#Scale Up Milwaukee

[danielflemingart]

Waking Up.

11x14″

Alcohol ink on bristol

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail in Florida on Tuesday night, hurling insults at Joe Biden and airing a litany of familiar grievances, but declining to name a running mate for November’s general election. The former president and presumptive Republican nominee was speaking to a crowd of several hundred supporters at his golf club in Doral, a western suburb of Miami, keeping them waiting in 90F heat for a freewheeling monologue that began more than an hour later than scheduled.

There was speculation that he might use his first public appearance since last month’s debate with the president to announce Florida senator Marco Rubio, who was present, as his vice-presidential pick, six days ahead of the Republican national convention (RNC) in Milwaukee. Instead, Trump delivered a rambling 75-minute speech that included a succession of attacks on Biden and his faltering debate performance, which has raised questions among Democrats on whether the 81-year-old president was robust enough for a second term of office.

He seized on the post-debate turbulence that has prompted calls from some senior Democrats for Biden to step down and nominate Kamala Harris. “The radical left Democratic party is divided in chaos, and having a full scale breakdown all because they can’t decide which of their candidates is more unfit to be president, sleepy, crooked Joe Biden or laughing Kamala,” he said, repeating previous derogatory terms for the pair.

“Despite all the Democrat panic this week, the truth is it doesn’t matter who they nominate because we are going to beat any one of them in a thundering landslide.” Trump has kept a lower than usual profile in the days since the debate, a strategy an aide described as designed to allow Democrats to tear into each other following Biden’s dismal debate performance.

His remarks on Tuesday were notable for adding the vice-president’s name to numerous attacks on Biden policies, and sprinkling in mentions of both Rubio and Byron Donalds, a Republican Florida congressman also believed to be on Trump’s shortlist for vice-president. Otherwise, it was a standard Trump stump speech, full of evidence-free claims that his 2020 election defeat was fraudulent; baseless accusations that overseas nations were sending to the US “most of their prisoners”; and a laughable assertion that a gathering of supporters numbering in the hundreds was really a crowd of 45,000. It also touched on the surreal. Biden, he insisted, had raised the price of bacon four-fold. “We don’t eat bacon any more,” Trump said.

Electric cars, he said, “cheated” the US public because drivers had to stop for three hours to recharge their vehicles after every 45 minutes of driving. And, in an echo of one of the more bizarre debate exchanges with Biden over who was the better golfer, he challenged his White House successor to 18 holes over the Doral course while granting a 10-stroke concession. “It will be among the most watched sporting events in history, maybe bigger than the Ryder Cup or even the Masters,” Trump said, pledging $1m to a charity of Biden’s choosing if he lost. Returning to politics, Trump assailed Democrats for tax rises he said they wanted to impose; criticized Biden for the US military’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan; and promised to build an “iron dome” missile defense system for the US, if he was elected in November.

Donald Trump’s first post-debate rally on Tuesday in Doral, Florida served up the greatest hits of lies to his gullible brainwashed rallygoers.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Attacks Biden’s Debate Performance In Lie-Filled Return To Campaign Trail

[arqueete]

Alright! I saw Spring Awakening last night. I love a take that's fresh and interesting and this one was really fantastic. This production is based on the version Deaf West created, where some of the characters are deaf or hard-of-hearing and ASL or captions are incorporated throughout. (I got to see that one at the Wallis and on Broadway, but I never followed the revival to nearly the same degree as the original, so forgive me if I misremember bits of it.)

Skylight is a professional theater in Milwaukee and this show was supposed to be in their very first season with their new artistic director (but got postponed because that season was... 2020-2021) and I should probably write them some actual, formal review somewhere to show my support for doing something this inspired. But this one is for us nerds.

This is just act one because I literally have more thoughts than can fit in a Tumblr post. Some general thoughts to start off:

Have there been any other stagings of the Deaf West version of Spring Awakening since the Broadway revival closed? There need to be more. That's one of my main takeaways of this experience. This is a version of the show that can and should be iterated on.

Wendla, Moritz, and Frau Bergmann/Frau Gabor are portrayed by deaf actors who have a separate "voice of" actor who always speaks and sings on their behalf (they put these performers in period clothes.) The adult men, Martha, and Ernst, are played by actors who are hard of hearing (so say their bios) and did all their own singing, speaking, and signing (though the adult men rarely actually signs.)

