (And why does no one give him credit for it.)
1. Inflation is down (and supposedly had trailed off in the last day's of Biden which seems to be more cooking the books than actually trailing off) but that just means prices are not going UP as fast.
2. Oil prices are down, which has actually lowered some prices somewhat.
3. Interest rates are down which has lowered some prices a bit but mostly just means they aren't going up as fast.
4. Immigration has been cut back a lot but that just means prices aren't going up as fast.
5. Regulations are being eliminated which has lower the prices a little.
6. Blue state minimum wage laws are still there and Trump cannot change them.
7. Wages have gone up, but not enough. The Repubs are counting on the "big beautiful bill" to increase wages, but it won't be enough. Even if Trump returned all of the lost buying power and then more, closing the gap where things cost more but you have more money, things STILL COST MORE.

The Republicans need to come up with better messaging and fast, but that may be a suicide mission as ECONOMICS ARE BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION and no one will listen to the explanation long enough to grasp the issue.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, January 03, 2026 - 12:58 pm: Edit

With respect:

1) "a bird pandemic which went away on it's own" is doing a grave disservice to the Trump led vaccine program and making some tough choices; including quarantines.

2) "Biden's obscene overspending." I think a better comparison is Debt and Contribution to the deficit.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, January 03, 2026 - 01:02 pm: Edit

Mike: Steve is referring to the H5N1 bird flu pandemic, which hit egg producers particularly hard.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 03, 2026 - 06:43 pm: Edit

Yes, Mike, I was talking about the pandemic that hit only birds, not the Covid mess we all suffered through. I had it once, and bad vaccine reactions twice. Leanna and Jean had it worse. I have enough risk factors right now that Covid would be very dangerous for me. Chicken flu, not so much, although once I learned the trick of doing good eggs in the microwave I go through a dozen a week.

And Mike, "no replies or further discussion" means that. You have been warned.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 05, 2026 - 12:29 pm: Edit

California’s fuel system is on the verge of collapse. This is BAD for many reasons, not least because Nevada and Arizona get virtually ALL of their gasoline from California refineries that were closing. The pipeline system links the three states, and does not extend elsewhere, so it is physically impossible to deliver enough gasoline to Nevada/Arizona from any other source. California is now importing gasoline from foreign sources. California demanded that refineries build storage tanks to hold larger inventories but simultaneously demanded that gasoline powered vehicle sales be banned by 2030. No company would invest in storage tanks that would become obsolete in a decade. Governor Newsome refuses to take any responsibility for the problem. He continues to say that price gouging is the real problem despite no evidence that price gouging has happened. After slapping refineries with millions of dollars in bogus environmental fines and announcing plans to end oil drilling, California is now offering those same refineries subsidies to stay in business and expanding oil drilling permits.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, January 05, 2026 - 03:16 pm: Edit

Don't recall the state, though one guy with chickens had his coops tested, no flu....
Then the government had 1.5 million of his birds killed....
That will definitely cause a price increase....

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, January 06, 2026 - 08:42 am: Edit

Even if no new gas vehicles are added to CA, the existing fleets will persevere for decades more.


Plus, what are they going to do, ban importing used cars? If you move there you have to dump your internal combustion engine vehicle?

Heck I currently own:
-2000 VW golf with 230,000 miles (TEEN and wife training car, now up for sale)
-2005 RAV4 with 330,000 miles (my sister is now driving this)
-2007 Lexus ES 350 with 310,000 (my car; my eldest son drives it)
-2019 Jeep Wrangler with 170,000 miles (my sister got tired of it so sold it to me for cheap. my Daily driver)
-2024 Toyota Corolla Hatchback with 3,000 miles (used solely to take my mom to and from where ever she goes from the nursing home; wheelchair in the back)
-2024 Toyota RAV3 with 12000 miles (WIFE).

My next car will almost certainly be a Hybrid or "plug in electric" car... Maybe a Corolla Cross Hybrid? Or maybe an old BMW i3?

IMHO the battery vehicle is now a valid option for everyone unless 1) you drive a lot or long distances routinely or 2) you live somewhere you can't plug in your car overnight.

I predict in a few years plug in charging will be available at all new housing.