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You are here: Home / Climate Change / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Go, Not with the (Hurricane) Flo

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Go, Not with the (Hurricane) Flo

by | 150 Comments

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Not to belabor the obvious, but the Washington Post‘s Weather Gang are posting that “Hurricane Florence could be a lot like Harvey”:

In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on San Jose Island. Over the following five days, Harvey’s forward movement slowed to a glacial pace, essentially stopping over the greater Houston area, weakening in terms of wind speed but retaining an immense amount of moisture that eventually fell as rain in catastrophic amounts.

A year later, residents in the southeast and Mid-Atlantic may face the exact same scenario with Hurricane Florence, and the reason will be eerily similar.

A ridge of high pressure, extreme especially for this time of year, will develop just off the coast of New England, shunting the path of Florence toward the southeast coast. The strength of this ridge will be unprecedented in 30 years, according to forecast models…

I’m assuming all Balloon Juice readers are smart enough to have their evacuation plans in place and their go-bags packed. If you have neighbors / loved ones who are hesitating about sheltering in place, show them the animations at the link.


 
***********
 
Meanwhile, for the rest of us…



 
IIRC, last year’s National Republican Senatorial Committee meeting started with a literal train wreck. These guys gotta dial back on challenging the chaos gods…

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    This administration has made me a very bad person, because I want the NRSC to stick to their plans. And extend an invitation to College Republicans , several RW media people, and the NRC. And have them all get washed out to sea.

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I still can’t get on Balloon Juice except on my phone via 4G (Verizon). Any of my devices with wi-fi, no luck.

    The brain trust says the fix is “propagating” through the Interweb. Does anyone know of anything I can do to speed the process? I rebooted everything and flushed the DNS cache on my computer. Nothing helps.

  3. 3.

    Susan

    I am in Ohio. I have people I care about in NC whom I would welcome here. They need to evacuate but they can’t because they are Army. Hoping the Army takes care of their own. They are good at planning and logistics.

  4. 4.

    raven

    Sea Island south of Savannah is near where I was last week.

    Hurricane Florence intensified rapidly to a category 4 storm Monday with sustained winds of 140 mph., tracking toward the North Carolina coast with an expected landfall as early as Thursday. Savannah area officials do not expect any serious impacts here from the storm.

  12. 12.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Just saw a video from one of my DHs colleagues from Murrells Inlet, SC showing a convoy of Ambulances on the roads as they are evacuating the hospitals. They are not messing around anymore.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Thanks for the information. I thought about that, but I didn’t know if it would work, I tinker with my router so infrequently that I’d have to look things up, and I’m in my pre-trip frantic mode anyway. (Leaving tomorrow afternoon for Las Vegas.) If I get everything done, I’ll give it a look tonight, unless I’ve been “trickled on” by then. But, again, thanks for the information (and confirmation of what I was suspecting).

  14. 14.

    Al Z.

    Yay! The site is back for me at least. Having done nothing special I’m assuming this bodes well for the rest of the community.

  16. 16.

    Immanentize

    Good morning All. Worried about folks on the coast. I love the Outer Banks. But i am with Satby, every time I think of North Carolina for even a few moments my mind turns to their vicious unconstitutional gerrymandering (the courts have so held) which will still be used this November. And I feel efg whispering in my ear.

  17. 17.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It was interesting that the mobile carriers updated their DNS pretty quick(I was able to access the site on my Sprint Note 8), but Spectrum and Google were slow. I was able to access the site until I added OpenDNS as the secondary DNS server. I originally had Specturm’s as the Primary and Google as the Secondary.

  18. 18.

    Thoughtful David

    I can only get BJ when I route through London. No US server works, nor with the vpn turned off (I’m in the US, Virginia). Maybe I’ll try Asia and see how that works.

  21. 21.

    Thoughtful David

    Yup, going through Japan works, too.
    Looks like it’s US servers that are having DNS propagation issues with BJ.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    BTW. I had trouble yesterday on my phone, but no problem this a.m. at all. If anything, BJ is faster now for me.

  26. 26.

