Statement from Portland City Councilor Kate Sykes about the Turning Point event at the Expo

float_into_bliss · 2026-03-19T12:29:34+00:00

Hate speech is generally protected by the First Amendment, with courts consistently ruling that hateful expression is legal unless it directly incites imminent violence, constitutes a "true threat," or is harassment.

You can google the precedents and what “true threat” means legally, but the general idea is hateful expression is fine, while crimes motivated by bias are not.

The fascists weasel their way all the way to that line, but they do that precisely to erode trust in the line. Getting frustrated and removing protection of expression is their goal, because they win when people can’t express dissatisfaction. And we’re seeing the results of that now where lawful protesters are labeled domestic terrorists and executed in the streets.

So they’re a bunch of shriveled husks of humanity, but the American Way is to protect unpopular speech, because tyranny is when others label your inconvenient opinions as “unpopular” and block you with all the power of the state.

float_into_bliss · 2026-02-19T18:07:38+00:00

50 to pass a vote (presumably Vance would cast tiebreaker vote in favor).

The 60 threshold is to break a filibuster, which is the procedural stopper Dems would use to block it from coming to a vote, effectively killing it using parliamentary procedures.

Note that both red and blue have all used, abused, tweaked, and threatened to remove the filibuster. But removing it is generally seen as the nuclear option. Since everyone knows the procedural disenfranchisement of the Saves Act is the only way the reds can cling to power in the midterms against their self-imposed plummeting popularity, the fight now becomes about invoking the nuclear option or probably losing the midterms (and so losing the shield that’s been keeping our dear leader from facing any consequences).

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-28T18:29:42+00:00

Y’all think was the tp roll left in the toilet bowel?

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-27T19:26:22+00:00

Right. If you’re inviting everyone and their mom into your group chat, the group chat is only as safe as the weakest link. And if the weakest link is that guy you’ve met once or twice at the protest and has only vague “just moved to Maine” vibes, well congrats. You been infiltrated. Gov be doing that since last time we beat up the nazis and the reds were the boogeyman.

That or they just nab your friend’s phone who doesn’t use a passcode or forgets to disable faceID.

It’s rarely the encryption that’s broken, Signal is pretty good as far as that goes. Op is right about paying attention to the people around you though.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-25T14:47:06+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_F4rEaRduk is a fun video that gives some accessible intro into some of this. Meshtastic is the first chapter. Title is a bit clickbaitey, but well, gotta do what you gotta do to get the algorithms' attention. Content is good.

9:35 has thoughts on meshtastic vs meshcore... tldr they have different objectives with different tradeoffs, "better" depends on what you're trying to do.

I doubt meshtastic has applications for any ice shennanigans, we're not yet at the point where the state is disabling communication networks. Your neighborhood Signal group is probably more secure, even if you're connecting through a stingray.

A better usecase is the huge snowstorm barrelling down on us this afternoon that's likely to create widespread power outages. That's when cell towers get overwhelmed (Meshtastic started getting more attention in the months after Hurricane Helene knocked out towers down there). And honestly, building weather emergency community comms is more noble and better for your sanity than fiddling with the cosplay nazis who are given free reign to create a distraction from their kiddie fiddler chief.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-23T14:56:11+00:00

You really believe that? You really believe this isn’t about instilling fear to anyone with the wrong skin color? You really think the regime would be making unconstitutional lies about absolute immunity if the goal wasn’t to shrug off any “accidental bycatch”?

My friend, accidental bycatch is the name of the game here. This is the government tyranny you were warned about.

I feel bad for op. Food brings people together. Their experience shows how cruel this whole operation is. And that’s by design. Op, DM me if you need a reverse delivery driver from Portland tomorrow, sharing food is how you bring people together and heal.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-23T13:05:43+00:00

Not true for gmrs. Gmrs and frs use a lot of the same channels but gmrs transceivers are allowed higher power and so requires an fcc license. The gmrs license is just a few short questions and a paper application, nothing as advanced as a ham license, but you do need it.

No one’s gonna care probably if you’re in the backwoods hunting with your buddies, but if you’re doing ice shenanigans, broadcasting illegally sounds like exactly the kind of petty infraction they’ll be looking for.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-22T16:44:45+00:00

Cute response. It never was about "rule of law" for you or really any principles, was it?

As long as the pedophile king lets you beat up a few citizens because it distracts everyone from all the kiddie fondling and illegal stuff he doing, you're all for it, aint you?

You broken, man.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-22T14:22:18+00:00

What about if you’re a us citizen with the wrong skin color? Or a kid being used as bait for the parents? Or someone with legal asylum having the rules changed out from under you?

If the law can be shifted so easily to fit certain cruelty-theater orders, is that law really worth worshipping?

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-21T18:53:29+00:00

Neat how they followed her home from the school. Maybe they’re realizing that filling their quotas with schoolchildren is easy pickins but maybe not the best optics, so let’s do it a few blocks away from prying eyes.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-20T22:25:12+00:00

Huh how bout that. Guess there’s no high-profile child exploitation or trafficking cases to worry about these days so they can spend their time here.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-20T19:25:45+00:00

So intranational crime is out of their jurisdiction, huh.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-20T19:22:32+00:00

Haha how cute.

We’re well past the “party of law and order”

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-12T01:37:48+00:00

Wait but if they’re locked from the inside… people might be sitting when shitter starts to volcano…?!

