this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face

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"Emmitsburg Mayor Frank Davis voted for Donald Trump in hopes he would cut federal spending. Now Davis hopes those cuts don't include the permanent cancellation of classes at the National Fire Academy, which is part of the town's identity and helps drive its economy. Davis is also a chief at Emmitsburg's firehouse, known as the Vigilant Hose Company."

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5351764/trump-cuts-national-fire-academy-maryland-emmitsburg-fema-federal-spending

Trump killed the Fema training academy. It's not coming back.

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[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 206 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Davis says the administration is reviewing the academy's operations, and he is hopeful it will restore classes. If not, he says, he'll see the administration somewhat differently.

"It will change my outlook to say that they're not being fair,"

Hahahahahahaha

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 116 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's not fair that I'm getting hurt when I voted to hurt THEM!!!

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[–] FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world 78 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"They were supposed to cut the things that I didn't think were important, even though other people thought they were important. They were not supposed to cut the things that I thought were important, even though other people didn't think they were important." Lmao!

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 21 hours ago

Fucker probably wants kids to starve and go homeless.

There's really not a lot to cut that doesn't directly affect children or old people outside of the military.

No one will dare cut military because it's the largest jobs program on the planet.

These idiots really think that minorities are just living it up off food-stamps when it was them the whole time.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 37 points 1 day ago

.... Hahahahahaha... hahahahahaha.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Reminds me of visiting the Libertarian subreddit around the time of the LA fires and the big brains thinking about how to make the fire departments private for profits. That midset is rather universal among republicans (even if not the fire departments, but they will have something that they think would be better as a corporation rather than government agency). Reporter should ask him how long he estimates that the market will signal to investors to pick up the slack.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

It didn’t seem like they did.

“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Joe Rogan posters.”

Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

“Because I was afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People need to start asking them what the point of the profits are when the money isn't going back into the respective region (municipal/whatever the states version of provincial is/federal).

Like great, yeah, the fire department is now private. But there are no profits because nobody can afford the services anymore. Insurance goes through the roof, neighborhoods burn down... Real great plan there.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 17 points 23 hours ago

the fire department is now private

All fire departments used to be private. Go read how that went.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

People need to start asking them what the point of the profits are when the money isn't going back into the respective region

At the end of the day these things are politically motivated. The "economics" are just academic smoke screen for it all.

Looking at their circles we can see them doing a W with the mission accomplished at news coming out of Argentina. Anyone that is motivated by truth seeking would just say its too soon to tell.

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[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 153 points 1 day ago (14 children)

They voted to cut the FD in a neighboring town. Then they found out the fire response would jump from 8 minutes to 20+ and everyone in that area would have huge increases in home owners insurance rates.

They recalled the vote and upped the budget within a month. Fucking morons.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 79 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

They voted to cut the FD in a neighboring town. Then they found out the fire response would jump from 8 minutes to 20+ and everyone in that area would have huge increases in home owners insurance rates.

It is like these morons are constantly surprised each time they discover that public services cost money.

[–] Signtist@lemm.ee 50 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

They've been raised on the idea that taxes are bad, and never put more thought into it than that. They view things like the fire department as good, so they can't really be funded by those bad taxes, right? ...Right?

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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 30 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

discover that public services cost money.

discover that public services costS THEM money.

it's ok when it costs someone else money.

[–] mriswith@lemmy.world 18 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

At the end of the day they're just selfish.

My favorite example is the "Free Town Project", where a bunch of libertarians from all over the country tried to take over a town in New Hampshire. After they managed to force through cuts to everything from firefighting to street lights, they had a single police officer left. And he couldn't respond to any calls, because his cruiser was broken and they refused to pay for repairs so crime rose and sex offenders started moving there.

Then came the bears.

They didn't pay for any sort of forest ranger and the cop couldn't respond. So bears started getting close and some people spent years feeding them, while their neighbors walked around armed at all times and would shoot at bears on-sight. Which led to the first black bear on human attack in the state for over a century, where a woman was attacked inside her own home. And shortly after two other attacks happened in nearby towns. So the people went into the forest one night and allegedly shot and killed a dozen bears, which didn't help. Some people suggested the city put bear protection on the trash cans, but it was not passed and was called "government overreach" by others.