    HinTN

    Having done nothing with the laptop or router, because I almost exclusively use the phone, I have arrived here via the laptop and router. I have been trickled down to.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    A few years ago CLowncast had regular problems with their DNS servers that could last for hours. I switched to google & openDNS and had no problems since. It really is the best way to go

  29. 29.

    HeleninEire

    @Steeplejack (phone): Same here. Can only get on on my phone. Desktop is telling me “server IP address cannot be found.” Damn. If I can’t get on at work what the hell am I gonna do all day long? ;) If I read on my phone, I’ll be busted!

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    My router is a Netgear something. I don’t even remember the model number, and I’m not going to look now. That’s what I was talking about: I’d have to look up the model number, then I’d have to look on line to remind myself how to connect to the router from my browser, then I’d have to figure out what to set the DNS servers to.

    Now that you’ve given me some good numbers, I may fiddle with it later today if I get stuff done. But I need to be doing stuff instead of reading Balloon Juice anyway. Just bugs me when stuff doesn’t work.

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Baud:

    It tells your router, and thus your browser, where to look (a DNS server) to translate “Balloon-Juice.com” into the number that the Internet understands. Some DNS servers are better than others, and when problems occur some get updated faster than others.

    DNS = Domain Name System.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Amir Khalid:

    Don’t go there! I appreciate all that Alain does, but this CDN problem yesterday seems like a bit of an own goal. And I’ll leave it at that.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “Server not Found” since yesterday morning. Any other website I had no problem reaching, just BJ.

  43. 43.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    A Trump retweet from a few minutes ago. This is crazy stuff.

    “We have found nothing to show collusion between President Trump & Russia, absolutely zero, but every day we get more documentation showing collusion between the FBI & DOJ, the Hillary campaign, foreign spies & Russians, incredible.” @SaraCarterDC @LouDobbs

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I hope Trump shares this “documentation” with the American people, along with those hundreds of photos he says he has of Comey and Mueller hugging and kissing each other. It only seems fair.

    Once again, I go into work angry. :/

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    When I finally got thru I saw posts from yesterday that people were commenting on. I see now that I was not alone in my difficulties.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @debbie:
    Mueller and Comey are not from a culture where men greet each other that way. I think Trump is implying, falsely of course, that there’s some kind of prurient aspect to their relationship beyond that of friends and former colleagues.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    First paragraph of an email people in positions in county parties got yesterday:

    Subject: Contract Fight between the Campaign Workers Guild and the Ohio Democratic Party
    We, members of the Campaign Workers Guild (CWG) at the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP,) are writing to inform you of the contract fight we are in with the Ohio Democratic Party. Forty-one days ago, the ODP recognized our union representing Campaign for Ohio field staff, which we formed with 90% support. We were so excited to see our party stand for working people by ultimately recognizing our union. Unfortunately, this excitement has not held at the bargaining table, where we’ve been continually disappointed and angered as the ODP has refused to present proposals that ensure us the union protections and provide us the working conditions we need and deserve. After several day-long bargaining sessions, the ODP has made it clear to us that they are not serious about negotiating a fair contract that lives up to our Democratic values.

    Hopefully the ODP can fix this, and reach a deal.

  56. 56.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    Aren’t we still waiting for the incredible stuff his investigators found out in Hawaii about Obama’s birth certificate?

    I missed the whole site switcheroo because I was so busy.

    Also, too Brett Kavanaugh lying at his confirmation hearings is disqualifying. He is unfit for the Supreme Court. I plan to call Susan Collins again and tell her so.

    Lisa Graves (her emails were stolen) writes about it at Slate. He should be impeached, not elevated.

  57. 57.

    Al Z.

    Not sure if this helps – obviously you need to be here to read this. But my “shortcut” to Balloon juice was unsecured simply as “balloon-juice.com” and would not resolve. It appears that it needs to be “https://www.balloon-juice.com/” with the emphasis on the “s” in the “https”

  61. 61.

    chris

    Twenty four hours of Balloon Juice withdrawal has me feeling pretty shaky but I think I’ll be OK. Made do with Twitter but it’s a poor substitute.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Yay! Pelosi doesn’t get enough credit, Chapter XII.