I read an article about this production that talked about trying to scale back how often hearing actors are speaking and signing at the same time, and looking carefully at how speaking and signing are used in-universe. I can't speak to whether they succeeded in their goal of improving the experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members, but simply from a storytelling standpoint, I thought this was one of the smartest and most effective changes they made from the original Deaf West version. Characters are shown having different levels of proficiency and comfort with sign language and it adds depth.

Mama Who Bore Me / Wendla's bedroom / reprise

Wendla's mother is also deaf and has her own "Voice of" actress present in these scenes, which removes some of the interesting dynamics that were there when her mother was hearing, but brings in something new in the connection between these generations.

Classroom scene / All That's Known / Bitch of Living

The teacher's back was turned a lot and we get the idea that Melchior is constantly translating what the teacher is saying to the entire class so that they can keep up, not just for Moritz but for everyone. (Update on a second viewing: really, he's translating for Ernst, as Moritz is asleep and the rest of the boys are hearing in this production.)

When Melchior gets hit by the teacher, the blow is represented by all of the characters on stage clapping in unison. This is used throughout the show when people are getting hit, and I felt like it tied these moments together in a meaningful way.

In Bitch of Living, we start to establish that the hearing characters don't necessarily sign their own solos. Among the boys, Melchior (played by a hearing actor who is a professional interpreter) and especially Ernst (played by a hard-of-hearing actor) tend to sign for them. There is so much of this sort of thing (actors interpreting for each other in both directions) throughout the show that it just becomes a thing you accept about the concept. I have no clue if this is confusing for people who don't know the show as well as I do.

After class, I loved this moment where Georg is saying and signing his line about Fraulein Grossenbustenhalter and when he does her sign name (you know, the boobs) he kind of glances at his hands with this look on his face like... FML.

Hanschen is shown trying his best to sign to Ernst. He struggles to spell Achilles and Patroclus, and Ernst demonstrates for him.

When Melchior and Moritz are alone at the end of this scene, they only sign together and the actor who plays Hanschen speaks on Melchior's behalf just as the Voice of Moritz speaks on Moritz's behalf. The show generally does this whenever Melchior is alone with Moritz or Wendla. As in this production many of the hearing characters don't sign very much at all and we see that signing is forbidden in school, I like how this shows Melchior rebelling in a practical and kind-hearted way.

The teachers in this production never sign, they are only captioned with projections on the wall behind them.

My Junk

When Hanschen speaks to his postcard, the lines are interpreted by Martha's actress acting seductive in a nightgown. When Hanschen responds to his father, the lines are interpreted by Otto's actor.

The production, in general, doesn't really go big for comedic moments except for Fraulein Grossenbustenhalter who I've never seen played so over-the-top (leaning forward over the back of the piano with her cleavage on full display) and given equal attention in the scene. The audience ate it up.

Melchior's study / Touch Me

There's a moment where Melchior goes to hand his mom his copy of Faust and Moritz snatches it right out of his hand like what is wrong with you.

There's a lot I loved about this production but one of its weaker points is probably the choreography and set design, which are just... fine. Adequate. Not a lot of memorable imagery for me.

Word of Your Body

Melchior and Wendla are sitting on a table which feels weird considering they're in a forest under a tree? Doesn't really translate for me.

The Dark I Know Well

Thea (played by a hearing actress in this version) doesn't sign, which I like to imagine is an intentional choice (though it very well may just be a practical one with the casting) saying something about Thea and her relationship to the authority figures in the show. Anna signs, and that actor is often seen interpreting for other characters, and I wonder if that was a deliberate choice in the other direction--Anna is obviously a more open-minded character.

Ilse doesn't do a lot of signing either, though I'm not sure how I relate that to the character.

Beating scene

It went over well here, the audience did not think it was funny. Again, Melchior and Wendla are alone here, so they are only signing, except when Wendla says she's never felt... what? She speaks aloud: "Anything." Melchior's "I'll teach you to say please" seemed not very serious--he's still just, reluctantly, playing along at this point. When he gets to the end of the scene, even though he has only been signing up until now, he shouts the last line instead.

And Then There Were None

There was something in Deaf West's production where the voice of Moritz hands Moritz the gun, wasn't there? Here this is done the same as in the original, he just has the gun in his jacket. In general, I think there were fewer moments in this production where the voices interacted with their counterparts in some striking, symbolic way like that. I didn't find myself missing it all that much, there's already plenty of layers to this concept as it is.

