More of these showed up in a nearby(ish) county. This time apparently targeting white people. Targeting white people as in 'hey, white people, help us get rid of the others".
The article shows two bags with two different things. One bag has those same wood pellet/rat poison things, the other has, what appear to be castor beans (which contain ricin*).
Interestingly, the person interviewed in the article suggested that might just be to weigh the bags down so they don’t blow away. But a few rocks would do that, and they’re free (which also means no history of purchasing them).
*To be courteous, before anyone jumps in with a tv show reference, lets not spoil anything. (If you know you know, if you don’t, it’s entirely unrelated to this news story).
On the last two census forms I submitted, I listed myself as “other”, because “White” s no longer an ethnicity, it is an ideology. I am pure North Sea heritage, and I want nothing to do with White people. Fuck those assholes.
I put white because its important for the census to have this sort of information so that it can accurately document the extent to which racial inequality exists across the country. I don’t want the U.S. to be the sort of entity that goes around saying “I don’t see color”.
“I don’t see color” is a silly thing to say. I definitely “see” color, which allows me to celebrate diversity and try to understand how we are different. Not “seeing color” is a way of saying that we should all be homogenous, which would not be a good thing, IMO.
But by listing your race as “other”, you’re causing the Census and institutions that depend on its data to “not see color”. Which is probably more important than whether individuals see color.
But its also a way to pretend systemic racism doesn’t exist. Now that we are all the same race we don’t have to talk about any existing inequality. Problem solved.
If everyone just put “human” as a answer to the question about race, then we wouldn’t know that black people have 2/3 of the median income that whites do, have on average a 4 year shorter life span, are 59% more likely to die in child birth, and 31% more likely to die of breast cancer. We also wouldn’t know that despite claims to the contrary they are no more likely to overdose on drugs than whites.
These are important pieces of information that we need to know and will exist whether or not we try to pretend that there is no such thing a race.
I bet her family never thought of that possibility.
Two days later, CNN and MSNBC are still chomping on that bait–having completely forgotten the “President Musk” story.
And it’s not as though this was a brilliant new move on Trump’s part. Anytime he wants to change the conversation he says something outrageous—and it WORKS. Perfectly and completely. “Buy Greenland”/“terminate the Constitution”/“[anything] Hannibal Lector”…they always fall for it.
I agree about the trivial deflection to buying greenland, and the media running off and to chase the squirrel. I mean, he said the exact same BS in the first term; we’re very much in “shame on me” territory for the press.
(Don’t get me wrong; I know this term will be much worse than the first one, but Trump also says a lot of things without follow up, and he clearly has no idea how to begin implementing any of these “command the seas” wild plans)
However, I also don’t see much value in leaning into the Musk antagonism. Either Musk will overstep the boundaries, or he won’t. If we find it fun to take the piss, then fine, but I don’t see our poking changing anything.
It reminds me a bit of the Lincoln Project ads. Some of the LP ads were great, but far too many were just about teasing Trump. Yeah Trump’s thin-skinned, but he’ll just tweet about it a million times. And I don’t see that they would have won any hearts or minds (obviously this is not an objective now though).
The Trump-baiting ones weren’t intended to change anyone’s mind but rather yank his nibs’ chain. IIRC they were paid for in markets covering Mar-a-Lago and NYC.
^ Yeah, that. Of course there’s no way to be certain about the effectiveness of playing on Trump’s insecurities—but a lot of reasonable people believe that Steve Bannon was exiled from The Presence in the first go-round due to all the public discussion of him being the mind behind the puppet.
So, the thinking goes, Trump is indeed easy to manipulate. (And it’s not as if Musk’s presence at Trump’s side is good for the USA.)
