The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally

And I Quote ...!
 

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Hey, wingnuts, the fat lady is singing ... !

Today is - Opera Day

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Today in History

1587		Mary, Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I.
1807		At Eylau, Napoleon‘s Marshal Pierre Agureau attacks Russian forces in a heavy snowstorm.
1861		Delegates from seceded states adopt a provisional Confederate Constitution.
1862		Union troops under Gen. Ambrose Burnside defeat a Confederate defense force at the Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.
1865		Confederate raider William Quantrill and men attack a group of Federal wagons at New Market, Kentucky.
1887		Congress passes the Dawes Act, which gives citizenship to Indians living apart from their tribe.
1900		British General Buller is beaten at Ladysmith, South Africa as the British flee over the Tugela River.
1904		In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disable seven Russian warships.
1910		The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
1924		The gas chamber is used for the first time to execute a murderer.
1942		The Japanese land on Singapore.
1943		British General Orde Wingate leads a guerrilla force of “Chindits” against the Japanese in Burma.
1952		Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI, dies.
1962		The U.S. Defense Department reports the creation of the Military Assistance Command in South Vietnam.
1965		South Vietnamese bomb the North Vietnamese communications center at Vinh Linh.
1971		South Vietnamese ground forces, backed by American air power, begin Operation Lam Son 719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ends three weeks later in a disaster.
1990		CBS television temporarily suspends Andy Rooney for his anti-gay and ant-black remarks in a magazine interview.

The Banana Republics

We've written before about banana republics, but the story is a long and sordid one, so there are always details you didn't know about. Sam O'Nella Academy colorfully explains how the banana republics came into being. Contains NSFW language.

(YouTube link)

This overview, while both entertaining and horrifying, barely scratches the surface of the violence and misery these trade wars brought to Central and South America. The 'nanners must flow!

The Rock Springs Massacre

In 1885, the mining community of Rock Springs, Wyoming, exploded in anger over Chinese laborers working in the mines. None of the coal miners were getting rich, but the immigrants were paid less and diluted the power of the white miner's union demands.

The fight in the mines broke out around 7 a.m. on September 2, 1885, when about ten white miners approached the Chinese workers in coal pit № 6, claiming they had no right to work in the high-yield mine. A brawl erupted between the men and three Chinese miners. One Chinese worker took the fatal blow of a pickaxe to the skull. The site’s foreman broke up the fight, and the white men took off, setting in motion a conflagration that would last into that night.
The gang of men did not retire after the fight; instead they armed themselves with guns, knives, clubs, and hatchets. At 10 o’clock, miners gathered in the Knights of Labor hall, where anger echoed and reverberated. After the meeting they filed into shops and saloons, where barmen soon began to sense the growing hostility and aggression, and at the urging of a Union Pacific official, closed their establishments around 2 p.m. On the move, the mob swelled to some 100 to 150 miners and townspeople, some of them women, armed and looking for what they considered retaliation.

Before the riot was over, 28 people were dead, and the rest of the Chinese were expelled from Rock Springs, set to wander down the tracks. Read the story of the Rock Creek Massacre at Timeline.

Things About America That Make No Sense to People in Other Countries

America's a big place and it's also kind of weird in some ways. TopTenz has collected ten strange things about the US that might actually seem normal to Americans, but seem very odd from an outsider's perspective. For example, beastiality is still legal in nine US states but premarital sex or co-habitating before marriage is still illegal in four states. Also, 30% of Americans would rather save money than get necessary medical treatment.

Perhaps most strangely, the American government has official advice for those who want to report Elvis sightings.
So check out the whole list at TopTenz.

The Republic of California

If California Were a Country

'A Day Without Women'

'A Day Without Women': Women's March Group Announces Plan to Hold a General Strike

North Carolina's bathroom law puts NCAA events at risk

North Carolina's bathroom law puts NCAA events at risk: official

Like the sign says, we, the sane and normal citizens of North Carolina really and I mean really don't give a shit about who you do your business beside or in which room for that matter (as long as it is the facilities for business and not the deli counter that is) ... JUST WASH YOUR HANDS.

The shocking scale of catholic cult sex crimes

'Shocking' scale of catholic cult sex crimes revealed

Graffiti Equals Book Reports

Teens sentenced to writing book reports after vandalizing historic black schoolhouse with swastikas

Five teenagers are facing an unconventional punishment after vandalizing a historic African-American schoolhouse in Virginia with swastikas.

Hamilton Cast Added ‘Sisterhood’ To ‘America The Beautiful’

Hamilton Cast Added ‘Sisterhood’ To ‘America The Beautiful’ And Wingnuts Are Losing Their MINDS

The Stupid Part of America is crazy with rage.

Coke Just Stuck It To Dumbass Trump’s Bigotry

Coke Just Stuck It To Dumbass Trump’s Bigotry With The Most BRILLIANT Super Bowl Ad EVER

Wonder how long it will take for Trump to attack Coke over this?

The World Is Laughing At The Wingnuts

The World Is Laughing At Wingnuts For Their Hilariously Misspelled Budweiser Boycott

Dumbass Trump sycophants became “triggered” after Budweiser’s Super Bowl ad that told the story of co-founder Adolphus Busch’s journey...

What It Feels Like to Be a Target of Dumbass Trump's Muslim Ban

What It Feels Like to Be a Target of Dumbass Trump's Muslim Ban

Executive order will benefit the private equity industry at the expense of your 401(k)

Dumbass Trump executive order will benefit the private equity industry at the expense of your 401(k)

Repealing Obamacare Will Absolutely Decimate Red State AmeriKKKa

Fact: Repealing Obamacare Will Absolutely Decimate Red State AmeriKKKa

Dumbass Trump sycophants: You fucked up. Big time.

Binge Eater

Black hole taking over decade to devour star

by Marcia Dunn

Scientists have detected a black hole that's taken a record-breaking decade to devour a star — and it's still chewing away.

The food fest is happening in a small galaxy 1.8 billion light-years from Earth.

University of New Hampshire research scientist Dacheng (dah-CHENG) Lin said that black hole feeding frenzies have been observed since the 1990s, but they've lasted just a year. At 11 years and counting, this is the longest known one yet.

Lin and his team used data from orbiting X-ray telescopes to study the monstrous munching. X-ray flares erupt when a star gets swallowed by a black hole and cooked millions of degrees. Black holes clearly like their stars well done.

"We have witnessed a star's spectacular and prolonged demise," Lin said in a statement.

The X-rays coming from this black hole surpass expectations in another way.

"For most of the time we've been looking at this object, it has been growing rapidly," said the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' James Guillochon, a co-author. "This tells us something unusual — like a star twice as heavy as our Sun — is being fed into the black hole."

The binge eating by this particular black hole began around July 2005. Based on computer models, the feasting should taper off over the next decade.

The discovery was reported Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

There's More to the Bacon Shortage Than What's Been Reported

There's More to the Bacon Shortage Than What's Been Reported

Orwell would be proud ...

USDA quietly deletes thousands of animal abuse records in ‘Orwellian’ move

In the two weeks that Dumbass Trump has squatted in our office, various government agencies and offices have quietly made changes under his demented watch.

Animal Pictures