So the freedom loving libertarians who moved to a town without zoning laws to live in improvised housing and roam free without laws, ended up having to put up big fences and walls around their homes to keep the bears out.

[–] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the information. Interesting reading up on this experiment. Wikipedia have several good sources. Seems many of these people forget the "personal responsibility" part of their (deranged) ideology.

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[–] menemen@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago

It is like these morons are constantly surprised each time they discover that public services cost money.

Even worse. They are too dumb to understand that essential services and workers are essential.

[–] ours@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Oh, they know it costs money. They fail to understand that many of these things are worth the money.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 29 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Those snowflakes, don't they know they have garden hoses...they should pull up their bootstraps and put out their own fires.

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[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 15 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

also insurance will likely stop insuring those areas too, the cost is too high. as with the idiots building in wildfire prone areas of california.

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[–] crank0271@lemmy.world 78 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In every single one of these stories, the reporters need to be asking whether it was the racism or the fascism that appealed more to these voters. Inquiring minds want to know and we shouldn't let them off the hook or worse, to cry for our sympathy.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm sure they'll just give the old "Keeping immigrants out, jobs for Americans" crap line. No one ever believes they're the bad guy.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 18 points 23 hours ago

So it is both!

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 74 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Decades of listening to hate radio and Fox News has taught them "government bad" despite the fact that they depend on it.

Teaching people to bite the hand that feeds them is a cool trick.

[–] Blooper@lemmynsfw.com 14 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Schadenfreude is a shit consolation prize.

I mean, I'll take it, but it's still shit.

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[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everyone knows the parts of the federal government they have involvement with aren't all that wasteful. The sad truth is we're very, very far away from conservative voters realizing the rest of the government is about the same, and the wealthy just use the idea of wasteful spending as a red herring to distract from their taxes being unsustainably low.

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[–] tamman2000@lemm.ee 41 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

One of the worst things about being a firefighter is how many of my colleagues are republicans.

It makes no sense. You do a job providing services to people for the government and you vote for the folks who tell us that government is unable to do good...

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 hours ago

You do a job providing services to people for the government and you vote for the folks who tell us that the government they'll form is unable to do good...

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 40 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

"We're on a very long, slow path to self-destruction," he says. "Every day that this training is unavailable to the locals is one day closer to a disaster they can't handle or won't know how to handle."

He got to this kernel of truth. He's almost there! If only he could just make the connection and apply it to the big picture.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 9 hours ago

If only he could just make the connection and apply it to the big picture.

Narrator: He couldn't.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Link…? There’s no source here

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Didn't you see the picture of the guy looking sad? What more proof do you need?!?

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Fixed. Sorry.

But it's not like I didn't include the quote of the headline to find the story.

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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago
[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Man didn't think fire fighters were maga. My outlook has completely changed

[–] FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com 33 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Lots are

Firefighters might do an important job, but they are still just people

Same as nurses and teachers. There are still plenty of stupid and ignorant ones out there

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 11 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

while I'm grateful they exist, and respect their work I've known a few firefighters in my time, and I wouldn't exactly say they were the brightest of folks.

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[–] sundray@lemmus.org 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 23 hours ago

Make America greatly ablaze!

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (6 children)

The worst part about this is that, in a racist, fascist world, them getting burned by their own hatred is the only downside.

Which means that, from their perspective, there is room for improvement.

Trump fascists are really just billionaire dark government.

But these people genuinely hate and want pain, death, and destruction for other people.

What in the actual fuck, humanity??

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[–] Pnut@lemm.ee 17 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Yet, he will likely never look back to his actions. He'll just turn out his pockets, throw his hands up and say "I don't know what happened! No one warned me about this repeatedly."

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[–] pfr@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 13 hours ago

Davis is a dumdum

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Silly leopards...noy my face!

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago
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