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I’ve been thinking about the bridge collapse in Baltimore that happened a couple days ago. I didn’t say anything before because I thought it was well covered in the news. However, there are a couple things about it that have caught my interest.
First, when the ship lost power and steering they told people on shore immediately. That gave police enough time to stop traffic, but alas not enough time to warn the repair crew on the bridge. That’s why there are six dead and not dozens to hundreds.
I wouldn’t want to be in the cars on the bridge approach, stopped by police, then feel the shudder and watch the bridge I’m waiting to cross suddenly disappear. There would be a mix of emotions of annoyance that I’d now have to take the long way home along with extreme thankfulness that the police car blocked my way.
The second thing of interest is the collapse. I watched the video and that bridge went down in ten seconds. That video is, I’m sure, available online.
There are now lots of photos of the ship with bridge wreckage across its nose (as in the photo at the top of this post). I realized the ship didn’t bump the bridge support, it destroyed it. There is no bridge support in the photo. That’s why the roadway collapsed.
RustyRobot of the Daily Kos community revels in big ships like the Dali that crashed into the bridge. There is a previous photo of the Dali at the top of his post with a lot fewer shipping containers than it has now. This post includes a lot of stats on the ship and a description of the engine, which is a huge thing.
Emily LeCoz and Trevor Hughes of USA Today reported on tugboats used to get the big ships into port. Well, not so much anymore because many big ones have their own maneuvering engines. In this case the tugs pulled away before the ship lost power and could have prevented the collapse. The article also talks about the huge size of these ships.
The earliest container ships, the ones from the 1980s, could hold 4,300 containers. Modern ones can hold five times that, the largest holding 24,346 containers. The Dali, as loaded now, is estimated to weigh 100,000 tons. That amount of mass hitting a bridge support is going to destroy that support. The ship is now likely snagged on the underwater remains of the support.
Today’s news said that two more of the bridge repair crew were recovered from the water. They were inside their truck. Four are still missing and authorities believe they and their vehicle is tangled in the bridge wreckage and can’t be recovered until the wreckage can be pulled up.
The next step is to get a crane on a barge beside the Dali and begin to unload it. One is to arrive tonight. Some of the containers contain hazardous materials.
That first link above (repeated here) is to a pundit roundup for Kos by Chitown Kev. He adds the closure of the Baltimore harbor to other world wide shipping hassles – low water in the Panama Canal, reducing throughput, and Houthis attacking ships heading for the Suez Canal. Then Kev quoted an article about the conspiracy theories popping up around the bridge collapse and the long list of culprits conspiracists are trying to blame. Then on to...
Charles Blow of the New York Times discussed the continued attack on black women even after the departure of President Gay. The attacks are led by Christopher Rufo, “a right-wing provocateur and instigator.” Blow wrote:
This is, after all, part of Rufo’s plan, having announced, “Game on,” after helping to push out Gay. The veracity of the complaints doesn’t matter; the reputational harm — to the accused and to the idea of inclusion — is the goal.
The narrative here is about innate and pervasive inferiority, ineptitude and fraudulence by women and minorities, specifically Black women in this case. And it must be understood that the subtext, the inverse, of minority inferiority is therefore white supremacy.
Kev also quoted Ken Chitwood writing for Sojourner’s reporting that evangelicals are looking for their pastors to preach sermons on the politics of immigration. There are a lot of verses about being kind to the foreigner and the traveler. There are sites that have gathered those appropriate verses together (Kev has a link to list for the King James Bible).
Anton Troianovski and Milana Mazaeva of the NYT wrote that Putin has another problem on his hands after the concert hall attack. Though Putin blames Ukraine (without evidence) the attackers were from the predominantly Muslim Central Asian country of Tajikistan. That is stoking lots of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric online.
For Mr. Putin, the problem is magnified by the competing priorities of his war in Ukraine. Members of Muslim minority groups make up a significant share of the Russian soldiers fighting and dying. Migrants from Central Asia are providing much of the labor that keeps Russia’s economy running and its military supply chain humming.
But many of the most fervent supporters of Mr. Putin’s invasion are Russian nationalists whose popular, pro-war blogs on the Telegram messaging app have brimmed with xenophobia in the days since the attack.
