Happy New Year, east coasters! And soon to our left coast friends!
The view from my lap is remarkably similar to 2017:
by John Cole| 58 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Happy New Year, east coasters! And soon to our left coast friends!
The view from my lap is remarkably similar to 2017:
by Adam L Silverman| 84 Comments
This post is in: America, Crazification Factor, Open Threads
In the waning moments of 2017 we check in one last time with Floriduh Man! to see what he’s been up to at the end of this year.
First up we have a naked polo player.
WELLINGTON, Fla. —
A polo player was arrested after he entered another man’s home, stripped naked and then climbed into bed, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies said.
Jason Crowder, 29, was arrested Saturday in Wellington on charges of burglary and resisting arrest with violence.
The resident told deputies Crowder entered his home through an unlocked door, walked upstairs to the bedroom and then closed the door.
According to the arrest report, deputies were called and entered the bedroom, where they found Crowder naked in bed under a sheet.
Deputies said Crowder refused numerous commands to put on his clothes and get out of bed, so they attempted to forcibly remove him, but he kept flailing his arms in resistance.
Eventually, deputies said they were able to pull him out of bed, but not without a struggle.
Crowder’s speech was slurred and he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, the report stated.
Can another Floriduh Man! outdo our naked polo player? Of course he can!!!!!
CBS An Orlando, Florida man is facing charges after he was found masturbating in a baby’s nursery closet.
Orange County police say the mother was getting her three month old baby girl ready for daycare when she opened the closet door and found the man.
The mother screamed for her fiancé and put herself in front of the doorway to stop the man from fleeing.
The fiancé said he arrived to find the man completely naked.
The suspect allegedly told him that he was homeless and then put his hands up.The father of the child told police he began hitting the man to protect his daughter and two-year old son.
According to the police report, the suspect refused to leave the house, and the fiancé said he ran to the kitchen and got a knife.
But by the time he returned, the suspect ran to the garage and jumped a fence.The suspect was later arrested and denied masturbating inside the home and told police he could not remember how he had gotten into the home.
Officials say that while the suspect was in the police interview room, he began touching and exposing himself by lowering his pants.
The man faces charges related to exposing himself and burglary.
Finally, or at least until tomorrow when various local Florida police departments update their arrests from tonight, we end with a Floriduh Man! with a bad attitude, poor impulse control, and a case of the munchies.
PORT ST. LUCIE (FOX 13) – A Florida man was charged with assaulting his girlfriend over who ate the last chocolate chip cookie, police say.
Port St. Lucie police responded to their home on Aster Road on December 14. Richard Anthony Hessic told police he was upset when he discovered someone ate the last chocolate chip cookie and that his girlfriend was not taking him seriously.
His girlfriend said she joked with him about reviewing surveillance cameras to determine who ate the cookie, and did not want to argue “over something so petty,” so she offered to purchase more cookies, according to his affidavit.
After, she went to take a shower, and he followed her into the bathroom. “He felt she was blowing him off so he ripped down the shower curtain,” his affidavit read, “and punched her on the left side of her face.”
Police say they didn’t notice any swelling or bruising on the victim’s face.
Hessic was arrested and charged with battery.
But what about Floriduh Woman!? We have an update on the Floriduh Woman! charged with DUI for equestrianism while drunk.
(BARTOW, Fla.) — A Florida judge says a sheriff’s office must retain custody of a horse whose owner was charged with drunken driving while riding the animal.
In a report by The Ledger , Polk County Judge Sharon Franklin said 53-year-old Donna Byrne was unfit to care for the horse. Franklin also said Byrne must complete treatment for alcohol addiction.
Byrne was arrested Nov. 2 after riding her horse down a highway. Police said her blood-alcohol level twice Florida’s legal limit.
Byrne’s attorney, Craig Whisenhunt, says he will revisit the custody issue at a Jan. 11 hearing regarding additional pending charges of disorderly intoxication, animal endangerment and culpable negligence.
Whisenhunt questions whether the charges applied to Byrne, saying she had not been disorderly and was a pedestrian under the law.
We also have a Floriduh Woman! who is auditioning for the role in the new Grinch movie.
A 61-year-old Florida woman was arrested after deputies said she became a bit Grinch-like just days before Christmas.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said Deborah Margaret McClung helped herself to a mailman’s Christmas card and his $25 cash.
When they caught up with McClung, she had envelopes and Amazon packages from 20 other residences, according to a sheriff’s news release.
The Clearwater woman was arrested after around noon Friday when a 74-year-old homeowner confronted McClung in her laundry room.
