Over 100 King County Metro bus trips canceled - https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/over-60-king-county-metro-bus-trips-canceled/XRXIUVUGDFCZ5BNWHZFSDQPTO4/
Seattle Police Department activates Stage 3 emergency operations amid staffing shortage - https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-police-department-activates-stage-3-emergency-operations-amid-staffing-shortage
Amid crew shortages, Washington State Ferries to cut sailings on some routes by half - https://old.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/q7r6c9/amid_crew_shortages_washington_state_ferries_to/
Seattle Public Schools are cancelling almost ALL school buses - https://old.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/q8t06f/seattle_public_schools_are_cancelling_almost_all/
Seattle Public Schools begs students to return after low enrollment affects budget; a decrease in enrollment means a decrease in budget - https://thepostmillennial.com/seattle-public-schools-begs-students-to-return-after-low-enrollment-affects-budget
Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle are among the cities to see public school enrollment plummet for a second consecutive year. - https://fee.org/articles/cities-lead-the-way-in-another-massive-fall-exodus-from-us-public-schools/
Edit to add the email I got this week from Harborview/UW health services:
To Our Valued Patients:
At UW Medicine, your access to timely care is always our priority. While our teams are working diligently to meet your needs, we are currently experiencing very high demand for all services. As a result, it may be taking longer than normal to find open appointments with your healthcare providers.
If this is your experience, we ask for your patience and courtesy. Like many other healthcare organizations and industries, we continue to face disruptions from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our workforce and operations.
Vaccine mandates?
I am sure that is related. I have heard the decree by Inslee is October 18th for state employees. Interesting that they can't force us to work (yet...), and the two countries are actively disassociating.
Some WSDOT employees left a fun little message for our local tyrant. I guess we'll see what comes of it.
20 years ago I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time and thought it was crazy and unrealistic. Never thought I'd be living through it.
"Who is John Galt?"
I tried reading Ayn Rand a couple of times and never got past 5 pages, she was not my thing.
Synopsis?
LOL the book has a larger wordcount than War and Peace, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Les Miserables; but I will try.
The book takes place in an alternate timeline in the US in the 1940s which is in a deep depression. The protagonists are all STEM executives (one is a railroad exec, one is a copper miner, one owns/operates a foundry for high-strength alloys) for whom IMO the closes embodiment today is Elon Musk, and the antagonists are all Fauci types. The general theme of the book is the executives realizing that society at large hates them despite taking advantage of their unique skillsets and exiting society to their own parallel and independent society to let it collapse so they can rebuild when it does. Much of the book details scenarios where all the employees of a particular company just decide to quit, leaving it unable to fulfill some primary function to the detriment of society, and the government trying to prevent this from happening using more and more punitive measures.
It's a tedious read (the book is infamous for a 60 page uninterrupted speech made by one of the protagonists), but she does accurately portray our enemies and their mindset. I don't exaggerate when I say that when I first read the book 20 years ago I thought the antagonists were caricatures but found them moderate when I re-read it 2 years ago. I rarely read fiction and almost never re-read it; it and Starship Troopers are the two books where I've done both.
Other than nihilism, what were the intertwining themes of her books that was so important? She seems to be making a roaring comeback after 60 years of being in the dustbin.
Rand grew up in Communist Russia, had escaped to the West, and her books and philosophy were a particular brand of materialist, atheistic, meritocratic libertarianism known as Objectivism. She had a particular affinity for STEM types -- engineers and architects mostly. This philosophy was expressed and refined in all her novels.
The reason her books are making a comeback is because society is starting to very strongly resemble the societies in her books. Particularly Atlas Shrugged, because of all the lockdowns and the government's attempted control of all aspects of the economy and society (which are strong themes in that book). And since that book primarily concerns itself with the operation and decline of a railroad, seeing airlines and railroads now going through what she described in that book is of particular interest.
Yes as I recall Ayn Rand was enamored with the aesthetics of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. Who made some rather beautiful homes that weren't particularly structurally sound and suffered quite a bit from mold damage due to all the moisture from artificial streams running through them.
She was a product of her time like a lot of us. I'm not an Objectivist, but she does seem to understand the mindset of our enemies. Otherwise she wouldn't so accurately predict their behavior 50 years ago.
Not gonna lie, I would prefer if billionaires would leave behind beautiful buildings as part of their legacy instead leaving behind an increasingly hollowed out country even if they were just as corrupt back then.
What is random or misplaced about an appreciation for aesthetics?
Because aesthetics are anti-hyper-capitalism I would assume. Efficiency has nothing to do with looking good. But you don't understand Rand if you think her ideology's love for the aesthetic is random or misplaced.
Essentially the entirety of Objectivism is anti-Communism, specifically the one she lived through. And Soviets are well known for their brutalist architecture
Fountainhead has similar themes and is much better in prose and narrative. Its better to start with that one.
I read Atlas Shrugged in 2017. Had I read it 5 years earlier, I would have dismissed all the antagonists as hilariously one-dimensional strawmen. But in these days of Clown World, I'm not so sure anymore.
Amazon prime has atlas shrugged in a movie (3 parts). Its Amazon, i know. but considering the content.
That trilogy is terrible. I could only (barely) get through the first movie and turned off the second one partway into it. Poor acting and script. And it's set in contemporary times but goes through some twisted logic to explain why everyone's still riding in trains instead of flying. Would have been far better to make it a period piece set in the 40s.
These people need to have Newton's Third Law tattooed on their foreheads.
"Computer, destruct sequence one. Code one one a."
"Computer, destruct sequence two. Code 1, 1-A, 2-B."
Seattle falls every 10-15 years. The last time was the great recession, which didn't effect the rich counties and the counties like Spokane didn't recover from.
It's usually caused by the greedy politicians who think it will always be good and that they can do a better job. They never can, but they always say they can. The locals who grew up with this move or get ready while the new folks from California and Canada wonder why we are looking so grim.
This time though, I don't know what will recover.
I live in this fucked up state (not far from Seattle) and can't wait to get out. It's a shame because this is a beautiful state with lots to do (why I moved here in the first place).
I have a great job that I love and I work with a great team... BUT, our new CEO (huge libtard) is forcing the clot shot, whether people WFH or not. I am applying for exemption/accommodation, but not holding my breath. In the meantime, the sick motherfucker is also making the unvaxxed get tested weekly until they comply with the jab or they are fired for non-compliance. Nevermind that we have been self-reporting our symptoms, staying home when ill, and taking daily temp checks upon entering the buildings since this COVID shit all started last year. Of course, this is happening around the holidays... what a bastard. This state is too far gone, like CA and OR... what a shame. Seattle, King County and Olympia are infested with communists.
In the meantime, I am making plans to move out of state. I will not comply with the "mandate".
reposted to discussions.app
Can you tell me about this site? Denying view without java makes me unwilling to turn on java. Is it another reddit clone?
i dont know exactly how it works but the content is stored in the telos blockchain discussions.app is an interface to that
its suposedly like blockchain twitter, claims to be unmoddable so content can't be removed - though you can ignore individual users so you don't see their content
there is a "communities" feature where people can own a hashtag like I own kotakuinaction2. https://discussions.app/c/kotakuinaction2 I can filter content that people see if they go through the communities interface but I can't remove it, you get 100% of the content if you search for the hashtag directly
Oh, neat, I didn't think anyone was actually running a blockchain-tech site yet. Very interesting, I hope it can grow.
join up, I think there are all of 5 people on it :) but I mostly go to repost kia2 articles so we have a presence there