On to the cartoons in the comments. Clay Jones shows two elephants in a car falling from a broken bridge. One says, “If anyone asks... We voted for the infrastructure bill.”
A cartoon from John Buss suggests a companion to the gold sneakers and nasty guy Bible is a nasty guy gold plated crucifix, which has his image instead of Jesus. One can supposedly find it at Trumpcrucifixation.com.
One posted by Swankie Frankie shows the nasty guy in a prison yard with the caption “The wall that will ‘Make America Safe Again.’ ”
I had written that I didn’t care who Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chose for his vice presidential candidate. I still don’t, though there are a couple things related to the choice that are worth mentioning. The first is by Mark Sumner of Kos. It seems Kennedy’s biggest criteria for his partner is that Nicole Shanahan is rich, as in billions rich. That’s important because a candidate can donate as much as they want from their personal funds, where other donors have limits.
On the downside, she’s only 38 and she has no experience in government. Also, her billions, if she donates that much, won’t turn Kennedy into a winning candidate. He can only be a spoiler.
The other thing was reported by Marisa Lagos of NPR. She played a clip from one of Shanahan’s speeches. One sentence sounds pretty good and has implied references to the tobacco industry and Big Oil’s reports on climate change.
We have to rid science of the corporate bias that contaminates it today.
Except the “corporate bias” she wants to eliminate is that vaccines are good. And...
LAGOS: “But by playing on people's doubts about institutions, she is sending a clear signal to those who already believe those conspiracies, says Yotam Ophir, a professor at the University at Buffalo who studies misinformation.”
...
OPHIR: Conspiracy theorists always use a grain of truth, a kernel of truth, to kind of support their claims. That's what makes those stories so compelling.
LAGOS: He says it's all part of a populist playbook in which people who already have power present themselves as outsiders who can fix things in order to gain more power.
Lagos also talked to Mike Madrid, who is a Republican Political Consultant (so keep some skepticism). Madrid said the national division isn’t so much right against left, but...
We have to start talking about establishment versus populism, outsiders versus insiders, people who are looking to just kind of break down institutions and use institutions as a target to say, this is what ails us.
And a populist could attract enough votes in swing states to swing the election.
A while back, during a cold snap, I lamented my forsythia would not bloom. But the cold ended and today was sunny and pleasant – high about 50F (10C). And the forsythia has done all right. Not every one of the little blooms opened, but enough did that they look pretty decent. Here are a couple photos, first from my biggest shrub.
And from the shrub that I thought least likely to bloom this year.
Good enough! I now have my annual clouds of yellow out of most of my side and back windows.
A few years ago I wrote (and I’m not digging up the post) that we should work hard to lessen the effects of climate change for the sake of chocolate. This half-minute report was on NPR this morning:
Good morning. I'm Debbie Elliott. Cocoa prices have hit all-time highs. Producers say poor crop yields in the face of climate change in West Africa, where 70% of the world's cocoa supply is grown, is to blame. Some chocolate makers are raising prices, while others are shrinking their candies. Even Easter can have a Grinch. It's MORNING EDITION.
Dartagnan of the Daily Kos community discussed how abortion bans affect standard pregnancy care. The reason is simple: Doctors are scared some aspects of formerly routine care, especially around miscarriage, will be interpreted as assisting abortion.
The stakes are no longer limited to the “debate” about abortion itself, but now to implicate the health care of anyone, anywhere, experiencing any type of pregnancy.
Walter Einenkel of Kos discussed Jon Stewart of The Daily Show explaining the nasty guy’s civil fraud trial (the one where the amount he needed to post before appeal was just reduced). The whole case is because the nasty guy lied. He did so frequently in his business deals.
Conservative media pundits have been saying this is a victimless crime. The banks were repaid, so no harm done.
But the bank was paid less than they would have if the nasty guy was honest. And the money loaned to him wasn’t loaned to someone more honest. And the “everybody does it and no one is caught” excuse isn’t allowed – by many of the same people who excuse the nasty guy – for those who commit fraud in the SNAP food program.
The nasty guy lying on business forms isn’t any more victimless than Justice Clarence Thomas receiving “gifts” from billionaires. Though in the case of Thomas the victim is usually democracy.
In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who discussed the success of Obamacare (coming up to 10 years of full implementation) and a renewed effort by Republicans to kill it.
