I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Linkee-poo Tuesday July 19

Sorry, apparently this didn't post yesterday.

Claus Oldenburg, and so it goes.

"Towering waves on Hawaii’s south shores crashed into homes and businesses, spilled across highways and upended weddings over the weekend… The large waves, some more than 20ft (6m) high, came from a combination of a strong south swell that peaked Saturday evening, particularly high tides and rising sea levels associated with climate change, the National Weather Service said Monday."

"France has evacuated more than 14,000 people threatened by wildfires in the south-west, as fires also spread in Spain, Croatia and Greece… Authorities in France's Gironde, a popular tourist region, have evacuated guards from campsites - the tourists left earlier. Fires have spread in the Teste-de-Buch and Landiras areas."

"Extreme heat has engulfed parts of western Europe, with wildfires raging in France and Spain, a worsening drought in Portugal, and the third hottest day on record in the UK on Monday."

"Some climate activists have urged the White House in recent months to deploy an emergency declaration to maximum effect, arguing that it would allow the president to halt crude oil exports, limit oil and gas drilling in federal waters, and direct agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency to boost renewable-energy sources."

"Water gets boiled a lot – whether it's a cup of tea brewing in a kitchen or a power plant generating electricity. Any improvements in the efficiency of this process will have a huge impact on the overall amount of energy used for it every day." Build a better teakettle and the world will beat a path to your door.

"That started her years-long journey into figuring out how best to help her daughter with her mental health struggles — a journey that hasn't ended for the family but has gotten easier over time… Here are some specific things that parents or a family member can do to help."

"Through a wave of pandemic-related litigation, a trio of small but mighty conservative legal blocs has rolled back public health authority at the local, state and federal levels, recasting America's future battles against infectious diseases… Galvanized by what they've characterized as an overreach of COVID-related health orders issued amid the pandemic, lawyers from the three overlapping spheres — conservative and libertarian think tanks, Republican state attorneys general, and religious liberty groups — are aggressively taking on public health mandates and the government agencies charged with protecting community health."

"Elon Musk and Twitter continued sparring on Monday, with the social media company slamming the Tesla CEO’s request for a slower trial schedule. Musk is trying to terminate a deal he previously made to buy Twitter and take it private for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion."

"They emerge one by one in the morning light. Some by foot, but most come by bike or wheelchair. Ukrainian soldiers know to wait for the escapees on this dirt road… More than 15 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since Russia invaded in late February, according to the United Nations. Many have fled abroad, while others have sought shelter in other parts of the country, escaping towns devastated by incessant bombardments or gripped by Russian military control."

"The Security Service of Ukraine has established that part of the Russian command in February was guided by topographical maps of Ukraine from the last century."

"Passage of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution would clear the way for lawmakers to outlaw abortion. Some lawmakers already have legislation ready to go… the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the state Constitution included a woman’s right to an abortion, Kansas became a refuge. Today abortions for out-of-staters now outnumber those performed on women from the state."

"The Dallas Independent School District, the second largest in Texas, will be requiring students to wear clear or mesh backpacks to school in the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting… Students from grades 6 to 12 will have to wear see-through backpacks beginning in the 2022-2023 school year to 'ensure that prohibited items are not included among the students' belongings,' the district said Monday." Oh, that'll help. Not. not exactly the dumbest idea ever, put it's a strong runner up.

"A preliminary report by the Texas House investigative committee probing the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers outlines multiple failures by several entities, including the overall law enforcement response, the Uvalde school system, the shooter's family and social media platforms."

"'The pods were originally manufactured as tornado shelters for schools located in "tornado alley" which now encompasses roughly one third of the U.S. and seems to be expanding,' Dennis Corrado, the company's president, said in an email to NPR. 'After the Sandy Hook tragedy in December 2012, the shelter design was modified ... with the intent of offering them to schools as a dual-purpose safety measure to protect from tornadoes and active shooters.'" Escalation is not the way to go. Because, seriously, if they're safe for the students (can't be opened from the outside), what stops a student from locking themselves in? Are you protected from overpressure events? Because it looks like the kind of space that would amplify them. These are a bad idea for school shooter situations.

"Two years after a vicious attack sent her into a coma, a woman in West Virginia has regained consciousness — and she gave sheriff's deputies vital information that led to the arrest of her brother… Wanda Palmer barely survived the ordeal in June 2020, when an assailant used what was believed to be a machete or hatchet to attack her in her home near Cottageville, some 45 miles north of Charleston."

"Police on Monday provided more details about the shooting at a mall in Indiana on Sunday that left three victims dead — including the name of the 'Good Samaritan' who is believed to have killed the shooter and stopped the attack. Officials called the actions of the armed civilian 'nothing short of heroic,' noting that the gunman likely would have killed many more people had he not intervened."

"'Nothing new about this,' (Bernie Sanders) added. 'The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not,' noting how the West Virginia senator and coal baron has benefited from campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies… Manchin said last week that he wants to delay any major decisions on the bill because of high inflation. Sanders said Sunday he wasn’t buying that justification, saying the people of West Virginia would support the provisions in the bill."

"Republican Sen. Rand Paul chided Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday after President Joe Biden decided not to nominate a conservative to a federal district courtship in their home state of Kentucky, intensifying a blame game over what McConnell believed could have been a rare Republican victory on the judiciary under a Democratic president." Rand is feeling a little ignored these days. Actually Rand knows McConnell's days are numbered so he's making a power move.

"But as the political environment has worsened for Democrats across the country, the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania has begun to look more competitive than either party expected. Polls show Mastriano behind Shapiro by only three to four percentage points, which is within the margin of error. Though many still have doubts about Mastriano’s ability to run a successful campaign, that has made Pennsylvania Republicans more optimistic — and served as a wake-up call for Democrats, particularly in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned." Of course conservatives were going to line up behind Mastriano. Of course polling will show that. What matters is how many of those "potential voters" will actually go out and vote in November. Mastriano is still on a "shoe-string" campaign. That should give you a hint on how this will go. Yes, conservatives will vote for him. But they're not betting on him winning. If I had to make a guess, the GOP machine will be more interested in winning the PA senate seat than the governor's office (as long as they feel they'll win enough state representatives).

"Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia is seeking to challenge in court a subpoena from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to appear before the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state, according to a new court filing on Monday."

"Two New York residents were arrested Monday on a federal criminal complaint accusing them of a nearly decadelong $27 million investment fraud scheme that leveraged their attendance at a 2017 fundraiser with then-President Donald Trump to dupe their victims." Grifts all the way down.

"Cohn was already a legend when Trump met him in 1973. Cohn had been in the news for decades, prosecuting nuclear espionage or searching for communists or defending celebrity clients. Among those he represented were Cardinal Francis Spellman, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the New York crime bosses Carmine Galante and John Gotti."

"Deleted Secret Service texts sent on 6 January, the day of the insurrection at the US Capitol, and the day before will be released by Tuesday to the House committee investigating the failed attempt by supporters of Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election result, a panel member said… The Secret Service’s account about how text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack were erased has shifted several times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security told the House January 6 select committee at a briefing on Friday." Right after the "have you tried restarting" entry in the tech support manual is the admonition about "before upgrading a system, back up all the data."

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