Friday, May 19th, 2023 - TrickJarrett.com: Semper Ad Meliora

1 sheep, 3 hours, 5 people - Sheep to shawl

My mom enjoyed spinning yarn a bit during her life. I have her spinning wheel, though it's tucked away right now. Seeing this is fascinating and I know she would have loved hearing about it, though she definitely wouldn't have had any desire to participate.

Each team is made up of one sheep and five people: one shearer, three spinners, and a weaver. The team has three hours to shear the sheep, card the wool, spin the wool into yarn, and then weave that yarn into an award-winning shawl.

The article goes deeper into the work for the competition and the difficulties to be overcome. Really interesting as something I've never thought about before.

5/19/2023 8:45 pm |

| Tags: sheep, textiles, competition

A short interview with Nebraska state-legislator Megan Hunt

She is a former-democrat-now-independent state legislator in Nebraska, and this interview gives an excellent and quick insight into her.

5/19/2023 9:33 pm |

| Tags: nebraska, megan hunt

Redditor shares his own story about prison in reply to post discussing death penalty

Redditor Limp_Vermicelli_5924 shares his story of prison:

I did 14 years. A LOT of people (me included before my sentence) say, "If I ever got that much time, I'd kill myself!" SOME people DO carry that out, often before GETTING to prison, in County Jail usually. I myself attempted just that while I was in jail. They do it because they're dealing with an extreme adjustment disorder; they are usually massively depressed and despondent. They can't, in the short-term, wrap their brains around what they've lost. The consequences they will face.

Most people, however, don't kill themselves, and they end up putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward, and adjusting, because they are human, they are mammals, and they want to live.

There are times I miss prison. I met my husband in prison. He's still there, I talk to him every day. I had a ton of friends in prison. I had respect. I enjoyed my life there. Getting out was the hardest thing I ever had to do. WAY harder than going in.

I've been out a decade almost. Ended up, along the way, taking in a mentally disabled young man, homeless with no one to care for him; I met him while I was a manager at a drug rehab. He floated from rehab to rehab because it was the only way he could have a home and people to care for him. He could not take care of himself. He ended up at my rehab; I was given the task of looking after him, getting his documents in order, making sure he wasn't picked on, etc. After 18 months, it was time to move on for me. He asked me to be his dad. I accepted. He's been my son ever since, and from that day forward never called me anything but "Dad." It sounds like a wonderful happy ending, and in many ways is. Thank the stars for him, I love him as my own son, unconditionally. But it's not easy. He's bipolar, I still struggle on and off with addiction. People, when they find out about your criminal past, look at you differently. You never really get close to people. People are interested in you, in your story, but you're always a "danger" of some kind; you're perceived as different in their minds, damaged goods when you get to the bottom of things. That's always where relationships go to die in the end. Rarely do I get respect. If I'm lucky, I get tolerance.

Prison is a life. Maybe not the best, but certainly better than some. There are always people who have it worse than you, in places all over the world. I was lucky to be in a "good" state, prison-wise. Some states are MUCH worse, with their racial politics, gangs, and violence. I correspond with people in those states; even they carve out a life, have people they love as friends, and have things they enjoy. Even the sunshine on your face is a treat some days, a reason to live.

I'm offended by this bullshit question. There is no worse penalty, outside of unending physical torture, than death. MURDER is actually the proper term, whether it's a governor or a thug. Often, they're interchangeable.

The death penalty is BARBARIC. No ifs, ands, or buts. Shame on anyone who advocates it. Murder is a terrible crime. Committing another murder to avenge the first is even more barbaric, in a way, because it comes at the hands of the people who must be morally responsibile and humane; merciful, just, and compassionate. Any human being in a position of power and care over others, yet kills someone, is more reprehensible in the same way that a person in a position of trust who abuses is more morally culpable.

Marcus Tullius Cicero: “While there's life, there is hope.”

It is simple. It is truth.

5/19/2023 10:04 pm |

| Tags: death penalty, best of, reddit

A list to help Republicans understand what they're doing wrong

Originally posted in this Twitter thread, but here is a 27 point list which points out what the Republicans insist on doing and, in doing so, alienate them from young voters.

Republicans are so flabbergasted over their inability to connect with young voters it's almost comical. You wanna know why they hate you and upwards of 90% of them will never vote for you @GOP? I'll break it down for you (Thread)

Your Reagan-era "trickle-down economics" strategy of tax breaks for billionaires that you continue to employ to this day has widened the gap between rich and poor so much that most of them will never be able to own a home, much less earn a living wage.