Roseanne Chiaramonte told deputies that she left the card on her sliding-glass door and as she went into her laundry room, she found a strange woman standing there red-handed, according to the release.
When asked what she was doing, the sheriff’s release said that McClung replied, “The mailman does not come down here; I will bring it to him.”
McClung returned the card and cash before driving off in a Toyota Solaris.
The following day, deputies noticed the car in the same area, conducted a traffic stop and found the stolen stash inside her car. They also collected Amazon packages addressed to other people.
McClung admitted to the crimes, the release stated. She was charged with burglary to an occupied structure as well as violation of probation grand theft. Additional grand theft charges are probable.
What lifts a mall brawl above the mundane yapping-and-slapping? How about stepping away from the brawl to bring a toddler into the action?
That’s what one woman did during a Sunday donnybrook at Fort Myers’ Edison Mall captured on video by David Milburn.
The video opens with at least four women pounding and punching one woman turtling to protect herself. The attacked woman sinks to the ground, still in cover-up mode from repeated punches and kicks.
One of the women ganging up on her, a blue-shirted woman wearing what appears to be a raspberry beret, stops punching and walks off screen. She returns to the fray pushing a toddler in a plastic stroller shaped like a car.
As the attacked woman starts to rise, the stroller pusher stops to deliver a side kick to the attacked woman’s face.
The kung fu moment momentarily unbalanced and stunned the woman who was attacked, but she popped back up to go after Bruce Lee-in-a-beret. The woman who kicked her retreated, leaving the bewildered child sitting in the stroller alone.
She eventually returned to scoop the child out of the stroller and disappear into Victoria’s Secret as the brawl broke up.
According to the Fort Myers News-Press, a statement from Fort Myers police Capt. Jay Rodriguez said, “Upon arrival, the incident had already dissipated and police did not find a confrontation going on. Approximately two hours later police were called back to the mall in reference to apparent injuries that occurred previously and spoke to complainants.”
A report of simple battery was filed. The investigation remains open.
Stay frosty! Open thread! And a happy and healthy New Year to you all!
This post is in: Open Threads
Been a busy two days. Tammy and Brian are here so we have six dogs and it has just been a handful.
I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a Happy New Year and thank you all for hanging around at this rundown popsicle joint. This place would suck without you all.
Happy New Year.
This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russiagate, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
I wish I could just reply, "Regrets, house arrest" to all party invitations.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 29, 2017
Judge Amy Berman Jackson sounds pretty much over Rick Gates. "After all of that," she writes, he "filed yet another motion, with a new plan for New Year's celebrations." She denied the request. https://t.co/6IJplFC3JP
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) December 29, 2017
Of course, it’s not really about “celebrating,” it’s professional. Gates needs to be out there networking with his fellow parasites to get the full advantage of the current GOP grift…
Trump is planning to attend the NYE party at Mar-a-Lago, where they increased ticket prices to $600 for dues-paying members & $750 for guests. Last year’s tickets went for $525 for members & $575 for guests. https://t.co/LF9pcCXepw
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) December 31, 2017
‘
THE ARISTOCRATS KLEPTO-KAKISTOCRACY!
Russiagate Open Thread: New Years Eve, the Introvert’s NightmarePost + Comments (226)
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
Ric and Zooey have a mutual grooming session every morning. I’m looking forward to a friendlier New Year, although there is little reason to expect it.
Open thread!
Here’s To A Friendlier New Year! (Open Thread)Post + Comments (33)
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Daydream Believers
Somebody asked that on the previous thread. Short answer is I don’t know. But there’s more I can add. My Twitter feed has been full of reports from Iran. Demonstrations and rioting in several cities across the country are in their fourth day. Reports are that the demonstrations were started by the IRGC (hard-liners) to weaken President Rouhani and they got out of hand. I am taking pretty much everything provisionally. There are not a lot of reporters in Iran. People are not able to verify video purported to show events, and some look faked. Bellingcat is trying to start up a video verification and are asking for help.
My sense is that a great many people in Iran don’t know a lot about what is happening either. There are no clear leaders of the demonstrations, which have spread rapidly. Here’s a report from two days ago by Borzou Daragahi, who is in Istanbul. He’s a good person to follow on Twitter, too.
The government is taking a relatively moderate line, although two demonstrators have been killed.
There are a gajillion hot takes. Sir Lawrence Freedman, a historian at Kings College London, provided the all-purpose take.
'In retrospect it was inevitable'. My pre-prepared tweet for whatever happens to the protests in Iran.
