Hurricane Joaquin is now a Cat 3, track still uncertain. Here’s a spaghetti model from CNN:
This seems like a good time to share favorite weather apps and sites. Yesterday, valued commenter Lee shared a link to the Plymouth State Weather Center site. Of course, the National Hurricane Center site is indispensable for storm watchers — as fine an example of our tax dollars put to good use as you’ll find on the web.
I’m also partial to the Central Florida Hurricane Center site, which not only has maps and data but links to meteorology blogs, where disagreements over forecast models can get every bit as ugly as a firebagger-on-freeper flame-war.
For mobile radar, I can’t praise MyRadar highly enough. It’s available for free in both iOS and Android flavors, and you can choose the layers you want to display. Here’s my iPhone screen with wind direction, clouds and radar:
I picked a great time to drive from Florida to the Carolinas! What are your favorite weather apps and sites? Open thread!
PS: If you missed Cole’s Vegas essay from late last night, do yourself a favor and read it now. It’s so good I’m reluctant to post over it. But time marches on.
tybee
for tropical weather: http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/?MR=1
Mustang Bobby
Safe travels; you’re heading right into it.
My favorite weather site is Weather Underground, which has a certain resonance for an aging hippie like me (or that I aspired to be all those years ago). It’s pretty no-nonsense compared to The Weather Channel’s carnival-like atmosphere of weather combined with sideshows and ads.
Morzer
i am guessing that emoprog p0rn is likely to be the next big thing in social media. Cats have had their day, man!
EconWatcher
For those interested in the Syria crisis, Josh Marshall over at TPM wrote the best analysis I’ve seen recently:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/remaining-sane-in-difficult-times
Which leads me to mention a disappointment I have with Marshall: when he spends the time and puts his mind to it, he can be a really top-notch analyst, even a “big thinker.” And he did a lot of that back when he was a starving blogger and journo.
He wrote in my opinion the single best piece about the lead up to the Iraq War, which 12 years later is if anything even more relevant and timely than when it was written. For those who missed it way back then, the subtitle gives you a hint of its prescience. (” Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks’ nightmare scenario–it’s their plan”) http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0304.marshall.html
But he decided to monetize the reputation he built by creating this TPM “media empire,” which in my opinion is mostly junk. Much of the writing is amateurish. Except when Marshall himself takes some time on something that really caught his interest, the opinions offered are rarely original or interesting. Obviously, as a media mogul now, he doesn’t get to dig in too often.
But Marshall was probably just scraping by doing what he did before, and he has a family to feed, so who am I to judge? I just think he was on a trajectory to become a major public intellectual who could have helped shape things in a positive way. He could have been a contender. It’s a shame.
Zinsky
Be safe, Betty. Pull over if the rain and wind get too heavy and never try to drive through water that looks too deep – it probably is!
Morzer
@EconWatcher:
You are Frankenpope and I claim my five pounds!
I think you are a bit harsh on Josh Marshall. He’s trying to build up a credible news source that isn’t tainted by rightwing crazy news and both sides do-it-ism – and doing it with relatively little money. Yes, it does look amateurish at times, but it’s not a small challenge and he does it fairly well. He probably doesn’t have that much time to do his own writing, since he has to run the ship, approve stories, make payroll etc etc.
Betty Cracker
@EconWatcher: Thanks for the link to that essay by Marshall; I had missed it. This excerpt:
Absolutely true. All props to the Obama administration for its wise reluctance to rush into conflicts like its foolish predecessor. But the administration does seem to share the Bushies’ magic beans theories of democracy, at least to some extent.
Morzer
Anyone who thinks Mental Ben isn’t a kook of the highest caliber should read this piece by David Corn:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/ben-carson-conspiracy-theory-cleon-skousen
OzarkHillbilly
Good old National Weather Service for me. First thing I check every day and always 90-100% accurate. Everybody else takes the data that NWS gathers and shares, and than puts their own spin on it, and just like O’Reilly call it the ‘no spin zone’. The NWS has the Climate Prediction Center which I also check on semi regular basis to see how bad the summer/winter is going to be, and has the US Drought Monitor.
