Alligators. Have I mentioned the alligators.
There are rumors that Idris Elba is in the running for the new James Bond. I think that would be awesome. It would be a +6 to his "stealth" scores because in the rarified world Bond moves in, nobody notices black men. But seriously, as an actor, holy shitballs that's going to be amazing (as long as the writers and directors fully embrace it).
"Puerto Rico is now estimating that Hurricane Maria killed more than 1,400 people, far more than the official death toll of 64, in a report to Congress seeking billions to help the island recover from the devastating storm… The government, relying on updated statistics it first reported in June, said there were 1,427 more deaths from September to December 2017 than the average for the same time period over the previous four years." Eleven months on and we're just getting confirmation of the real death toll. Oh, and people still don't have power. And before anyone tries the "but that was after the storm", I'll remind you all that New Orleans survived Hurricane Katrina's storm surge and the storm passing over. It was when all of her storm water started flowing back down the Mississippi that New Orleans flooded. (Grokked from Justine Larbalestier)
"An Arkansas police department said they fired an officer on Wednesday after he was captured in a viral video telling a group of black men they 'don’t belong in my city.'" (Grokked from Vincent O'Connor)
"The first step would be to create a U.S. Space Command by the end of the year, a new combatant command that would have dedicated resources, be led by a four-star general, and be tasked with defending space, the way the Pentagon’s Pacific Command oversees the ocean." We already have one. The Air Force has had a dedicated "Space Command" since 1998 IIRC. We have signed treaties which ban the positioning of weapons in space. "Pence said… 'But history proves that peace only comes through strength.'" We're fucking for chastity. This is hucksterism at its worst. All this will do is make a lot of defense contractors filthy rich and break our economy. And this is the point where I say VP Pence is also a Russian stooge. When the Air Force was created it was an attempt to consolidate several commands in the Army and give direct command structure. We had an effective Air Force before then, but each ground commander directed his own planes. (Grokked from Mary Robinette Kowal)
"This user’s late-night journey might sound like the meandering internet history of a lost, bigoted man… But when we analyzed the participants of the /r/greatawakening — one of the main gathering places for QAnon supporters — we found that he’s a quintessential QAnon participant." Shocked… yeah I can't even for this. (Grokked from Dan)
"Ohio election officials on Wednesday found 588 previously uncounted votes in its hotly contested special election for the state's 12th Congressional District." And there's still over 8,000 provisional and mail-in ballots that haven't been counted yet.
Oh, and I guess there's some rumors of heinous fuckery around Kris Kobach's primary race for governor to the point where he's had to recuse himself (as Secretary of State, he's the chief elections officer).
"In other words, this should have been an easy win for Republicans… The outcome may not quite be clear from Tuesday night, but there are at least four lessons…"
"Russia condemned a new round of U.S. sanctions as illegal on Thursday after news of the measures sent the rouble tumbling to two-year lows and sparked a wider asset sell-off over fears that Moscow was locked in a spiral of never-ending curbs by the West." Blah blah blah. "The new sanctions come in two tranches. The first, which targets U.S. exports of sensitive national-security related goods, comes with deep exemptions and many of the items it covers have already been banned by previous restrictions." Yeah, you already can't get those things, no big deal. "…the second tranche could include downgrading diplomatic relations, suspending the state airline Aeroflot’s ability to fly to the United States and cutting off nearly all exports and imports." Hmm, that one might sting a little.
"President Donald Trump's lawyer insisted Wednesday that his latest proposal in the long-running tussle with special counsel Robert Mueller over an interview with the President was designed to shield the investigation from the political overhang of November's polls." Yeah, that ain't gonna work, Rudy.
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