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[Tack]

Got some worries in the wake of the Nike scandal, but mostly domestic concerns.

Fun fact, Australia also has a “Betsy Ross” flag. Sometime early in our history, a bunch of colonists attempted a seriously short-lived rebellion, and tried to secede from the empire.

The joint was called Eureka Stockade, the flag is called the same. Issue is, a bunch of right-wing groups use that flag currently. Basically both sides of parliament nowadays say we’ll be voting to “go republic” after queenie dies, and if we do i’d like it to be under that flag.
Unfortunately, i’m worried that by then it’ll be seen as a white supremacist icon and won’t be a possibility. Which is fucking ridiculous. People died under that flag.

[George_Chickens]

One Neo Nazi group used the flag back in the 80s and since then maybe a handful of barely known and irrelevant fringe right wing parties have used it in conjunction with various left wing and socialist parties. I don't really think most people view it as a Confederate Flag deal; the only people who even bring that up in my experience are Victoria 2 players (usually Americans) who aren't Australian citizens, because it's used as the Fascist Australia flag.

Most Australians seem to not even know of its history or existence.

[scourge728]

Wait, why wait until the queen dies?

[scriver]

It's only polite.

What Nike scandal, though?

[smjjames]

Remember that 6.4 earthquake that attacked California yesterday? Turns out it was just a foreshock to the 7.1 that hit today.
And since earthquake measurements were invented by a science nerd who didn't want anybody to have any idea how big earthquakes are, apparently 7.1 is 11 times more than 6.4.
I'm hearing that the aftershocks of this one will continue for years. And there's even a chance this might be another foreshock to something even bigger yet to come...

Attack? That's one way to describe an earthquake....

re: ton of aftershocks: Yeah, lots of aftershocks means that the energy is being released which reduces the chance/strength of the next large quake in the area. Scientists are still giving a slin 4% chance of a larger quake still happening though...

Wait, why wait until the queen dies?

Because end of an era transition? Probably also spare her the indignity of being overthrown? Though how Charles or whoever succeeds her would take it, don't know. Right after she dies is probably not the best time to do so, but there will be a period of direction searching for sure.

[Lord Shonus]

It's only polite.

What Nike scandal, though?

Nike was putting out shoes with the "betsy ross" American flag pattern (13 stars in a circle) on them.  A few people claim that is a white supremacist symbol due to one or two groups using it (the Antidefamation League calls.this nonsense), so there as an uproar.

[Tack]

More of a racial thing, apparently. The flag existed at a time of slavery and so therefore is an icon of slavery.

Same as the “Ben Franklin is an asshole” group. Just a bunch of people who refuse to acknowledge history in situ and feel like everything before slavery abolishment is automatically evil by association.

Then again I’m sitting here well aware that colonialism was responsible for my current way of life so there’s probably a few biases going on. If there is a referendum after Lizzie carks it (both parties having said there definitely will be) i’ll be in favour of sticking with the crown, is all i’m saying.

[ChairmanPoo]

May I ask why?

[hector13]

Tack loves paying taxes to figureheads on the other side of the world.

[Tack]

Well, there’s something cute about the fact i’d have an easier time getting healthcare in Canada than the average American.
Also there’s an agent of the crown who holds political office in Australia and has the authority to dissolve our parliament. I somehow would neither trust an elected president to have that power nor trust our horrifically childish government to operate without a “reset all” button.

But mostly I’m a fan of the benevolent and declawed British empire. Gives me a sense of national roots.

But if we do secede I want it to be under that flag. Similar reason I guess

[Frumple]

Dug a signed mark twain book out the storage closet today. Printed 1899.

... also a 102 year old treatise on double sided bookkeeping/accounting. Pretty terrible shape, but still awesome. Another week or two and I think I'll be done with the closet inventory!

[Lord Shonus]

If that's your book and you do not want it, sell it yourself. If it goes to Goodwill or similar it will probably be destroyed.

[Frumple]

Library's storage closet, not a personal one, heh. Been inventorying the years-largely-untouched storage closet mostly out of lack of anything else to do at the moment. Boss-person has the signed book now, what they plan to do with it I'unno.

The treatise, uh. Probably be given away at some point, honestly. It's in legitimately bad condition, if still intact other than looking pretty horrible and being brittle and whatnot. Most of those get discarded (put out to give away) if there's not some reason to invest a lot of effort into repair work (we're not really set up or trained for vis a vis really old stuff in particular). Might see about getting in touch with a conservation library or whatever that word (archival?) is at some point, I'unno. We've got a handful of century old books we don't really know what to do with.

[Lord Shonus]

I'm going to assume that they're smart enough to realize that the things are valuable, so they won;t use the normal bulk disposal systems. The issue I was concerned with is that I used to work for one of those bulk disposal companies. They claim that they will resell anything worth anything then recycle the rest, but in practice (at least where I worked), they often cut corners and recycle anything that doesn't work well with whatever automated system they're using. The place I worked installed a "look it up on Google Image Search to identify it" system and sent anything without an image on the cover to recycle. I've been told that they've stopped using the system since then (something to do with them realizing the stuff they were throwing away was more valuable than what they were trying to sell, presumably), but even if that's true the attitude remains.

[Frumple]

We're not nearly large enough to have a normal bulk disposal system, unless you count the dumpster or our patrons

We don't really try to resell off old or valuable books, though, at least from what I've seen so far. It's either keep, shuffle to some other library, or functionally or literally give away.