Notices by Trebach (trebach@functional.cafe)

@gemlog @peterbrown Those who are listening down hear hear you loud and clear but the executive branch couldn't give less of a fuck. Barring impeachment or court orders, they'll do whatever they like.

ICE is so big of an issue that Congress actually removed the Department of Homeland Security (which ICE is part of) from the appropriations bill they had to pass by January 30, so every department is funded for 8 months except DHS which is funded for only 2 more weeks.

@gemlog @peterbrown Half of them want this. Some are too worried about keeping a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs, and having the bare minimum health care to stay alive to care.

Most of the broadcast news media in the US is complicit in this because in order to broadcast over the air, they are required to hold a license by the FCC (the duties of which would be part of the CRTC were this Canada). That is part of the executive branch which the president is the head of

@gemlog @peterbrown This is why you mainly hear about protests, what ICE has done, and any sort of pushback politically from independent journalism, local outlets online, foreign media, or people reporting on it themselves (though sadly many of them are doing so on Substack who are fine with platforming the people they are warning people against)

If you are in the ice rink known as #RVA and haven't driven anywhere since the storm, make sure your car actually starts. My mom's car couldn't because it was too cold.

If you're in a garage, make sure you open the garage door first before checking so you don't risk your life filling it with carbon monoxide

@gemlog Oh, they get stolen quite a bit too

@gemlog I don't think Japan has a problem with there being so many bikes chucked into canals that a concerted effort has to be made to remove them all

@gemlog I have no idea. They're calling for more snow this weekend from Georgia to southern Maryland.

So far they're saying 5-10 cm here but at least this time there's no chance of any mix of sleet or freezing rain in there because it'll be below freezing all the way down to the ground. Also there's an extreme cold watch Saturday night to Sunday morning for wind chills under -20C.

At least from Monday on, the highs are going to be 2-5C so things can start melting

@gemlog I have been using a farm shovel to literally bash chunks of ice off of my driveway when it looks like it's under 10 mm thick for the last 2 days. The neighbor was trying to use a spade and flimsy snow shovel for her sidewalk so I walked over to loan it to her and fell on my ass because the yards are all ice too! :)

@gemlog We were not prepared foe what this winter had to offer. It's been 1C at most all week and the mostly sleet that fell turned to ice and is still on secondary roads. The road crews have mostly abandoned salt for special melting compounds because salt quits melting at about -10C and nights have been closer to -15C

@gemlog They are el cheapo. My office has that jagged metal piece as part of the dispenser that they put the giant toilet paper rolls in

@gemlog The second one is a deal breaker right there. They say local storage support will be added later but I'll believe it when I see it.

@gemlog My brother has NG, but he lives in a town about 15 km away that's closer to the city. I think once you leave that town, until you get to the next city 70 km away, it's all tanks because there's not enough people concentrated in one area to be worth running pipes

@guofu

@gemlog No, it's a propane tank. At 3 bar heat, it's supposed to use a gallon per hour and I'm supposed to stop at 20 gallons to prevent issues, so that's about 36 hours of heat. My brother had an oil tank on his old house from 1967 but this was added in the early 2000's
@guofu

@gemlog There's a 100 gallon tank attached to the house. It's only filled to 80 as a safety precaution and has 55 gallons right now. The heater is in the living room and has no blower, but it's a flint and steel start so there's no pilot light that has to stay on

@guofu

@gemlog Underground until you leave the neighborbood. All along the main road, electric lines are on poles :(

I am planning as though I will be without power for at least 2 days. I have gas heat and if that gets low, we've been offered shelter at the neighbor's house who have a whole home generator. This snow and ice isn't going to melt until at least Saturday because it will be just barely above freezing one day and the rest below it
@guofu

@gemlog It's only just starting to snow here now. It's -7°C and we're expected to get 10-20 cm of snow and sleet between now and 1800 UTC when up to 19 cm of freezing rain starts falling until Monday morning

@guofu Has it started snowing there yet?

@gemlog There is a way to rule the president is incompetent and have him removed from power. Unfortunately, it requires the VP and a majority of the cabinet to agree to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

@gemlog I guess they must be importing bacon but if milk is cheap, why is cheese so expensive? You'd think they'd turn excess milk into cheese
@northernlights

@gemlog @northernlights I just did the math on how much the ingredients for one are if I get the ingredients from the grocery store. Bun, hot dog, and ketchup for one ended up being $1.13US.

They're also the store that has the $4.99 roast chickens and built a whole supply chain in order to be able to keep the costs down

@gemlog @northernlights At least you know whatever you had was fit to eat, which is more than I can say for McDonald's