    I think “contract fight” is hopeful language. It’s the mildest language they could use in this context. That means no one is walking away.

    People think David Pepper (head of the ODP) is an “elitist” – that’s the wrong word- listening to them what they think he’s a snob. They use “elitist” but it’s not substantive, not some grand poli sci theory- it’s cultural- they think he’s a snob. Talks down to them. I suppose he does but I don’t find it offensive – it’s his culture and I’m multicultural :)

    This is fucking impossible, dealing with Democrats. I would just like you to know that. No one can do this well. When my oldest son was little he used to tell me “it’s imp-oss-ible” when I told him to do something. So dramatic. That’s what it’s like.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: They don’t have to do a strike, a work slow down could be almost as damaging. As a buddy of mine once noted, “You can fuck with your employees, but your employees can fuck you.”

    Was working a job once where somebody blocked the sewer line out to the street under a slab floor (I forget what with). A lot of cabinets, flooring, drywall, and concrete had to get busted out to remove the blockage. Never did figure out if it was someone pissed off at the plumbers or the general contractor, but it was 5 figure enema for somebody.

  69. 69.

    danielx

    I feel sort of guilty enjoying the first beautiful fall morning when so many people are going through so much upheaval.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Last night our school superintendent came sauntering up to the D booth and ultra-casually picked up some lit.

    Very brave of her. They’ll probably force her out now. She’s a registered R.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    Goddamn it! I got sucked into screwing with my DNS settings. I was lying in bed, reading Balloon Juice on the phone instead of catching a last little bit of sleep, and it hit me that if I was spending time explaining DNS servers to Baud I probably should just go ahead and actually do the stuff I was bitching about.

    So I inspected my (dusty) router and saw that it is a Netgear N600. Handy directions right on the case about how to log on from a browser. No go. I know the password is correct, because I wrote it down in a secret place. But apparently my admin name is wrong. WTF?! I can’t remember why I would have changed it from “admin” or, if I did, why I didn’t write it down in the secret place.

    I didn’t want to go through the nuclear scenario of resetting the router to factory defaults, so I got on the Google and searched for a way to change the DNS servers from the browser on my computer. Found this very useful guide for Win10. (I’m sure the site has instructions for other operating systems, too.) I used ?BillinGlendaleCA’s numbers above and—voilà! Success. So this is being written from my newly unchained compuer. The housecat, while not actually weeping tears of joy, did turn over to warm her other side at her heated workstation.

    Note: This worked only for my computer. It didn’t affect the other devices in my wi-fi environment. E.g., the phone is still screwed unless I use 4G.

    If you haven’t been “propagated” yet and are feeling sufficiently frustrated, you can look at the OpenDNS guide above and see if you want to do the changes yourself.

    Now back to frantic pre-trip mode, delayed by 30 minutes. Grr!

  72. 72.

    JPL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: If his tweets are any indication how he feels about the 9/11 attack, I hope they are not having him speak at today’s service.
    Trump: “Although the twin tower attack was bad, it was nothing compared to what crooked Hillary is doing to me. “

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steeplejack:

    I didn’t want to go through the nuclear scenario of resetting the router to factory defaults, so I got on the Google and searched for a way to change the DNS servers from the browser on my computer. Found this very useful guide for Win10. (I’m sure the site has instructions for other operating systems, too.) I used ?BillinGlendaleCA’s numbers above and—voilà! Success. So this is being written from my newly unchained compuer. The housecat, while not actually weeping tears of joy, did turn over to warm her other side at her heated workstation.

    Ugh. I just waited for Alain to get it straightened out. I think my way involved a lot less effort on my part.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, for those who are still locked out, I did most of the heavy lifting (what little there was). The OpenDNS instructions I linked to above are very detailed and easy to follow, even for non-techies.

  78. 78.

    JPL

    I am locked out most of the time, and just feel honored the few times that I have been able to access the site.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She’s a good supe. I have no idea how she stays so excited about our town’s horrible, surly children, but she does. She thinks they are destined for greatness- ALL of them. It doesn’t appear to be faked.

  80. 80.

    Spanky

    @danielx:

    I feel sort of guilty enjoying the first beautiful fall morning when so many people are going through so much upheaval.