The Mirror-Blue Night / Hayloft / I Believe

So, you know, you can't make the hayloft consensual because the fact that Melchior knows the risks and Wendla does not is obviously key to the entire plot and also the problem with them having sex. (As you get older, do you find that Melchior's dad sounds more and more reasonable in act two...?) With that said, I thought this one was superbly directed. Melchior's back-and-forth with Wendla here felt like he genuinely wanted to hear her explain what she was feeling and have a conversation. Wendla seemed comfortable with Melchior. He undoes her dress, she pulls down his suspenders, he takes off his shirt (leaving an undershirt beneath), and she undoes her slip. There was a warning for nudity but I didn't see anything, really--they weren't making a show of it.

(Updated: Here's my thoughts on act two)

[partisan-by-default]

Not long ago, Beloit, Wisconsin, was a largely rural community, mostly known for being the first stop in Wisconsin for travelers coming over the border from Illinois. Today, they’re trying to cure cancer here.

Northstar Medical Radioisotopes, a biotech startup building a rapidly growing campus of buildings just off the interstate, is developing cancer diagnostics and treatments that use radioactive materials. CEO Frank Scholz says it is the most exciting technology out there.

“This is an emerging field, very promising, to make a real difference in patients’ lives and the lives of their families, because we all are affected by cancer,” he said.

Northstar has been doing this work for 20 years, with occasional setbacks. Last year, the company blamed government-subsidized foreign competition for the layoffs of 93 employees — more than a quarter of its workforce — at its facilities in Beloit and Madison.But now, Scholz believes the company is on the verge of really taking off. It is not just because of the technology, which is generating interest from all around the world. It is also because Wisconsin is now home to of one of 31 Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs— or “Tech Hubs” for short — designated under the federal CHIPS and Science Act. Wisconsin’s hub focuses on bio-health.

On Tuesday, the Commerce Department announced it was awarding the Wisconsin hub $49 million in funding, part of a $500 million pool of money Congress authorized to get the Tech Hubs off the ground. More important than the money, Wisconsin officials say, is the fact that the designation formalizes a consortium of companies, including GE Healthcare Technologies — which has a major presence in the Milwaukee suburbs — and institutions like the University of Wisconsin-Madison supporting each other and smaller companies like Northstar.

“It will make us even more impactful for patients be able to move faster, and to scale up,” Scholz said. “It’s all about scaling up to be able to treat more patients earlier, faster.”

[crmsnmth]

Junkie Boy Scouts

It's been three days since I've slept running on cocaine and energy drinks I don't want to sleep anymore anyway I'm tired of seeing you within my dreams So I'll just keep snorting fish scale and drinking off brand energy drinks I stopped drinking Red Bull when you left The taste always reminds me of you

Almost three times a day, I'm stopping by Greg and Clara keeps telling me to slow down But neither of them know what it's like inside my head when I don't have chemicals to muffle the voices So, I pretend to listen as another line of white goes flies up a rolled dollar bill by a nostril vacuum I admit it, I'm weak and a coward

Bathroom stalls for shooting up Toilet water mixed and bubbling on the spoon I keep my rubber tourniquet on me all the time Like some kind of junkie boy scout I always come prepared Merit badges in sedatives and stimulants

I haven't been to my home in three days There's nothing for me there except for pain Everything in my room reminds me of you and I can still smell your scent upon my pillow I'm not ready to face that just yet Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever be

So I roam the streets of Milwaukee Stopping off to keep my high going Sitting in bars, spending every cent I've got in the bank Soon to be a derelict and I'm not a bit worried about that There's a needle in my boot that's been dulled already

Park benches along the lakeshore I keep coming back to the place I saw fireworks in your eyes Having my epiphany that I'm ready die as I watch the black water crash against the breakers

It's been three days since I've slept

[rabbitindisguise]

In city after city, the mass-market, working-class housing of its time has acquired a distinctly bourgeois reputation today. In all cases, the reason lies in economics, not design. What's abundant becomes culturally coded as middlebrow; what's scarce becomes culturally coded as elite.

There is abundant evidence that nearly the entirety of the U.S. and Canada are dramatically undersupplied, not just in quaint historic places, but in walkable urban places, period. It's our “shortage of cities“ that makes urbanism a hot commodity. Even if car-free design to the extent of Milwaukee Avenue isn't a majority preference—and it likely isn't—if a product serving a niche preference is rare enough, its price is liable to be bid up by those who hold that preference.