In fact, screw it, I’m a NOAA junkie. There are several agencies under it that give a wealth of useful information. Another example of gov’t at it’s finest that the GOP can not stand the existence of.
EconWatcher
@Betty Cracker:
Both Saddam and Assad were Baathists. Baathists are nasty dictators. But haven’t we learned–at least by now for Christ’s sake–that there are lot worse things in the Middle East than Baathists? Like– a lot worse?
If we could do it all over again, wouldn’t we rather have Saddam and Assad in place, subject to tough containment policies, rather than what we have now?
Which brings me to another point, at the risk of provoking a flame war. I’m one of the consistent Hillary skeptics on this blog. People don’t like to hear it. Some people question my motives. (Yes, I’m a middle aged white male.)
But the lead up to the Iraq War was so surreal and enraging, I will never forget it. Any person with any sense knew we were headed for a total disaster; you didn’t have to be freaking Nostradamus. I thought at the time that Marshall completely nailed it in the “Practice to Deceive” article I linked above (which actually became available around February 2003, even though it’s marked April.)
Don’t try to tell me people only learned the truth later. If you think that, you weren’t an adult paying attention at the time, or you’ve chosen to forget. Brent freaking Scowcroft of all people called the whole thing out in an NYT editorial before the war started, probably with Papa Bush’s blessing.
And I will never forget who had the guts to be on the right side then, when it really mattered. I will never forgive John Kerry, and I will never forgive Hillary. I voted for him with a clothespin on my nose, and I will do the same with her, because I’m given no chocice. But both of them damn well knew better. They just decided to play it safe. Neither of them is a real leader. Not in my book.
And there was a special significance in using the Clinton name on that vote. How much extra pressure do you think that put on the two dozen Senators who had the guts to do the right thing? How many more opposition votes might have been lined up? Probably not enough to stop it, but sure as hell more.
So no, guys. Sexism is not the only reason why some people on our side are unenthusiastic about Hillary, and don’t trust her. Rant over.
Matt McIrvin
This storm has been frustrating the best efforts of predictors. Yesterday it looked like the landfall probability was starting to concentrate on NC and Virginia, but the models are diverging again as it keeps pounding the Bahamas, and a bunch of the ensemble runs still show it heading up to Massachusetts or out to sea.
OzarkHillbilly
@Morzer: Yep, growing pains is the way I like to think of it. Time will tell.
Matt McIrvin
For hurricanes, Weather Underground is cool because it has Jeff Masters’ blog and more detail on the various computer models used to make predictions. There’s actually some stuff there you can’t get on the NWS site.
But NWS has a valuable thing WU doesn’t, namely these wind-speed-probability maps:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/093717.shtml?hwind120#contents
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/093717.shtml?50wind120#contents
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/093717.shtml?tswind120#contents
When you’re asking “will the hurricane hit me?” this is what you actually want to know: not the probability distribution of the track of the eye, but the probability that you’ll get damaging high winds wherever you actually are.
kindness
For storms I use the doppler radar site from NOAA. I usually click it over to loop.
C.V. Danes
My favorite weather app is whichever one shows Joaquin on track for NYC. Wallstreet needs an enema.
Morzer
@C.V. Danes:
And do you think the rather numerous non-Wall Streeter population in NYC deserves the same?
C.V. Danes
@EconWatcher: If we could do it all over again, we should probably have never carved up the middle east to begin with.
And with Hilary, I think the question you have to ask yourself is what she would have done differently if she had won the election in 2008 instead of Obama. Where would we be now if that had happened?
C.V. Danes
@Morzer: I don’t think anyone deserves it, but if it’s gonna hit might as well get a bonus.
NotMax
@Tropical Tidbits
@Hawaii Weather Today
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m about to board a flight to Philadelphia. Fortunately, I don’t need to leave the airport there because I’m transferring to a flight to State College. Tonight marks the opening of the Gophers’ third national title defense in four years. They should beat Penn State handily.
It’s also my first trip to see my sister, who is on the faculty at PSU.
OzarkHillbilly
Now, on to the really important news:
CARDINALS WIN THE DIVISION OF DEATH!!!!