    It was just about this time of morning 17 years ago that the first reports came in from New York. Some time later, after the second hit, I went outside the office building to clear my head. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day here between Baltimore and DC. And not a plane was flying, save a lone F16 high overhead.

    So don’t feel guilty today. Not worth it.

  81. 81.

    JAFD

    Good morning, everyone !
    Was hitting Balloon Juice fine, last evening and this morning. Out during day yesterday, but no trouble now.
    Shana Tovah! to everyone, and best wishes for a healthy, happy, peaceful and prosperous 5779 to everyone.
    Hope all of my parents’ friends, of their old retirement hometown, stays safe and keeps their homes intact.
    R.I.P. to all the dead of 9/11 and the conflicts following therefrom.

  82. 82.

    Antonius

    For those having trouble accessing the site, try searching for “balloon juice” on Google and clicking the appropriate link. After that, my access was fine.

  87. 87.

    thruppence

    @Antonius: If that doesn’t work, you can also click on the triangle at the end of the link to get a drop down menu and select Cached. That will give you the latest copy of the site that Google has stored.

  88. 88.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Don’t think that you’re not killing us with your hilarious observations. It just seems inadequate somehow to throw up an “LOL.”

  90. 90.

    TS (the original)

    @Steeplejack: Somebody did something & it sure wasn’t me – but I felt deprived with no bj – hoping it stays connected.

    trump interview after 9/11 – It is always about trump

    From his Midtown Manhattan apartment in Trump Tower, the businessman shared his disbelief on what he said he was witnessing on 9/11.
    “I have a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center, and I saw this huge explosion,” Trump told Blackmon. “I really couldn’t even believe it.” He added: “Now, I’m looking at absolutely nothing. It’s just gone. It’s just hard to believe.”

    A little more than a minute later, Marcus asked whether Trump’s 40 Wall Street building had suffered any damage. Before getting into his response about his Financial District property, the businessman had something he wanted on the record.
    “40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest — and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest,” Trump said in the WWOR interview. “And now it’s the tallest.”

    From the WashingtonPost

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:

    Today saying Russia is behind sonic attacks in Cuba.

    And in China too? I swear that the only thing these have in common is “Americans.” We know we have been trying out such things and I guess we did it to ourselves. In each place.

  92. 92.

    Mike S

    I could get on B-J via my Kindle last night but still couldn’t get in this am on the laptop (useing the same router/modem). I had to clear cookies to get in.

  93. 93.

    danielx

    Pat Robertson has promised his followers that praying for a “shield of protection” will divert the hurricane out to sea.
    This is a no-lose proposition if I ever heard of one. If the hurricane doesn’t hit, it’s because of prayer. If it does, it’s because his followers haven’t worked hard enough at suppressing gays/libs/perverts/Democrats. What’s not to like?

    Note: I haven’t seen Pat Robertson’s visage for a while. He appears to be getting more ghoul-like as he ages.

  94. 94.

    no name

    Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100
    By Martín Espada

    for the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local l00, working at the Windows on the World restaurant, who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center

    Alabanza. Praise the cook with a shaven head
    and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
    a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with people from Fajardo,
    the harbor of pirates centuries ago.
    Praise the lighthouse in Fajardo, candle
    glimmering white to worship the dark saint of the sea.
    Alabanza. Praise the cook’s yellow Pirates cap
    worn in the name of Roberto Clemente, his plane
    that flamed into the ocean loaded with cans for Nicaragua,
    for all the mouths chewing the ash of earthquakes.
    Alabanza. Praise the kitchen radio, dial clicked
    even before the dial on the oven, so that music and Spanish
    rose before bread. Praise the bread. Alabanza.

    Praise Manhattan from a hundred and seven flights up,
    like Atlantis glimpsed through the windows of an ancient aquarium.
    Praise the great windows where immigrants from the kitchen
    could squint and almost see their world, hear the chant of nations:
    Ecuador, México, Republica Dominicana,
    Haiti, Yemen, Ghana, Bangladesh.
    Alabanza. Praise the kitchen in the morning,
    where the gas burned blue on every stove
    and exhaust fans fired their diminutive propellers,
    hands cracked eggs with quick thumbs
    or sliced open cartons to build an altar of cans.
    Alabanza. Praise the busboy’s music, the chime-chime
    of his dishes and silverware in the tub.

