Chad A. Martin

Joe Rogan thought it was fake news when he heard Brazil bulldozed the Amazon rainforest to host a climate summit. ROGAN: “That sounds like horsesh*t.” Then Jamie pulled up the BBC… ROGAN: “Oh my god. It’s real!” Brazil cut a four-lane highway through tens of thousands of acres of protected rainforest so COP30 attendees wouldn’t get stuck in traffic. ROGAN: “You’re chopping down trees to protest chopping down trees.” Joe’s deep sigh at the end says it all.

This collapse is happening in Portland, Seattle, and other cities. These places haven't recovered from the COVID era, which gave us lockdowns, the George Floyd riots, and the de facto legalization of drug-and-crime-generating homeless encampments. A policy disaster.

Around half of Seattle businesses report that are considering moving or shrinking, blaming a business environment that they say is getting worse and don’t believe it looks like it will get better, according to a survey from the Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. kiro7.com/news/local/survey-…

这女子叫Lulu Freistadt，她是“智能选举（Smart Elections）”组织的联合创始人兼执行董事。她表示自己从 2021 年起一直在纽约市担任投票站监督员（poll watcher）。  事件经过： 她提到昨天（投票期间）她在纽约布朗克斯（Bronx）的一个投票点做监督工作。  起初一切正常，投票人数与扫描的选票数量对得上，她本准备离开。  但随后她发现一件非常奇怪的事：所有的投票站工作人员（poll workers）都在清点并准备离开，而投票机却仍然开着、没有上锁、没有密封，选票也还没有被取出。  按照正常程序，每台投票机都应由指定的投票工作人员负责关闭、密封并取出选票。但现场的机器和选票完全处于未密封状态。  交涉与冲突： 当她坐下等待工作人员按规定处理选票时，协调员（coordinator）开始变得焦躁不安，并打电话给副首席书记官（deputy chief clerk）。对方告诉她必须离开。  她指出根据法规，投票监督员有权留在现场直到投票结束、选票被取出并放入密封容器中。  尽管她据理力争，但工作人员和警察还是要求她离开，现场只留下一名技术人员在无人监督的情况下关闭投票机。  结尾：她强调这种不符合规范的做法为作弊提供了可乘之机，并呼吁大家关注和转发。

King County's homelessness agency had over $1 billion in grants available over six years. They left $260 million of it unspent. But they budgeted their overhead like they'd spent every dime. So they still ran a $16.7 million deficit, and borrowed from the county to cover it. Their records were such a mess, auditors had to rebuild six years of books from individual checks and invoices. Homelessness doubled on their watch. Councilmember Rod Dembowski says people died because that money never hit the street. A shelter for older women in Kenmore got told "we don't have the money." They had a quarter billion dollars. This isn't compassion. It's malpractice. Shut it down.

Junior College Baseball and the World Series. Jacob Misiorowski-Brewers-Crowder College Aaron Ashby-Brewers-Crowder College Logan Henderson-Brewers-McLennan Community College Robert Gasser-Brewers-San Joaquin Delta College JoJo Romero-Brewers-Yavapai College Cam Booser-Rays-Central Arizona College The Brewers have the best scouting staff in baseball and it is really not arguable. A lot of teams are lost when it comes to evaluating and drafting Juco players because of inexperienced scouts that need data and tech to evaluate for them. I have heard a lot of talk about providing junior colleges with technology. I have a profound idea that could be impactful. Hire experienced scouts that have enough moxie and feel to not require it when evaluating players. They can use their eyes and ears. Real scouts know how to evaluate junior college players.