Already sure of a postseason berth for the fifth consecutive year, the Cardinals advance to the division series, where they will host one of the two teams that have been chasing them all season, the Pirates or the Cubs. The NL Central features the three best records in the National League, all of them with at least 90 wins. As general manager John Mozeliak said, that his team “had to get to 100 wins before you can even celebrate says a lot.” The Pirates and Cubs will meet Wednesday in the National League wild-card game to determine who travels to St. Louis. The Cardinals went 21-17 against the two division rivals.
The Cardinals’ win total is more amazing considering how much they lost during the season. Four members of the opening day lineup went on the disabled list, and five of them missed a combined 387 games because of injury. The Cardinals played most of the season without some of their best players and still earned the best record in baseball while playing in its best division.
I know everybody hates the Cards, and for good reasons ya bunch of losers, but in a season that started with the loss of Adam Wainwright (a Cy Young contender every year), and midway thru they lost #3 hitter Matt Holliday (and Jon Jay, and Matt Adams and Jaime Garcia and Randal Grichuk) until just recently getting him back, and ending with the loss of Carlos Martinez and Yadier Molina, winner of the last 7 Gold Gloves (not to mention Steven Piscotty getting clocked just recently) it is kind of amazing that they managed to pull off this feat.
And being the “best team in baseball” all fricking year (despite everything they had to deal with**) is absolutely no guarantee they will get even a whiff of the World Series. In the Division Series they will once again be facing either the “2nd best team in baseball” or the “3rd best team in baseball” (Pirates, Cubs) and still dealing with injuries to key players. I think the Pirates are far more dangerous but the Wild Card Joke/Game is a crapshoot.
** if Matheny does not win manager of the year again… shakes head… the man is the Rodney Dangerfield of ML Baseball.
Kay
@EconWatcher:
She’s got to do more to engage young people. They have low turnout as it is and they’re labor-intensive to organize and this is anecdotal but so many of them seem to be supporting Sanders that I’m wondering why she isn’t attracting more of them. It isn’t age, obviously, because it’s Bernie Sanders. I wonder if the finance sector implosion and resulting looong, sloooow recovery pushed them more towards economic populism. If you came to adulthood during this period this is the only economy you know, and the youngest would have seen the effects on their parents and (family of origin) households- they lived the crash as kids.
Betty Cracker
@EconWatcher:
Has anyone on this blog ever suggested that sexism is the only reason people don’t like Hillary? There are plenty of reasons to question her judgment, the Iraq War vote being one of them. But sexism clearly plays a role in anti-Hillary sentiment from some quarters and is sickeningly on display in the media every fucking day, so you’ll have to excuse us ladyfolks if some of us are sensitive to it.
BD of MN
If you are north enough to perhaps see the Aurora Borealis, then this site is indispensable…. http://spaceweatherlive.com/
Baud
@Kay:
For the young, I think it’s more about being antiestablishment and rebellious than particular policy views. I don’t think she can compete with Bernie on that level.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I think economic populism is definitely part of it, and also Sanders’ emphasis on how plutocrats control the levers of power. That resonates with me, and probably more so for a generation that came of age when institutions were failing all around them due to sheer incompetence.
It seems like HRC was taking a more populist tone a couple of months ago than she is now. It’s early yet, but I had the impression when she launched that she understood how important that message would be this cycle. Now I’m less sure of that.
EconWatcher
@Betty Cracker:
You are right, and I agree with you. If I’ve brushed past that, I apologize.
But I’ve been called both a “purity troll” and a sexist for bashing Hillary. There are people on this blog who don’t just support her; they are really starry eyed about her.
I just don’t get that at all. To me, she’s shown herself to be a cynical pol who can’t be trusted when the chips are down. When the Clintons are under pressure, they don’t get tough. They triangulate.