    Alabanza. Praise the dish-dog, the dishwasher
    who worked that morning because another dishwasher
    could not stop coughing, or because he needed overtime
    to pile the sacks of rice and beans for a family
    floating away on some Caribbean island plagued by frogs.
    Alabanza. Praise the waitress who heard the radio in the kitchen
    and sang to herself about a man gone. Alabanza.

    After the thunder wilder than thunder,
    after the shudder deep in the glass of the great windows,
    after the radio stopped singing like a tree full of terrified frogs,
    after night burst the dam of day and flooded the kitchen,
    for a time the stoves glowed in darkness like the lighthouse in Fajardo,
    like a cook’s soul. Soul I say, even if the dead cannot tell us
    about the bristles of God’s beard because God has no face,
    soul I say, to name the smoke-beings flung in constellations
    across the night sky of this city and cities to come.
    Alabanza I say, even if God has no face.

    Alabanza. When the war began, from Manhattan and Kabul
    two constellations of smoke rose and drifted to each other,
    mingling in icy air, and one said with an Afghan tongue:
    Teach me to dance. We have no music here.
    And the other said with a Spanish tongue:
    I will teach you. Music is all we have.

    Martín Espada, “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” from New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2003 by Martín Espada. Reprinted with the permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Steeplejack: @OzarkHillbilly:

    just waited for Alain to get it straightened out

    Dear Steeplejack (phone or otherwise), you are the most fretting, worried, complaining person about tech stuff on this site — at least when I read it in the mornings. I think Ozark’s advice above is sound and allows us all to enjoy the value that is given to us pretty much for free. Even when it is seemingly held together with gum and duct tape. I come for the insights, humor, news aggregation, “fuck ems,” and big fish stories. And the music. And the writing. And the insights and analysis. I understand that this is not a big corporate endeavor with dozens of on-call tech folks getting big salaries. So, when things go sideways, maybe we can all wait a day or so and they will sort themselves out.. Love, Imm

  96. 96.

    Leto

    Received a message from my parents (mandatory evacuators) this morning that they’re doing the last few things of boarding up the house and prepping to head to Hickory Knob state park. It’s up in the NW part of SC, near the Georgia boarder. It’s where we rode out Hurricane Hugo. Hopefully everything is alright when they get back.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @danielx: If he had any real faith in the power of prayer he would go to NC and stand on a beach and pray for God to turn the hurricane away. If he did i might actually believe he believes his own BS.

  99. 99.

    Spanky

    I hope Quinerly has stayed put in MO. It’s one thing to fret about your house at the shore when you’re in the middle of a continent, but don’t attempt to stay there in case something goes wrong.

    I had the pleasure of traveling to Morehead City for Hugo (?) back in the 80s when my octogenarian father and wife decided it wasn’t worth evacuating for. It miraculously skipped over us, but I don’t feel the urge to sit out another hurricane.

    (Floyd? Damned if I can remember which it was.)

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    #HurricaneFlorence
    RT?
    DO NOT LEAVE PETS/ANIMALS BEHIND
    Don’t leave them tied up.
    Evac shelters take pets.
    Have: leash, crate/kennel, food, water, litter box.
    Pets didn’t choose us, we chose them
    Don’t leave ‘em to die!
    Let’s form an add’l rescue team! @PattyArquette & all tagged pic.twitter.com/2nhu8qh27n

    — Dawn Young-McDaniel ♿️? (@justdawn_) September 10, 2018

  103. 103.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s painted himself into a corner where the response to #HurricaneFlorence has to be disastrously incompetent or else everyone will know the inaction that killed 2800 people in Puerto Rico was straight up racism.

    — Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) September 10, 2018

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @rikyrah

    Evac shelters take pets.

    Not necessarily. Some do, some don’t; check for a “pet friendly” designation appended to the shelter’s location.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah: This strikes me as one of the most depressing and most cynical comments I’ve ever seen up here.