So the reality of Obamacare’s success won’t deter Republicans who want to destroy it. If anything, the law’s success only increases their determination to kill it, because it shows that, contrary to their ideology, government actually can make Americans’ lives better.
Down in the comments is a cartoon by Randy Bish showing two guys pausing for coffee. One says to the other, “It amazes me how any person with over 90 felony counts against them can keep a straight face while telling people that they are the victim.”
Dave Whamond posted a cartoon. A mother says, “My child was killed in a mass shooting!” The nasty guy responds, “Get over it!” Then the nasty guy says, “I’m a victim! I’ve been unjustly persecuted! Nobody has been mistreated as badly as me!” The mother replies, “Get over it!”
Earlier this month Clay Jones posted a cartoon on Kos. It shows Justice John Roberts talking to the rest of his Supreme Court colleagues after they ruled that states cannot bar a candidate from the ballot because he committed insurrection and while they are considering whether the nasty guy has immunity from prosecution. The cartoon has Roberts saying, “Voters should be able to choose an insurrectionist while not knowing if he’s a convicted felon.”
From mid month a cartoon by Mike Luckovich shows Putin saying, “I grabbed him by the presidency. When you’re a dictator, he lets you do it...”
To decide what to write about today I went through old browser tabs. In many of them I decided nah, I don’t want to write about that. Here’s one I found from mid February and thought it worth writing about. It is by SemDem of the Kos community. This writer was annoyed with relatives supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president. Reports from today say he has chosen his vice president (I really don’t care who) because some states say the VP must be named before he can get on the ballot.
The relatives support RFK Jr., though he is caught up in vaccine conspiracies, because he talked about housing affordability and the nasty guy and Biden have said little to none.
Kennedy mentioned a big reason why young people have troubles buying houses. Giant corporations are buying up houses and turning them into rentals. They can, when they want to, outbid anyone else trying for the same house. By 2030 corporations may control 40% of single-family rental homes. SemDem wrote, “It truly does appear that the billionaire class really wants to claim the last remaining area the middle class has left to build wealth.”
Kennedy has been gaining support because he is campaigning through social media and at college campuses. And by focusing on houses he has a topic of high interest to younger voters.
Yes, Biden has mentioned housing and has a plan. But much of what he wants to do is dependent on a Congress vying for how little they can accomplish.
SemDem mentions some of Biden’s efforts and efforts of other people. Loosen zoning laws so neighborhoods don’t have to be filled with single family houses to allow more people to fit on available land. Convert office space (a big surplus of that now) to apartments.
When Sister visited at Christmas I shared a bit of background on Elon Musk, which explained a lot of things to Sister. What I said was that Musk was raised in South Africa and was quite upset that whites lost their top spot in society and could no longer enforce rules on the black population.
Nancy Groutsis of the Kos community read the biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson and pulled out a few things. She said Musk was born and completely immersed in South Africa’s white racist culture until he moved to Canada in 1989. Then she explained what Apartheid culture was like.
On NPR Jason DeRose talked about religious churn, people switching faith traditions or leaving religion. Surveys show that about a quarter of Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated. High in departures is the Catholic Church with fewer Protestants leaving. The fewest departures are by black Protestants and Jews.
Of those who left nearly half said it was because of negative teaching and treatment of LGBTQ people.
"Religion's negative teaching about LGBTQ people are driving younger Americans to leave church," [Public Religion Research Institute chief executive Melissa] Deckman says. "We found that about 60% of Americans who are under the age of 30 who have left religion say they left because of their religious traditions teaching, which is a much higher rate than for older Americans."
...
About one-third of religiously unaffiliated Americans say they no longer identify with their childhood religion because the religion was bad for their mental health. That response was strongest among LGBTQ respondents.
Other reasons for departures: clergy sex abuse and over-involvement in politics.
I’m getting close to finishing my taxes. My printer will be cranking out a stack of forms and I hope to have them in the mail by early next week. I’ve been checking the little box that directs $3 to the presidential election campaign fund. This pays candidates so they don’t have to raise so much corporate cash and be as beholden to corporate interests.
Just Saying of the Kos community wrote this year one of those candidates is the nasty guy and this federal money given to his campaign will be used to pay his legal bills. So this is a year not to check that box (and to verify your tax software or preparer didn’t check it for you). Perhaps send a donation directly to Biden instead.