She is very likely our next President, and I expect to have plenty of future opportunities to point this out about her. Let’s just hope it involves less of a disaster than the invasion of Iraq.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t get that sense, really. Talking to them, they focus a lot on “honesty”- how Sanders is telling the truth. There’s a hardness to it, a practicality, that doesn’t make me think of “idealism” or “protest”. I actually think that’s a problem for him in a general election because it can be grim. I was joking with a group of them here that it sounds like a lot of work, not just electing Sanders but then getting anything done, and they admit that. If they’re “protest voters” they’re sort of hard-headed, realistic protest voters :)
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: The thing that gets me is even when they have a point against Hillary, some just can’t keep from dipping into the sexist attack bag of tricks.
Baud
@Kay:
You talk to them more than I do. The test will be when Sanders actually faces pushback and headwinds, which he really hasn’t yet.
We’ll also see how committed they are to his ideas if Sanders loses the nomination. Do they continue to build on his work or move on?
Morzer
@Betty Cracker:
I do get a bit tired of the supposed liberals who are so desperately anti-Hillary that they start recycling the same old Whitewater nonsense from back in the day. I’m not pointing the finger at anyone here, but it is something that happens far more than it should.
I am not much of a fan of Bill Clinton, who seems to me to have been lucky rather than good as a president, but Hillary’s taken consistent and vitriolic abuse for almost a quarter century now – and she’s still standing, so there’s got to be some grit there.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Happen to see the piece about the absolute, unmitigated disaster that is the new Berlin airport? A case study in ineptitude.
@More bad news for Germany: Berlin’s overdue airport could collapse
MattF
Here in the DC area, the Capital Weather Gang (at the WaPo) is excellent– local weather plus a lot of more general wonky meteorological information from the Gang and guest experts.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think she can go as far as him on “controlling the levers of power” because (and I know you get this from what you’ve written) he has a two part message- “this is what people want and this is why they don’t get it”. The second part is as important as the first- it’s WHY they control the levers of power- because they buy influence. That’s the whole frustration in liberalism, right? Why we can’t “have nice things”? Trump took it in a different direction (Trump’s version is easier- of course). He says the problem is not buying influence but that we don’t get “good deals” which is much more attractive to conservatives because it means the status quo is okay, they just need to replace the power players with better, more savvy players on the government side. Plus they don’t have to do anything – Trump will do it all for them. Sanders says “why are they the players? Why aren’t all of you?”
Morzer
@NotMax:
I guess that’s their karma for bombing Pearl Harbor.
Baud
@Morzer:
I’m more emotionally attached to Hillary simply because she has been attacked the way Democrats are attacked. In the end, however, it doesn’t affect my primary vote because that fate will befall whoever the nominee is.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I have a friend who is a dedicated Dem (retired high-ranking Congressional staffer, in fact), but she simply dislikes Hillary. We’ve never really thrashed out the reasons, probably because I make a face any time the subject comes up.
Morzer
@Baud:
I guess my sympathy goes to Hillary because at the end of the day everything about her – appearance, alleged sexuality, financial dealings, marriage, child, choice of name etc etc – has been raked over with the most consistently, viciously unfair relish by the GOP and their media jackals FOR A WHOLE DAMN QUARTER CENTURY. She’s taken all that and is still fighting, which deserves respect in my book. I don’t think she’s a good politician at the level of tactics, but I think she would make a pretty hard-working and honest president. America could do much, much worse.
Kay
@Baud:
You know how that goes, though. It isn’t entirely up to them. Sanders will or will not endorse Clinton and Clinton will or will not make a huge effort to bring them in. Obama made a huge effort to bring Clinton supporters in (and she of course was instrumental in that). Obama set up actual conference calls between Obama delegates and Clinton delegates in Ohio.
I had something funny happen yesterday. I got a book delivered to the law office- it’s David Brock, who as you may know is running some pro-Hillary effort. It must be his new book. Anyway, I was freaked out because I thought “am I now ordering books and not recalling doing that AT ALL?” but it had a gift message and it was from some pro-Hillary group run by a Kennedy. They’re hoping I will read this book and then influence people. I was impressed because that’s pretty specific- that they’re targeting individuals at the county level. There’s only 8000 D votes in my county in a Prez race. We’re not exactly the key to a Democratic victory.
Betty Cracker
@Morzer: Yeah, that’s about where I am. HRC isn’t my ideal candidate, but I don’t think there’s much difference between her and PBO policy-wise, and PBO has been a good president.
