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The Ledes

Friday, May 17, 2024

AP: “Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Thursday, May 16, 2024

CBS News: “A barge has collided with the Pelican Island Causeway in Galveston, Texas, damaging the bridge, closing the roadway to all vehicular traffic and causing an oil spill. The collision occurred at around 10 a.m. local time. Galveston officials said in a news release that there had been no reported injuries. Video footage obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU appears to show that part of the train trestle that runs along the bridge has collapsed. The ship broke loose from its tow and drifted into the bridge, according to Richard Freed, the vice president of Martin Midstream Partners L.P.'s marine division.”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Wednesday
Jan312018

The Cash-Stuffed Clown Car

By Safari


I recommend perusing the totality of just today's linked articles and take it all in as a whole, to get a real idea of the SOTU: where we are and where we're going one year in of the GOP's pursuit of their version of a "more perfect union".

None of these swamp episodes or ratfucking machinations are done by accident: Maybe some go in worse directions than planned, but few if any are held accountable, most if not all are boosted and abetted by a network of corrupt enablers, all leeches sucking power and prestige from the federal government vessel that they all collectively demean to their deplorable base, while frantically stepping on and over each other to board the Mother Ship, plain giddy from their elevated perches.

What I see from below is a complete abdication and perversion of governance, in a "post-truth" world. The modern GOP has radicalized to such an extent that not only has it renounced from any bipartisan measures, they've actively promoted legislation and/or executive orders to intentionally target Democratic-leaning constituents (raising taxes, offshore oil drilling, "sanctuary cities", sabotaging the census preparations, etc.). The GOP is so duty-bound to their fever swamps (see Rick Wilson's piece linked today for a primer) that they've completely lost their ability to hold a national vision of policy-making, moving us forward together as a nation.

Whether for gerrymandering, ideological purity, utter ignorance, spinelessness.... Holding all the levers, they can't govern the nation. This is now established fact. They're reduced to pandering to their pockets of power, and everyone else is written off and overlooked, as worthy and useful as that fictitious Cadillac-cruising welfare queen.

It's not Trump, it's the Republican Party, all aboard the cash-stuffed clown car canvassing any way forward.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

Thanks for this brilliant analysis, Safari -- I guess. As I have said previously, I have been in a "mood" regarding our current political environment. So naturally I have turned to youtube to distract myself. I started watching "Cities at War" and watched Berlin fall to the Russians. What was most interesting, however, was not the "fire and fury" of the deaths of about a million people. It was Goebbels, who was there propagandizing to the very end. There are long shots of the enraptured emaciated berliners, listening to the propaganda minister, and jumping up excitedly to shout their enthusiasm for the upcoming battle to the death.
THIS is what I noticed about the ecstatic shouts and jumps by the republicans: sie sint auch berliners. This can't be just about the money. There's too much glassy eyed excitement. My thought had been something like, "it isn't just the money - Trump's got something on every republican." But maybe, after all that Fox, they've given themselves away to the propaganda. I guess it could happen to anybody.

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria

There are more GOP horror stories in a day than there are Trump lies and "misleading statements." And Trump is up to 5.something/day, on average, lies in public. No doubt the SOTU speech upped the average.

And of course there are so many horror stories that most don't make the press, either because the media -- so we -- don't find out about them, or because there's only so much we & the press can absorb.

In today's thread, PD Pepe pointed to something I didn't see make the media cut. To avoid watching the Trumpathon, PD tuned into a re-run of a Senate hearing with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on the hot seat:

"Tammy Duckworth wanted a complete run-down of Pruitt's four day trip to Morocco.... She asked him why he needed to go on that trip (he had said it was to discuss oil and energy issues). 'Oil and energy are not in your purview, that falls to Energy itself, so I'd like an explanation as to why this trip was necessary.' He replied––'I'll get back to you on that.' She couldn't resist saying––'I hope you had a fun time in that shit-hole country.' This put a sour puss on Mr. Climate Change denier."

"I'll get back to you on that"??? Wait a minute. Pruitt (and entourage, one presumes) took a four-day official trip to Morocco, on the pretext of meeting about a topic that falls into Rick Perry's bailiwick, & he doesn't know why? Was it to go to the bazaar? Was it to take a camel ride? Or maybe it was more official -- like he needed to find out if the Sahara was hot in winter. He'll get back to us Duckworth (if she presses) after his staff cooks up a flimsy excuse.

We're dancing as fast as we can, but it's not fast enough.

January 31, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Safari,

There's a scene in the gangster movie "Goodfellas" in which a restaurateur is forced to go to the mob for help with his business. The gangsters buy in and proceed to bleed the guy dry. Then, when there's nothing left to steal, they burn the place down to collect the insurance money.

This is the GOP. They don't give a shit about running the business but they do care about what they can make off with. They don't really care about the future of this guy they're "helping". They use him for their own ends.

Republicans don't give a shit about the government or the country or rule of law or good behavior in public or being kind to small animals. They care about their own well being, their own power and their access to money. That's it. They don't worry about governing, and just a casual glance at their cavalier approach to letting an idiot run the show demonstrates that they don't really care about the future of the country either.

They're gangsters. Criminals in $2,000 suits who wave the flag in one hand and pick your pocket with the other.

You want something from them? "Fuck you. Pay me."

Most of them know that Trump is a dangerous moron who has no business running a country, but they don't care. They're getting what they want and if the joint ends up burned to the ground, so what? And like the mob, anyone who stands in their way, they send their hit men and thugs after them. And don't kid yourself, these people are just as lethal as actual hit men. Destroying the ACA and Medicaid kills Americans.

But so what?

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

It's no joke: the republicans really are a slow moving train wreck: Amtrak is reporting that the train carrying the republicans on their way to a retreat has hit a dumptruck. One fatality, 2 injured. No republican casualties.

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria

I think part of the problem is that so many people let their personal relationships shape how they report on these people. I saw Michael Hayden talking the other day about the Nunes memo. He said that he'd checked the members of the committee and knew some of them and assumed they'd do the right thing. The other day I saw Don Lemon declare Nikki Haley "one of the most respected women in the world" because she was nice to him when they met. Many reporters or panelists on these show go out of their way to say how much they like all these trump apologists when they are off camera. Just because Republicans can act like a regular people in private doesn't excuse all they do and say in public.

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterRAS
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