Meanwhile on the International front....

Stauber can fuck right off and keep fucking right off between now and Journey getting on my playlist.

Voted against the Ukraine bill. Don’t stop believing this, asshole.

The Range has been in a slow change since the 50s. Not for the better.

 

Iron Range Mafia in full effect. I'm here for it.

 

I'm not a Ranger. I just happen to work adjacent to there. I drove up on a nice summer Sunday a couple years ago to look around. It reminded me of home in some ways. They have pasties and Duluth mostly doesn't. US Hockey Hall of Fame is a fun afternoon.

I grew up in the "other" iron ore territory, in the central U.P. My uncle was an executive for Cleveland Cliffs, I've taken the mine tour, and I know how iron ore pellets are made. But the Central U.P., when I lived there, had two iron ore mines (Empire and Tilden). A third closed before I was aware of it in the 80s, and one of the previous two was idled for years. Mining has always been a thing in the U.P., but it never generated enough jobs to be THE thing, especially when Marquette was a 30-minute drive away.

Duluth, or any other significant city, is a solid hour from the Range, and there are six operating mines on the Range right now, which ship ore out of four different locations (Duluth and Superior being two of them).

The current war is actually over copper/nickel mining, which requires a chemical process that, if done wrong, can release sulfuric acid into the groundwater. A lot of people have a problem with that because one of the two proposed mines is basically across the street from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This debate was had out 15 years ago in the northern U.P., which has similar (much smaller) deposits. They're mining them. No problems yet, but it also hasn't exactly revolutionized the U.P. economy.

However, the Rangers view this as what's going to bring the Range back to glory or at least keep them relevant and that the government is catering to Citiots and their canoe trips. (To be fair, the chief congressional voice against it right now is Betty McCollum, who represents, yup, St. Paul).

 

All of the yentas on my Facebook feed seem thrilled with breaking up the protests at UT because they don’t like what they the protestors are saying.

 

I'd begin any interview with these protesters with two questions:
Can you show me Palestine on a map?
Are you a registered voter?

 

I'd bet yes would dominate the first question. Dunno about the second.
BTW, unlike the BLM protests, these events seem completely limited to college campuses. This strongly indicates to me that in political terms, they will soon suffer failure to thrive.

 

In winter 1977, I had a bad streak of rolling shins and losing all my gelt by the 2’s.

 

I don't know the name, but I know a guy named Robert Zimmerman grew up there. Haven't heard from him in a while.

 

Did a western a few years back. Played a guy named Alias.

 

Right-wing/extreme AfD is the most popular party in Germany among those aged 14-29. All left-wing parties in decline I'm sure this is fine.