June, 2017 archive
Trumpling D-Day 0
Dick Polman imagines Donald Trump’s D-Day tweetstorm, had he and Twitter existed 73 years ago.
Just read it.
The Climates They Are a-Changing (Updated) 1
Late last night, my brother sent me a link to a picture of the town of Cape Charles, Va., under water because of, not a hurricane, but a steady rain. (See more pictures of yesterday’s rain.)
You’ve likely never heard of Cape Charles, but I’m quite familiar with it. When I was growing up, one of the highlights of the Christmas season would be a visit to the McCrory’s in Cape Charles to see the model train layout on the second floor. Also, when I was a kid, Cape Charles did not flood. It might take on some water during a hurricane, but it did not drown in a summer rain.
Anyone who does not understand that the climates they are a-changing is either willfully ignorant or just too stupid for words.
Then, again, as Der Spiegel points out, there are those persons who are both:
Follow the link the complete Der Spiegel story.
Addendum, Two Days On:
My brother, who spent more time in Cape Charles than I did–I think a young lady might have been involved–informs me that flooding in Cape Charles was not so rare as I thought, though he does not recall flooding of such severity in a routine summer rain.
I don’t know how much rain Cape Charles got, but here in Virginia Beach we got only an inch and a half–heavy, but hardly something Noah would have noticed.
Here’s a bit of what he told me:
The problem with Cape Charles is that it’s too flat, too low, suffers from poor planning (too much concrete and asphalt), and they use the streets as their storm drains. If you have a storm drain system and try to route too much runoff through the drains, they back up. The same thing happens when you use streets as storm drains–route too much runoff through the street system and the streets flood.
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Thursday 0
When fellowship is needed, join us . . . .
When: Thursday, May 8, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
Twits on Twitter 0
My local rag tries to make sense of Donald Trump’s “ill-considered” (to use their term–“unconsidered” would likely be a more accurate phrasing) tweets, a Quixotic endeavor in the best of times. A snippet:
It is an excellent editorial. As you read it, remember the target audience is Virginians and that Virginia gave us “massive resistance“; it is consequently worded rather charitably, but read between the lines.
I look forward to the coming letters to the editor from our local Trumpsters.
Afterthought:
Referring to Trump’s hand-held device as a “smartphone” is a gross misnomer. After all, look at the company it keeps.
______________
*Trump. Design. It is to laugh.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
The SPLC reports the noose:
Follow the link for the round-up.
That Was the Weekend That Was 0
In an article tangentially related to the previous post, Josh Marshall reflects on Donald Trump’s weekend of twittery and reaches a conclusion:
Follow the link for his reasoning.
“. . . a Fool for a Client” 0
Elie Mystal explains how Donald Trump is undercutting his own lawyers. A snippet:
The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court – & seek much tougher version!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017
(snip)
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall has pushed back hard against the charge, denying before the courts that the executive order at issue is a “travel ban.” The government says that you shouldn’t use the president’s campaign statements to divine the intent of his executive orders. Wall told the Ninth Circuit: “We shouldn’t start down the road of psychoanalyzing what people meant on the campaign trail.”
Conservative judges have been, more or less, sympathetic to this argument. They’re not saying that a president’s words don’t matter. They’re not saying that intent doesn’t matter. They’re saying that Trump’s campaign rhetoric is not a good metric by which to judge the intent of his policy.
When Trump, now not as a campaigner but as President of the United States, then says that the Travel Ban is a “BAN,” it kind of blows apart the whole argument..
Follow the link for his full explanation.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Brothers should play politely.
The boy is said to be in a critical, but stable condition.
Colorado Springs Police Lieutenant Howard Black told Fox 31 Denver the boy was shot by a three-year-old who “found a hand gun.”
Meta: Site Maintenance (Sticky) 0
I am doing some site maintenance to implement SSL. Please make a note that, if http: doesn’t work, try https:. Or just wait until I fix it. (Update 2017-06-12: The cert has been issued and I hope to install it tomorrow after voting. There’s a primary. Voting is not a right; it’s a duty. Update 2017-06-14: Still working on it, being very careful and not wanting to break my site, and still learning stuff.) (Update 2017-06-25: Clearly implementing SSL is not one of my priorities. I do not find security theatre a compelling cause.)
Update 2018-08-11: I still don’t have that round tuit. Tomorrow I shall unstick this post from the front page and stick it back when the tuit arrives.
I don’t really need an SSL cert, as this is not a commercial site and no credit card numbers or the like pass through here, but I got tired of Firefox’s nagging about it, plus I might learn something. I started this to learn stuff. The outrage came later . . . .
Extra-Special Bonus QOTD, Reprise 0
Wolfe had had the Times and a book . . . and his weekly battle with the television. . . . He turns on one channel after another, getting grimmer and grimmer, until he is completely assured that it is getting worse instead of better, and quits.*
Aside:
He wrote that 50 years ago, folks, before Fox News and reality (sic) shows. One wonders what he might say today. And, yes, I’ve been a Rex Stout fan since I read Some Buried Caesar in the back seat of the family car on the way to visit my grandmother lo! those many years ago.
*Stout, Rex, Death of a Doxy (New York: Viking Press, 1966) p. 129
A Pictoral History of Bothsiderism 0
In related developments, The Charlotte Observer’s Issac J. Bailey explains that a difference in degree can indeed be a difference in kind.
Image via Job’s Anger.
All the News that Fits 0
Farron and Sam wonder whether Donald Trump is taking down Fox News.
Let’s hope they are correct. Me, I’m not optimistic.