You refuse to increase the federal minimum wage, which is still $7.25 an hour (since 2009). Even if it had just kept up with inflation, it would be $27 now. You're forcing people of all ages but especially young people to work multiple jobs just to afford basic necessities.

You fundamentally oppose and want to kill democracy; have done everything in your power to restrict access to the ballot box, particularly in areas with demographics that tend to vote Democratic (like young people and POC). You staged a fucking coup the last time you lost.

You have abused your disproportionate senate control over the last three decades to pack the courts with religious extremists and idealogues, including SCOTUS—which has rolled back rights for women in ways that do nothing but kill more women and children and expand poverty.

You refuse to enact common sense gun control laws to curb mass shootings like universal background checks and banning assault weapons; subjecting their entire generation to school shootings and drills that are traumatizing in and of themselves. You are owned by the @NRA.

You are unequivocally against combatting climate change to the extent that it's as if you've made it your personal mission to ensure they inherit a planet that is beyond the point of no return in terms of remaining habitable for the human race beyond the next few generations.

You oppose all programs that provide assistance to those who need it most. Your governors refused to expand Medicaid even during A PANDEMIC. You are against free school lunches, despite it being the only meal that millions of children can count on to actually receive each day

You are banning books, defunding libraries, barring subject matter, and whitewashing history even more in a fascistic attempt to keep them ignorant of the systemic racism that this nation was literally founded upon and continues to this day in every action your party takes.

You oppose universal healthcare and are still trying to repeal the ACA and rip healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and replace it with nothing. You are against lowering the cost of insulin and prescription drugs that millions need simply to LIVE/FUNCTION in society.

You embrace white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and other groups that are defined by their intractable racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and intolerance. You conspired with these groups on January 6th to try to overthrow the U.S. government via domestic terrorism that KILLED PEOPLE.

You oppose every bill aimed at making life better for our nation's youth; from education to extracurricular and financial/nutritional assistance programs. You say you want to "protect the children" while you elect/nominate pedophiles and attack trans youth and drag queens.

You pretend to be offended by "anti-semitism" while literally supporting, electing, and speaking at events organized by Nazis. You pretend to hate "cancel culture" despite the fact that you invented it and it's basically all you do.

Every word you utter is a lie. You are the party of treason, hypocrisy, crime, and authoritarianism. You want to entrench rule by your aging minority because you know that you have nothing to offer young voters and they will never support you for all these reasons and more.

You're so hostile to even the notion of helping us overcome the mountain of debt that millions of us are forced to take on just to pay for our post K-12 education that you are suing to try to prevent a small fraction of us from getting even $10,000 in loan forgiveness.

You opened the floodgates of money into politics via Citizens United; allowing our entire system of government to become a cesspool of corruption, crime, and greed. You are supposed to represent the American people whose taxes pay your salary but instead cater to rich donors

You respond to elected representatives standing in solidarity with their constituents to protest the ONGOING SLAUGHTER of children in schools via shootings by EXPELLING THEM FROM OFFICE & respond to your lack of popularity among young people by trying to raise the voting age

You impeach Democratic presidents over lying about a BJ but refuse to impeach (then vote twice to acquit) a guy whose entire "administration" was an international crime syndicate being run out of the WH who incited an insurrection to have you killed

You steal Supreme Court seats from democrats to prevent the only black POTUS we've ever had from appointing one and invent fake precedents that you later ignore all to take fundamental rights from Americans; and even your "legitimate" appointments consist of people like THIS (sub-thread refuting CJ Roberts criticisms of people attacking SCOTUS' legitimacy)

You support mass incarceration even for innocuous offenses or execution by cop for POC while doing nothing but protect rich white criminals who engage in such things as tax fraud, money laundering, sex trafficking, rape/sexual assault, falsifying business records, etc.

You are the reason we can't pass:

Universal background checks

An assault weapons ban

The 'For the People/Freedom to vote' Act or John Lewis Voting Rights Act

The ERA & Equality Act

The Climate Action Now Act

The (Stopping) Violence Against Women Act

SCOTUS expansion

You do not seek office to govern, represent, or serve the American people. You seek power solely for its own sake so you can impose your narrow-minded puritanical will on others at the expense of their most fundamental rights and freedoms like voting and bodily autonomy.

Ok, last one. You are trying to eliminate social security and Medicare that tens of millions of our parents rely on and paid into their entire lives. And you did everything to maximize preventable deaths from COVID leaving millions of us in mourning.