The answer to this isn't to lower our standards for design or to be dismissive of the things that are really lovable about these places. The answer is simply to allow a lot more Milwaukee Avenues to exist. And the same goes for the likes of all of today's beloved, "charming" historic districts.

[reallyhardy]

Did you the Beast puppet / costume from the BATB concert? It was amazing!

i love this concept in theory but i don't... i don't love this execution sorry i think it looks really silly, especially with josh visible inside the skeletal ribs... how frustrating bc i adore josh's versions of if i can't love her and even evermore and i think i'd have loved a josh-beast if it wasn't so uh. GOOFY looking lol like the disney cartoon eyes look so comical and i find them distracting, the strange flat face with its pug-like snout doesnt evoke the same strong-but-tortured look that the 90s animated beast had... and yeah it's really the eyes for me if i could only change one thing i'd probably just take out those eyes but with disney's love of re-hashing things i don't see why they couldn't sculpt the puppet to look like the 90s design... unless they were like 'no he need to be uglier'??? valid ig...

while googling for this though i stumbled across photos of this production by skylight theatre in milwaukee in 2017 though and this is something i'd like to see:

although reviews suggest that the puppet overwhelmed the stage a bit - still i like the concealed performers faces and the more symbolic face for the beast - when it comes to a puppet of that scale i think i always prefer a more simple face and then the expression is more up to the puppeteers manipulating the body...

anyway omg im sorry haha i hate not agreeing with u and i hate being negative on something someone else enjoyed i'm so sorry. BUT i am always in favour of puppets being used in theatre over prosthetics and it was a really good move to do something like this to actually transform the performer's size

uhhhh tl:dr i like the concept but i don't love the design

[reservoirreputation]

Master List of My Fanfics

Reservoir Dogs Fics:

Dimples (Rated M)

After the robbery and the shootout at the warehouse, only three people survived. Pink and Larry are sitting in jail, awaiting trial, and Freddy looks for any way to balance out the scales of his fuckup.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Newly Minted Orphan (Rated E)

Lightly inspired by House on Haunted Hill. With the passing of Joe Cabot, his son and heir Eddie decides to honor his memory with a game. Several strangers gather at one of Cabot’s properties, and compete to see who can stay the longest, winning the house and a cash prize. Of course, Eddie’s here for more than just a game and generosity…

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bad Karma (Rated M)

The jewelry heist goes badly, and everyone ends up in jail, all except Mr. Orange, who’s MIA. A trusted hand is brought in, to see if Orange is a dope dealer on the run, or an undercover cop. Larry’s up for the challenge.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Snitch and the Rat (Rated E)

Part One: Left behind in the aftermath of Vega’s activities, Larry’s hauled in for questioning, and is given a unique opportunity; save lives by informing on Vic Vega, and have the pleasure of seeing him get thrown in jail. But, the LAPD won’t let him go at it, alone. They send in an undercover agent, one that Larry won’t know about until they’re both in the field.

Part Two: Day of the theft and everything seems to be going great. One unlucky shot, however, and Freddy’s world is turned upside-down. As he thinks back on what led him up to this point, Freddy must summon the strength to go as far as needed, and not lose himself in the process.

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Glory Days (Rated E)

Retired crook Larry Dimmick yearns for the good ol’ days, wants to recapture some of the magic from his youth. He decides to scratch the itch by doing a little thieving; swiping the wallet of the cute guy down by the store. Things take a turn, and Larry finds himself flirting with his mark. What could go wrong?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Birds in the Spider's Nest (Rated E)

The crew need a place to hide out after the jewelry heist. Like everything else, Joe’s got that taken care of. A cabin upstate is the place, but the owner, Freddy, has decided to drop by…

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Ashtray (Rated M)

One Winter in Milwaukee, Officer Freddy Newandyke is on his way home when he’s told to make one more stop. Things quickly take a turn, and, as a snowstorm blankets the roads, Freddy must rely on an unlikely ally to survive.

[aetherspoon]

A not-so-simple relocation, day 0/1.

This month has been the longest year of my life.

I'm typing this from Norway!

ALT: A beautiful sunset from one of my balconies.