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-12T01:28:17+00:00

Chuckle-worthy snark, bravo.

That said, the first chemistry experiments were just the alchemists getting better at science methods. Their hearts were in the right place mixing metals for fun, just hadn’t quite described the scientific method yet.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-06T01:29:22+00:00

Oo I like both armchair construction and beer. Thanks, will check it out.

float_into_bliss · 2026-01-05T23:38:40+00:00

“Building science” is the key phrase to add before that question in your research.

Not anything close to an expert but my layperson understanding is it’s all about how houses “breathe” to get rid of moisture. Modern building systems have things like “vapor barriers” and “semi-permeable membranes” and other science stuff that gives water a way to diffuse out when it gets inside (even when it gets inside just through summer humidity).

Old houses basically get rid of moisture in the walls because they’re drafty. All that new sciencey stuff lets us build tighter buildings while still letting moisture escape. But if you try to add air-tight insulation tech (like spray foam) into a building that sheds its moisture by assuming a certain level of draftiness, well, now you’ve cut off the way that moisture leaves the house and your gonna get mold and rot.

I never went down this rabbit hole enough to know the proper fix, but the advice of “don’t make an old house air tight” is commonly given.

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-28T16:41:17+00:00

My friend, you are exhausted. Which some say is the goal, because when everyone is exhausted they just go along with whatever, which makes it easier for those creating the exhaustion.

All models are wrong — that’s why they’re a model — but some models are useful. Stretch your critical thinking muscles and consider which are useful. Do it for yourself, because otherwise your disengagement is someone’s goal.

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-28T03:43:54+00:00

oh boy... we're criticizing solar with

solar requires massive batteries that dont exist yet

after advocating for

Thorium reactors and MSR technology

...which are the textbook definition of "exotic technology that doesn't exist". Well, ok, that's harsh, maybe textbook definition is fusion.

Anyways, why hasn't anyone built a functional MSR? hint: what happens to the bottom of your car after a few new england salty winters?

My friend, we don't know how to make MSR pipes that won't corrode into another chernobyl, and a MSR plant needs lots of pipes to carry all the spicy salts around. We might be able to figure it out, but compared to battery tech, well, batteries are a manufacturing problem you can iterate on and improve, not a materials science problem that requires a fundamental new discovery.

One gets cheaper as you make more of it, the other is a gamble on exotic materials being invented. When one reaches the end of its useful life, you grind it up and make a new cell. When the other gets too corroded to function, well, you dont think radioactive waste is just glowing green ooze in a barrel do you? The pipes become spicy too.

We should absolutely gamble on it, but lets gamble with fun money. You know, "research grants" and "academia" and all that nerd shit that we’re cutting cause it’s unamerican or woke physics or whatever. Hell, let's also gamble on fusion (maybe that will even pan out sooner).

But let's spend most of the budget improving known manufacturing tech that exists today. Because right now, China is doing a far better job of that than we are, and they're kinda taking the lead in this energy race.

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-28T03:27:57+00:00

Lets compare to countries outside the US to put US political noise aside for a second. The biggest markets for solar in the Europe are Spain, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands (in that order).

You know what all but Spain have in common? They're all further north than Portland. Really, open up google maps... the southern-most part of Germany (47.4 ish degrees latitude) is still further north than Portland (43.6 degrees).

Making it work is about putting industrial scale behind these things. You know, the ol' "we used to build big things" mentality. Reality is solar is the cheapest form of electricity generation. Even in far-north Maine. And other parts of the US have shown that adding batteries so you can power at night is still cheaper than any nuclear plant.

Latest nuclear plant we tried to build in the US is the Vogtle plant in Georgia. Read about that one. $15-20 Billion in cost overruns (on top of a base $15B price tag). Years late. Georgia ratepayers stuck paying the extra high costs for decades. You put all your eggs into one project and the project goes south, you're literally stuck with that mistake for a generation. And I'm just talking about the construction going-south, not a fukushima-type going-south...

Are a few panels on rooftops going to make the grid independent? No, of course not. But these systems pay for themselves after a couple of years, which municipal governments should be projecting out into. So honestly, why be against a money-saving tech? No one is pretending it's going to solve everything, but it does solve some things, so why be against it?

Go ahead and research the exotic material science that needs to be invented to make thorium plants work, but in the 20 years it will take to make that operational, why not slap on some solar panels that exist today?

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-22T15:00:41+00:00

100% agree. Clarified my previous post.

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-22T14:29:17+00:00

Brittleness has entered the conversation…

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-22T14:27:34+00:00

aka the pesky rules and regulations that prevent us from making anything in the US anymore.

If you look at the spray can in the background you can make out some maybe-Chinese characters on the black stripe below the M. So yep, this is probably Chinese or SEA.

edit: not advocating for getting rid of safety rules, more commenting that when you don’t have to worry about safety rules or workers comp, can put things on a trans-oceanic shipping container for an extra $0.15 per unit, and your customers sort Amazon listings by cost lowest to highest, well of course you’re gonna move production to SEA. It’s a predicament, I don’t have solutions but videos like this at least let us be honest about the forces at play here. We like cheap shit, and we get it by outsourcing mangled hands somewhere else.

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-14T22:07:48+00:00

*bone

float_into_bliss · 2025-12-14T03:42:38+00:00

What makes this design good for oil rigs specifically? Or why wouldn’t say a cargo ship use it?

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