Houston, the 4th largest city in the United States, is essentially paralyzed. Residents had to be rescued by helicopters and boats as streets turned into raging rivers and made evacuation all but impossible. Rain is expected for a few more days. But the rescue efforts seem to be running along without Katrina-like snafus. Seriously, the rain amount is insane for … Read More
Hurricane Harvey
There’s a good reason why Mashable’s Andrew Freedman dubbed Hurricane Harvey—now barreling toward Texas and Louisiana—“the meteorological equivalent of a White Walker from Game of Thrones.” This is no joke. Harvey is likely to be the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005. Harvey will make landfall late Friday or early Saturday. The storm is expected to hit middle … Read More
Two Trump Speeches
Well, Monday night we got Teleprompter Trump on live TV, giving an address about his Afghanistan plans. What was remarkable about it? Very little except that he did admit that presidenting is different from campaigning, which is why he is reversing his stance on getting the 100,000 troops out of Afghanistan. You see, he learned that if you remove troops, … Read More
Day’s Unfolding Events
(1) Protest in Durham NC: Scheduled for noon and 4 pm. I’m following live feeds and the anti-protesters seem to have taken over downtown Durham. Not much of a fascist presence. Looks peaceful at the moment — some minor vandalism of base of statue that once had confederate monument. Basically everything postponed until 4 pm. (2) By the way, this … Read More
Our Bigoted President: An Historical Week of Shame
It’s Friday, and it’s still difficult for me to comment on the fallout from Trump’s moral equivalence press conference on Tuesday. Having tucked into his pocket some notes about what he was SUPPOSED to say… Trump “went rogue” (i.e., was himself) and spoke some of the most upsetting words of any President ever. The national discussion is all on my … Read More
Charlottesville
I did not know it was even going on. I should have been paying attention to social media. But I woke up on Saturday to news of skirmishes in Charlottesville. White nationalists gathered for a “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, ostensibly choosing that town because of the statute of Robert E. Lee, which was going to be taken down. It had … Read More
Locked And Loaded? Really?
“Locked and loaded”? This macho shit is insane. I don’t even know what that means. LATE UPDATE FROM AN AFTERNOON PRESS CONFERENCE: Trump says "it's pretty obvious" what "locked and loaded" means. "Those words are very very easy to understand." — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) August 11, 2017 Look, giving Trump credit which he doesn’t deserve, he COULD be acting that … Read More
Don’t Let Trump Read This
It’s now becoming routine — Trump’s advisers have to walk back his off-the-cuff statements… this time to avert war. From Jon Chait: The New York Times has much more detail. Trump improvised his threat without advance consultation with his advisers, none of whom support it. The paper he was holding when he made the statement was about the opioid crisis. Trump “was in … Read More
Interesting Poll Numbers From North Carolina — Trump Underwater
From PPP: PPP’s new North Carolina poll finds strong, bipartisan opposition to cuts the General Assembly has made to the budget of the North Carolina Department of Justice. Only 18% of voters support the 10 million dollars in cuts that have been made, to 60% who say they are opposed to them. This opposition is shared by independents (9/68), Democrats … Read More
Fire and Fury
North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state. And as I said they will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. Trump … Read More
Will The Attorney General’s Investigation Into Leaks Snare Trump And Fox News?
Here is a tweet from Fox News this morning at 5:30 a.m.: U.S. spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to patrol boat https://t.co/BPFXsLffgy — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 8, 2017 By the way, that’s some serious shit, but let’s set aside the content and just note that Fox & Friends linked to a Fox News site … Read More
Five Types Of Trump Voters
This is from June. I like this because it recognizes that Trump voters are all not the same. The Disengaged grouping is smaller than I imagined (only 5%) but I think Dems can take a whack at them and at the Anti-Elistists in 2018. Anyway, bookmark this:
Trump’s Vacation Doesn’t Stop The Tweets (and Leaks)
Nine tweets so far today from Trump — several attacking the “failing” New York Times for an article about 2020 Republicans contenders against Trump, a few trying to reassure everyone that he is actually “working” on his vacation, and this… … which seems to unintentionally confirm that there was… collusion? Ah well. Why did Trump go after Blumenthal? Probably this: … Read More