    Yes. Trump did nothing for Puerto Rico, agreed. He was the island’s second disaster. But I don’t think they’re going for massive incompetence with mainland storm relief. What, are we supposed to sit around and hope for 3000-5000 storm deaths, so we can have parity?

    Please. stealthygeek can put a sock in it. Sourness is just … sour.

    That said, raising the topic of Puerto Rico is a good one, on a day when we mourn (politically and professionally, a lot of folks) 3,000+ dead on September 11. And we ignore the deaths before their time in Puerto Rico. That story is not played out yet.

  110. 110.

    FlyingToaster

    I was lucky; my (non-Comcast, non-FIOS) ISP propogated changes before we got home from school yesterday, so I only knew about the trouble after the fact.

    The Google DNS route is the one I recommend; we had an issue at our ISP 2 years ago, where I couldn’t see my work e-mail from home. Switched DNS on my laptop only, and saw work just fine; checked in on the iPad occasionally to see if it had been fixed so I could switch back. They already knew about the problems when I reported it; they were in a “replacing all the hardware down this branch of the tree” mode and it was fixed once they replaced the failing local mess with new, more, operating equipment about 10 days later.

    It’s no comfort to you on the “my ISP will get around to fixing this in a week or so” band, alas.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    It wasn’t that long ago that some Black voters had to pass a test and pay a discriminatory poll tax in order to cast their ballot. Marian Haslem was one of those voters — and she’s now working to ensure more Americans head to the polls this November. pic.twitter.com/KvWiWcogCP

    — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 11, 2018

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    About the cop in Dallas:

    Wait a minute. She had a dog? Every hour these revisions to her original story get worse. Normally at this point if she wasn’t a police officer wouldn’t the police be saying she can’t get her story straight? Black folk doing life on fewer “revisions” than in her story.

    — BMLewis (@BMLewis2) September 11, 2018

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    “There’s nothing particularly civil about taking away people’s rights to bodily autonomy, and there’s nothing particularly hysterical about wanting to keep them.” On hysteria, civility, and the Kavanaugh hearings. Must read. #StopKavanaugh https://t.co/V0LFXXLXAs

    — ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) September 11, 201

  115. 115.

    randy khan

    Trump is in Pennsylvania at the Flight 93 memorial for 9/11 commemorations. It seems like a rather obvious nod to the Flight 93 election folks, but then again subtle isn’t in his repertoire.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @randy khan:

    Did you see the photo of him arriving in Shanksville? Making one of his silly buck-toothed faces and pumping both fists in the air as though he’s heading to a MAGA rally. Wearing blacks pants, an ill-fitting dark navy jacket, and a tie that literally comes down to his crotch.

  120. 120.

    Quinerly

    @Spanky: I’m in St. Louis. Looks like could be a direct hit for my beloved Bogue Banks. Has commenter central planning checked in? His father lives year round across the street on the sound side of where my place is at Pine Knoll Shores. Commenter ju Ju is an hr inland but has a sister who lives down from my place at Emerald Isle.

  129. 129.

    randy khan

    @Elizabelle:

    That said, raising the topic of Puerto Rico is a good one, on a day when we mourn (politically and professionally, a lot of folks) 3,000+ dead on September 11. And we ignore the deaths before their time in Puerto Rico. That story is not played out yet.

    Yesterday, the WaPo reviewed a new book by Jose Andres – the D.C. Michelin-starred chef who basically moved to Puerto Rico for more than a month to feed people, and ending up serving 3 million meals (with a lot of help). He names names and takes no prisoners (including criticizing himself).

  131. 131.

    Elizabelle

    @randy khan: Saw that! Sent it around to some friends. Yea for Jose Andres.

    That would be a good blogpost topic, a positive one. On how we can change relief work to make it more effective.

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    Republicans move forward with ‘Phase 2’ of their tax plan
    09/11/18 10:42 AM
    By Steve Benen

    After Republicans rushed through their massive, regressive tax plan late last year, many assumed the GOP majority would turn its attention to other issues, such as infrastructure or immigration. What we didn’t realize is that Republicans would instead keep their focus on … more tax cuts.