— Lawrence Freedman (@LawDavF) December 30, 2017
Most of the hottest takes are of the form “The situation in Iran proves what I’ve been saying all along.” Of particular interest to me is the tie-in with the nuclear agreement. Most of those opposing the agreement are endorsing the demonstrations and hoping, sometimes openly, that they will lead to regime change, which is their goal. That’s not to say that a more open and democratic regime wouldn’t be an improvement, but getting there, as we’ve seen in Syria, has many pitfalls.
Donald Trump and a number of congresscritters have weighed in with statements supporting the demonstrators. Mike Pence has said he agrees with everything his boss says. The first Trump tweet was a copy of a Sarah Sanders tweet and relatively responsible. An argument continues as to whether we should support the demonstrators and their desire for greater democracy or if US support poisons the cause for many Iranians. The US is not popular in Iran, including among opponents of the regime.
Suzanne Maloney is another person you might want to follow on Twitter. Here is the start of one of her tweet threads on that subject.
On my feed (and in my household), there has been fierce debate around this question of what, if anything, the USG should say in response to turmoil in Iran. I come down somewhere in the middle…
— Suzanne Maloney (@MaloneySuzanne) December 31, 2017
The point is being made over and over again that if the Trump administration is sympathetic to the Iranian people, they might lift their immigration ban. Some of the people involved in the demonstrations will need to leave the country if the regime shuts down the protests.
And with that, I’ll open the thread for additional comments and questions. Fully open thread to come.
This post is in: Food, General Stupidity
I wish we were saying goodbye to this kind of stupidity along with 2017, but I fear not. “Unfiltered Fervor: The Rush to Get Off the Water Grid.”
One of the markers of civilized living used to be having water piped into your home, but that’s so twentieth century. Now we have “raw” “live” “real” water, untreated and ready to grow some algae.
There was a spring not too far from where we lived. My mother would occasionally take us kids along to fill up bottles of water for drinking. The spring was capped, and the water came out in a sluiceway that made it easy to fill the bottles.
I can recall drinking water from streams on hiking trips. That was before giardia became a big concern and before there were lots of people hiking in the mountains. I know, giardia comes from the natural animals that naturally live in those places. I never got sick from it.
I’m concerned about the lack of understanding of chemistry and biology shown by the people described in the article. The writeup is not bad. Here are a few of my thoughts as I was reading it.
At Rainbow Grocery, a cooperative in this city’s Mission District, one brand of water is so popular that it’s often out of stock. But one recent evening, there was a glittering rack of it: glass orbs containing 2.5 gallons of what is billed as “raw water” — unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water, $36.99 each and $14.99 per refill
Santa Fe water rates are high, an $18.42 monthly service charge, plus $6.06 per 1,000 gallons for the first tier, and $21.72 per thousand gallons after that. The “raw water” is about $6 per gallon, a thousand times as much.
An Arizona company, Zero Mass Water, which installs systems allowing people to collect water directly from the atmosphere around their homes, began taking orders in November from across the United States…The system — called Source, which retails for $4,500, including installation — draws moisture from the air (the way rice does in a saltshaker) and filters it, producing about 10 liters of water a day and storing about 60 liters.
Gonna take a long time to amortize that initial investment.
There is some nonsense about fluoride. That’s kind of amusing – resistance to fluoride originally came from the right wing. General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” drinks only pure grain alcohol and rainwater to maintain his purity of essence from the fluoride put in by the gummint for mind control. This time around, it’s the hippies (or whatever we’re calling them today). Fluoride has been studied, and no harmful effects have been found at the levels added to drinking water. It’s kind of wonderful (to me anyway) that kids today have so many fewer cavities. That’s from fluoride.
I think it’s a federal requirement that water systems send out an accounting of the trace elements and potential bacteriological contaminants in their water. I know I get them twice a year and am always impressed that the numbers are so low. But that’s part of what the new water fanatics are concerned about: not enough “good” minerals and probiotics.
He said “real water” should expire after a few months. His does. “It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery,” he said. “If it sits around too long, it’ll turn green. People don’t even realize that because all their water’s dead, so they never see it turn green.”
Eh. The green is algae. If a closed bottle of “real water” turns green after one lunar cycle, also known as a month, it had algae in it to begin with, or spores. And who knows what else – E. coli, V. cholerae, S. enterica. Just thinking about that makes me want to boil water before I drink it.
The thinking seems to be part of the general desire to get away from the ordinary and brand oneself as special, along with magical thinking about the purity of nature and nature spirits. I wish we could turn this kind of energy toward dealing with global warming.