I watched the Young Royals conclusion. This is the story of Wilhelm, Prince of Sweden, falling in love with Simon while at a boarding school. This episode was the longest, almost an hour, so the whole series, 18 episodes, was about 14 hours of story.
Through this third season I thought about how this might end. Simon could be designated prince consort and become part of the royal family. Simon could decide he could never fit in with the royal family and say goodbye to Wilhelm. Or Wilhelm could give up royalty and go with Simon.
At the end of episode 5, after Wilhelm blows up with his parents, Simon said he couldn’t take it anymore and wanted out. So the middle option seemed likely. In this episode Simon clarified he couldn’t take the royalty anymore.
Back when season 1 was released (and long before I saw it and long before season 2 was considered), Edvin Ryding, the actor playing Wilhelm, was on NPR. Part of what he said is if a gay prince takes the throne there will be no heirs. They dynasty ends. Either the monarchy also ends or the next monarch comes from another line of the family.
Beyond that I’m not going to say how the story ends.
There are a couple more things to mention. How old must one be to drink alcohol in Sweden? The last episode showed that Wilhelm just turned 17. Yet at a party in this episode (as was the case in other episodes) there was a great deal of drinking by the students, with permission from the adults.
One side story was the friendship between Simon’s sister Sara and Felice. I began to wonder if this was going to develop into lesbian love. Then Sara became girlfriend to August. Then she betrayed August because he betrayed Wilhelm. So Sara is available again.
At the party in this episode one of August’s classmates admits to the guys he’s gay. The guys offer to help him lose his virginity.
I enjoyed this series and recommend it. It’s a good story. And it is a good queer positive show. We need as many of those as we can get.
I see Netflix also has a feature Young Royals Forever, which appears to be a behind the scenes documentary. I’ll save it for the weekend.
Hunter of Daily Kos reported that the nasty guy’s Truth Social knockoff of X (formerly Twitter) went public yesterday. It’s a complicated corporate scheme that got it onto a stock market quickly. Once there the nasty guy’s base gobbled up the stocks and the price soared.
This is a company that has never made a profit – it lost more than $45 million in the first 9 months of 2023. There is no reason to think profits would be coming. Yet, the company’s value – share price times number of shares – climbed above $5.7 billion (The next article said it reached $7 billion). Since the nasty guy owns 60% of the shares his net worth just jumped $4 billion and put him in the world’s 500 richest people.
Institutions, which usually handle and benefit from initial public offerings, appear to be avoiding this one. Also no sign of Saudi royalty or Russian oligarchs. Which means this is driven by the base.
The nasty guy isn’t allowed to sell his portion for six months – unless he gets permission from the company’s board. I hear his sons are on that board. He’s got expensive legal bills and about $175 million due soon. So it would not at all surprising he dumps a bunch of his shares, which crashes the price of the stock. Which means he could suck a few billion out of the wallets of his supporters.
Liz Dye of Public Notice wrote: “As with everything Trump does, this entire thing appears to be a series of nested grifts.”
That grift isn’t your style? Try this one. Hunter also reported the nasty guy is promoting the sale of a Bible. Considering how unchristian he acts that right there is a laugh. But this is not just any Bible.
Does your Bible include a “Handwritten chorus to ‘God Bless The USA’ by Lee Greenwood”? Does your Bible also fill out a few more pages by providing full copies of the notably public domain U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence?
No? It doesn't? Well, then, you're probably going straight to hell, because Jesus isn't going to put up with you carrying around a Bible that doesn't have those things.
This is put out by GodBlessTheUSABible.com. And appears to be independent of the nasty guy’s corporations. The only connection is he is being paid (I’m sure well) to promote it. Hunter wrote:
In theory, Trump is running for president. You'd be hard-pressed to find him on the campaign trail, mind you, and on days when he doesn't have to be in a courtroom, he appears to be devoting himself to golf championships and picking the pettiest possible fights.
His aides can't rouse him into leaving his home to campaign on more than a sporadic basis, but for an unknown licensing fee, he'll dust himself off, set up a couple of American flags behind him and hold up whatever book you want.
I don't know what kind of person thinks to themselves, “You know, I really need a Bible, but I don't like how focused most of them are on Jesus. Is there a version that waters that down a bit with random, unrelated patriotic schlock?”