    As we discussed in the spring, Donald Trump told a selected group of supporters in St. Louis, in reference to his tax plans for 2018, “We’re now going for a Phase 2.” Pointing to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the president added, “It’s going to be something very special. Kevin Brady’s working on it with me.”

    In this case, Trump apparently wasn’t making stuff up. Brady told Fox Business at the time that Republicans believe “even more can be done” on taxes.

    We’re now getting a look at what they have in mind. Reuters reported overnight:

    With congressional elections looming, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday proposed more deficit-expanding tax cuts, an effort seen by some tax experts as unlikely to become law and geared chiefly toward winning votes.

    Even if the initiative fails to pass, it could put Democrats in the position of opposing the new tax-cut plan on the House floor, which Republicans could seek to use to their advantage in the Nov. 6 elections where control of Congress will be at stake.

    Under the measure, federal individual income tax cuts approved on a temporary basis by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump in December would become permanent.

  134. 134.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    Some information about pet friendly and non-pet friendly shelters in NC/VA/GA:

    https://www.bringfido.com/hurricane/#north-carolina
    https://www.cbs17.com/weather/hurricane-center/pet-friendly-hurricane-shelters-in-nc/1432219840

    Please Read CAREFULLY! Many Red Cross shelters do not allow pets, in some counties Animal Control will set up shelters adjacent to the Red Cross shelter. If you take your animals with you when you evacuate, please remember to bring your animals vaccination info and tags, also food and food/water dishes and any meds your animals need as you may not be able to go home for a while.

    https://abc11.com/weather/list-of-area-hurricane-shelters-emergency-operations-centers/4211642/

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    Republicans confront a significant gender gap ahead of midterm elections
    09/11/18 10:06 AM—UPDATED 09/11/18 10:43 AM
    By Steve Benen

    When the latest Quinnipiac poll asked respondents whether Donald Trump is mentally stable or not, the president didn’t fare especially well: only 48% of Americans said yes. But the gender breakdown pointed to an interesting result: while a narrow majority of men said they consider Trump mentally stable, 50% of women said the opposite.

    The result was emblematic of the significant gender gap Republicans are confronting this year. Indeed, the same Quinnipiac poll showed the president with a weak 38% approval rating, but Trump fared even worse among women, with whom he has 34% support.

    The new CNN poll, released yesterday, offered even more dramatic results.

    “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?”

    Men: 42% approve, 51% disapprove
    Women: 29% approve, 65% disapprove

  143. 143.

    Kelly

    @Baud: If the Dems win in November the top priority should be a sweeping voting rights bill. All else, anti-corruption, healthcare improvements, civil rights will depend on unimpeded Dem voters. Even if they only win the House force voting rights to the front pages.

  144. 144.

    Nettoyeur

    @Immanentize: Maybe one of those Trumpist Evangelicals will figure out that Florence is a Divine Message to the GOP to stop screwing over the planet and suppressing the vote. Not holding my breath, though.

  145. 145.

    trollhattan

    This a.m. I can get to the site via my home ISP and I could not last night. My phone was the first to reconnect and my work second, both yesterday. Have patience jackals, the series of tubes is delicate and must be unclogged one at a time.

  146. 146.

    burnspbesq

    It’s pretty clear that Kavanaugh lied at both of his confirmation hearings.

    It’s equally clear that he didn’t commit perjury.

    One element of the offense is that the lie be “material.” In this context, that means “the outcome would have been different if he had spoken the truth.”

    I think it fairly obvious that no Republican votes would have changed if he had spoken the truth. If you feel otherwise, I’d love to hear you explain why.

    (h/t Prof. Jessica Levinson of Loyola Law School in LA, who made this point yesterday on Madeline Brand’s show on KCRW)

  147. 147.

    Nettoyeur

    @rikyrah: When half the population pays more in Social Security, Medicare, Sales, and Property taxes than Income Taxes, the appeal of this message could be limited to squillionaires.

  148. 148.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    And vampires. The vampires are also in on the conspiracy.

    Don’t be silly. Everyone knows vampires aren’t real, just like Catholics. //

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