Issun and Zoan (my cats) are settling in. There was a lot of concern with Zoan, as he just didn't eat for the first four days and Issun had been heavily bullying him. The bullying part is still present at this point (although less than it was before), at least my cats are all eating now and acting fairly close to normal. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's go back to Day 0/1

Day 0/1

Things went better than feared! The Milwaukee airport TSA was staffed by cat lovers, so they immediately volunteered a private searching area for Issun and Zoan.

Things went worse than expected! We had all sorts of issues with our flights and bags. At said airport, all but one of my bags was overweight (even though I weighted them with a luggage scale before), causing some jumbling around of things and one of my friends carrying a large quantity of plates in his bag. This came around to bite him, since it flagged something at the TSA security point when we went through and had an "enhanced" search. That's fine though, another one of my friends didn't realize that I keep All The Electronics (tm) in my carry-on bags and went through FOUR TIMES to search everything. The third of my friends was fine for that part, but he had bunch of screwups with his flight schedule (my fault), but the attempts to make it work cost a crapton of money and still didn't fix it correctly.

On top of that, we also had one flight run late in departure (which caused said friend with the messed up schedule to miss his flight, rebooking him to the one AFTER the rest of us), Zoan threw up in his carrier on the intercontinental flight (poor kitty)... and then there was Oslo.

The sheer chaos of Oslo

For reference, Oslo is the capital of Norway, and also only one of two entry points to the country that have veterinarians on staff to check out paperwork for incoming cats. The other two aren't airports, so this is basically the only city I was allowed to fly into to hit customs for my cats.

We flew in late and had a long line at the passport check. Once through passport check, I called the vet on call to let her know that I was on my way to customs. I asked someone where I should go next, and they told me that I should go to the domestic transfer section, which had me re-go through airport security.

Started putting my things in bins, moving around stuff because I have All The Electronics (tm) in checked bags, prepped my cats, and asked where I should go after this to hit customs for my cats. Turns out, this was the way to go while bypassing customs entirely and I was in the wrong place. Not only would that have meant illegally importing my kitties into Norway (which would be very much illegal), but also completely skipping all forms of customs entirely! Don't worry, that last part comes up again later.

After recombobulating all of my things and finding my way through the inevitable duty-free shop in the airport, I finally reached customs with a poor bored veterinarian waiting for me. She booped both bags and then stated that I was the first person to actually get the paperwork right in "a long time" - apparently she had to send several kitties to quarantine in the past week because of people either royally screwing up paperwork or just not bothering with any at all. Like, what? I had seven or eight different notices about this when I booked my flights with cats, how did someone not notice?

Anyway, that put us in the main Oslo customs line after, for which the vet told me to tell them that we just had the cats scanned and were heading on to Bergen (where I'd hit customs there). They waved us through and we were in the domestic side of the Oslo airport. We had to go back through security again at this point, taking Issun and Zoan out of their carriers to get across, one of my friends getting a few new piercings on his shoulder for carrying Issun, and finally made it to the gate.

Arriving in Bergen, we get brought to the baggage area. Two things are immediately apparent:

We can't reach customs because we were on a domestic flight.

We are missing bags. A lot of bags.

Keep in mind, I had eleven total checked bags across three four people (thanks @kriatyrr, who is over my left shoulder). The number that arrived? Three. All assigned to same person. When we went to the baggage office to report lost bags, the person behind the counter was super nice, went through the paperwork, and left me with the quote of the journey:

"Oslo needs to get their shit together on Sundays."

She pointed to the area around her, which had multiple dozens of bags waiting for couriers. My flight was missing over half of its bags.

Cabbed back to the apartment, laid down, and just took a rest... only to cab back to the airport to pick up the friend with the screwed up schedule (don't worry - he was also missing his assigned bags), bringing him back again.

I opened up what I had, which consisted of one bag (with my suit jacket and a few formal shirts), one monitor box (which was fine), and one box with my desktop in it (which sustained lots of structural damage and managed to bend my heatsink at a 45 degree angle).

Oy.

Previous entry linked below.

[jaggedwolf]

But if there is another “zoning” system we have a lot to learn from, it’s the Japanese system. In Japan, zoning is determined at the national level. There are 12 general districts, which may be mapped by local planning authorities. Compare that to the US, where zoning is almost exclusively written at the local level, with each local government coming up with its own boutique regime. I can’t say I have ever encountered a local zoning code with only 12 zoning districts—on the contrary, most municipalities have many dozens of districts. New York City, all too typical even despite its size, has by my count at least 105 zoning districts.

At the outset, these process differences give Japanese zoning two key advantages over American zoning. For starters, Japanese zoning is simple and legible nationwide, thereby reducing barriers to development. A developer in Osaka can easily figure out what they can build in Tokyo and vice versa, a fact that wouldn’t be true of even a Milwaukee developer looking to build across the lake in Grand Rapids. Better still, having 12 national zoning districts blocks misbehaving municipalities from developing boutique zoning districts implicitly designed to block certain types of development. To return to New York City, for example, many of those 105 districts are carefully designed to allow only one particular development pattern, with highly prescriptive use and density rules. Many of the newer low-density “contextual” zones were explicitly written to ban apartments while locking in the existing scale. No such malfeasance would be possible under Japanese zoning.

These process differences also help to explain why the substance of Japanese zoning regulation is so liberal. Take use segregation. Japanese zoning doesn’t have anything resembling single-family zoning. In even the most restrictive Japanese residential zoning districts, apartments and single-family homes alike are allowed as-of-right, as are small corner stores and certain professional offices—that is to say, the casual use mixture that defined many US residential neighborhoods before the rise of zoning. Further, Japanese zoning is hierarchical, meaning that less disruptive uses (such as houses or small shops) are allowed in areas otherwise demarcated for more disruptive uses (such as regional shopping centers or office towers), meaning that the optimal degree of use mixture can emerge organically. Only the most noxious industrial uses are fully segregated into separate districts.

M. Nolan Gray, Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It

[meret118]

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Kp-index, or planetary index, will be at five and six, respectively. The scale goes all the way up to nine, and any occurrence above five is considered a geomagnetic storm.

The aurora borealis could be seen across parts of Washington, Idaho, Vermont, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Maine, according to the university.

On Wednesday, the storm will be highly visible "low on the horizon from Seattle, Des Moines [Iowa], Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and Halifax [Nova Scotia]."

On Thursday, the storm will get stronger and can be seen overhead in Minneapolis, Milwaukee; Bay City, Mich., and on the horizon in Salem, Mass.; Boise, Idaho; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Indianapolis, and Annapolis, Md.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Natasha Korecki, Carol E. Lee and Monica Alba at NBC News:

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s political world is collapsing. Top allies have either publicly or privately called on him to step aside. Major donations have fallen off a cliff. Grassroots fundraising is not keeping up with the demands of a campaign that needs to aggressively scale up three months before the presidential election. Members of his own re-election effort have already declared he has no path to victory.  Since a disastrous debate in Atlanta upended the trajectory of his campaign three weeks ago, Biden has again and again attempted to dig in, bucking efforts to dislodge him from power. 

But there is now a palpable sense that the ground has shifted underneath him, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, even among some of the president’s most defiant internal backers who now believe the writing is on the wall. “We’re close to the end,” a person close to Biden said.  That person, who previously doubted Biden would ever step aside, acknowledged that it’s still the president’s decision but joined in the array of Biden allies who say he is nearing a point of no return.  As the extraordinary events have unfolded, the president tested positive with Covid on Wednesday and retreated to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, taking him off the campaign trail. Once again, it offered a sharp contrast with former President Donald Trump, who, even after his brush with death on Saturday, will appear at a raucous coronation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night. 

Also Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for the Senate in California, made a remarkable public call for the president to abandon the nomination, a move that ended up exposing that other Democratic leaders — including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Chuck Schumer — had brought dire concerns, supported by polling, to the president indicating that he risked taking down control of Congress with him if he stayed on the same path.  In the hours after the assassination attempt on Trump last weekend, some Democrats said — even feared — that the calls for Biden to step aside would be “frozen” as the president dealt with a national crisis. But that faded quickly. Some allies now say that the shooting, which has caused an even more intense rallying around Trump within his party, only makes it more glaringly obvious that the nagging narrative of whether Biden is on a cognitive decline cannot win the White House. 

Just a few days ago, President Joe Biden was seemingly secure in keeping his re-election bid going.

But in the last day or so, the dam has re-breached, as multiple high-level Democratic figures such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Barack Obama have raised significant concerns about Biden staying in the race. On top of that, Biden tested positive for COVID.

It is increasingly looking like Kamala Harris will be our nominee.

[saurotitan]

My Spidersona (I can't draw)

Name: Cave-Spider aka "The Primordial Cave-Spider" aka "That Freaky Guy From Wisconsin"/ John "Caver" Carver

Description: Classic web patterning on costume and mask, no gloves or boots, dark gray costume, light gray skin, long mane of orange hair growing all the way down the back, seven feet tall, broad shoulders, taloned hands and feet, mountaineering picks holstered on each hip, a massive tungsten harpoon and several hundred yards of climbing rope stored on his back.

Powers: Wall-crawling, enhanced sense of smell, enhanced hearing, low-light vision, hyper-agility, super-strength, mildly toxic tranquilizing spines (his orange mane), claws capable of piercing most standard construction materials, able to run on all fours for bursts of speed. Skilled javelin thrower and geologist. Strength means that Cave-Spider's harpoon can be chucked hard enough to embed itself in concrete walls.

Weaknesses: Never figured out how to make web-shooters and has to make do with harpoon, climbing rope, mountaineering picks, and claws when scaling buildings at high speeds. Skin is incredibly sensitive to direct sunlight and heat, making daylight robbery a real hassle. Large size makes appearing nonthreatening and talking to witnesses very difficult. Only has two of those tungsten harpoons and only ever takes one out with him on patrol, making ranged combat somewhat difficult if someone escapes with the harpoon after he throws it. Has a fondness for peanut butter that could be called a weakness but rarely comes up while crime fighting.

Origins: While on an expedition in the Cave of the Mounds John Carver unearthed a previously unexplored section of the cavern where a pocket ecosystem had thrived undisturbed for eons, dimly lit by a rocky outcropping that turned out to be mildly radioactive. The unusual spiders that called that hidden chamber home were also radioactive, and as has happened to heroes from across the multiverse John ended up getting bitten. Over the next week John underwent a bizarre mutation, growing taller, stronger, and faster but gaining a bestial appearance in the process. Being a decent sort, John decided to try and help out where he could.

Since John's world already had a Spider-Man the media quickly dubbed the brutish figure leaping from rooftop to rooftop in Milwaukee or from tree to tree in the Wisconsin Dells "Cave-Spider" due to their wall-crawling similarities. Some people were scared of him, but others were relieved that they wouldn't have to depend solely on the Great Lakes Avengers in times of crisis.

[datascraping001]

Hotfrog Data Scraping Services by DataScrapingServices.com

Hotfrog is a popular online business directory used by companies to promote their services and products. With millions of businesses listed, accessing valuable information through Hotfrog Data Scraping Services can significantly enhance marketing strategies, lead generation, and overall business intelligence. DataScrapingServices.com offers efficient and customized data scraping solutions that allow businesses to extract detailed information from Hotfrog, providing them with a comprehensive business database to fuel growth and targeted outreach.

List of Data Fields 

When using Hotfrog Data Scraping Services, businesses can extract a wide range of valuable data fields, including:

- Business name

- Contact information (email, phone number, address)

- Website URL

- Business categories

- Company description

- Location (city, state, country)

- Ratings and reviews

- Social media links

- Operating hours

- Services or products offered

This comprehensive data extraction provides a holistic view of businesses listed on Hotfrog, allowing users to build accurate and detailed contact databases that can be leveraged for a variety of business purposes.

Benefits of Hotfrog Data Scraping Services

Hotfrog Data Scraping Services offer a multitude of benefits to businesses looking to scale their operations, refine marketing strategies, and streamline outreach campaigns:

1. Targeted Marketing: By gathering data on businesses in specific industries or geographic locations, businesses can launch more precise and effective marketing campaigns, improving engagement and conversion rates. 

2. Lead Generation: Access to business contact details, such as emails and phone numbers, allows for efficient lead generation. Sales teams can focus on reaching out to decision-makers in industries or regions that align with their product or service offerings.

3. Business Intelligence: The ability to analyze competitors, market trends, and emerging opportunities becomes easier with comprehensive Hotfrog data. Businesses can use this data to refine their strategies and gain a competitive edge.

4. Automated Processes: Web scraping eliminates the need for manual data collection, saving time and resources. Automated data extraction ensures businesses receive up-to-date and accurate information without manual intervention.

Best Business Directory Scraping Services Provider

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Best Hotfrog Data Scraping Services in USA:

Washington, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Orlando, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Boston, Albuquerque, San Francisco, Nashville, Denver, Colorado, Fresno, Sacramento, El Paso, San Diego, Raleigh, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Columbus, Milwaukee, Colorado, Omaha, Mesa, Bakersfield, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Louisville, Charlotte, Tulsa, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, Memphis, San Antonio, Seattle, Las Vegas, Jacksonville, Austin, Dallas, Orlando, Long Beach, Fresno, New Orleans, Tucson and New York.

Conclusion 

Hotfrog Data Scraping Services by DataScrapingServices.com is an invaluable tool for businesses looking to harness the power of data for targeted marketing, lead generation, and business intelligence. By extracting detailed business listings from Hotfrog, companies can gain deeper insights into their markets and make informed decisions. For accurate, fast, and reliable data scraping services, contact DataScrapingServices.com today and take your business to the next level.

Website: Datascrapingservices.com

Email: info@datascrapingservices.com

[thoughtlessarse]

The response of the corporate media to the outpouring of fascist filth at this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC), culminating in the coronation of the GOP Führer Donald Trump, was a combination of cover-up and barely suppressed admiration. In hour after hour of coverage provided by the cable and broadcast networks, the seven-figure-salaried talking heads pretended there was nothing abnormal or unprecedented in the parade of speakers promoting anti-immigrant racism, extreme nationalism, defense of Trump’s January 6 attempted coup, Christian evangelical fundamentalism and total subordination to the Great Leader. The words “fascistic,” “authoritarian,” even “anti-democratic” were seldom if ever uttered. The coverage in the “liberal” press was no better. But the fawning press commentary on the degrading proceedings in Milwaukee was entirely in line with the prostration of the imploding campaign of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole. Biden immediately responded to the near assassination of Trump last Saturday by calling for “unity,” denouncing all violence as supposedly un-American, and halting his campaign ads and political attacks on “Donald.” The tone in the press was set by the Washington Post. Within hours of the shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, it posted an editorial (“Turn down the heat, let in the light”) that began with praise for the aspiring dictator and possible next president, writing, “Donald Trump has responded commendably to his harrowingly close encounter with a would-be assassin’s bullet in Pennsylvania on Saturday…”

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[imperialinquisition]

https://archive.ph/LgFrb

In the Salt Lake City region, utility executives and lawmakers scaled back plans for big investments in clean energy and doubled down on coal. The retirement of a large coal plant has been pushed back a decade, to 2042, and the closure of another has been delayed to 2036. Among the region’s mega energy users is Meta. It’s building a $1.5 billion data center campus outside Salt Lake City that consumes as much power as can be generated by a large nuclear reactor. Google has purchased 300 acres across the street from Meta’s data center and plans its own data center campus. Other data center developers are frantically searching for power in the area.

A spike in tech-related energy needs in Georgia moved regulators in April to green-light an expansion of fossil fuel use, including purchasing power from Mississippi that will delay closure of a half-century-old coal plant there. In the suburbs of Milwaukee, Microsoft’s announcement in March that it is building a $3.3 billion data center campus followed the local utility pushing back by one year the retirement of coal units, and unveiling plans for a vast expansion of gas power that regional energy executives say is necessary to stabilize the grid amid soaring data center demand and other growth.

In Omaha, where Google and Meta recently set up sprawling data center operations, a coal plant that was supposed to go offline in 2022 will now be operational through at least 2026. The local utility has scrapped plans to install large batteries to store solar power.

These concrete developments in energy markets contrast with tech companies’ futuristic promises. A recent Goldman Sachs analysis of energy that will power the AI boom into 2030 did not even consider small nuclear plants or futuristic fusion generators. It found data centers will account for 8 percent of total electricity use in the United States by 2030, a near tripling of their share today. New solar and wind energy will meet about 40 percent of that new power demand from data centers, the forecast said, while the rest will come from a vast expansion in the burning of natural gas. The new emissions created would be comparable to that of putting 15.7 million additional gas-powered cars on the road.

“We all want to be cleaner,” Brian Bird, president of NorthWestern Energy, a utility serving Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, told a recent gathering of data center executives in Washington, D.C. “But you guys aren’t going to wait 10 years … My only choice today, other than keeping coal plants open longer than all of us want, is natural gas. And so you’re going see a lot of natural gas build out in this country.”

AI bans now. Data center consumption caps now. Who do you think gets dropped in a blackout- your air conditioning or Amazon?