I supported him over her in 2008 mostly because he was right about Iraq. But I think it’s possible she’s grown as a politician (and a human being) since her senate days. I think she’d be a better president than her husband was. And damn it, it’s high time we had a female president! That’s not everything, but it’s not nothing either.
Morzer
@Kay:
You are the Kay to a Democratic victory, which is a much greater thing.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
And hopeful successors. John Kasich last night in Iowa proclaimed he’d throw everything at ISIS, including “boots on the ground.” Aside from rolling my eyes at his fake macho, I was cheered to know he’d just lost the moderates who may have been considering his potential as a candidate.
David Koch
@Betty Cracker:
When has he done that?
If anything he’s been the opposite. The chief criticism of normalizing relations with Cuba after 54 years is it’s lack of democracy. To which he said, I don’t care. Same thing happened when he normalized relations with Myanmar. In the middle of 2009, when every blogger was turning their site green, he was heavily criticized for not denouncing Iran over the stolen election and crackdown. In 2013 he again was heavily criticized by the usual suspects for not intervening when Egypt overthrew it’s democratic government. In 2014 he was criticized heavily by both the left and right for not intervening in Ukraine (the left wanted him to prop up Yanukovych, the right wanted him to send the 82nd airborne to defend Poroshenko).
Baud
@Kay:
I’m not just talking about this election, although that’s critical. I’m talking about actually building a movement that pushes policies and runs candidates at all levels and wins elections and gets experience at governing. I’m a bit cynical because there’s been nothing but a lot of talk and excuses for as long as I can remember.
With respect to the Brock book, congratulations in being an official influencer!
Morzer
@Betty Cracker:
I think pretty much all presidents share, or feel obliged to say they share, that optimistic view of democracy. I can’t see any gains for a president or candidate who announces that democracy might not always be a good idea. Nuance tends not to play well in our happy age of a microphone in every jackass’s bedroom.
Morzer
@Baud:
In later years we shall be able to tell our children that we knew Notorious Kay when she became a Thought Leader. Our mortal eyes saw the chrysalis fall away and the patterned glory of her wings unfold.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Given where the Republicans are with respect to issues affecting women, it’s not nothing at all.
OzarkHillbilly
@MattF: I don’t like her either, and I do like Bernie, but I don’t base my voting on who I want to sit and have beer with. I base it on who I think can kick the GOPs collective asses (not just in the election, but after they get in the WH). At this point, I don’t see Bernie being able to.
Kay
@Morzer:
You can count me in the group that becomes more likely to support her the more they attack her. The NYT coverage is ridiculous. It’s biased, and that’s not fair. I also DO think some of the attacks have to do with “scheming females and how they’re always plotting and can’t be trusted”. It bugs me, because the fact is tactical or strategic moves are either valued or laughed off in male politicians. There’s something moralizing about the tone with her that is amusing coming from people who insist Newt Fucking Gingrich is some “serious statesman” when he’s a crook and always has been.
Cervantes
@Morzer:
But the issue isn’t so much how good democracy is — it’s more a question of how to encourage it, and whether anyone other than the demos in question can guarantee it.
Traditionally, US foreign policy uses the rhetoric of democracy as a means of gaining access to resources and markets — but this is a separate matter altogether, purely economic and financial, really nothing to do with democracy in any meaningful sense.
OzarkHillbilly
@David Koch: You forgot Libya, which is not to negate your other points, but just to say he did screw that pooch.
Morzer
@Cervantes:
Yes, that was my point.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mustang Bobby: Wunderground used to be my go-to weather site (on the desktop), but they have so much stuff in their HTML that it’s scary. E.g. “uBlock Origin” just blocked 25 things for the main page for Alexandria, VA. (It only blocks 14 on the NY Times front page.)
The Weather Channel buying them a few years ago didn’t give me good feelings either.
I use Weather.gov for most things now.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who isn’t sure what he uses on his phone – he doesn’t check the weather there much.)
beltane
@Kay: I’m around young people all the time. Yes, I live in Vermont, but the recent high school graduates I know are ferociously pro-Bernie in a way they weren’t for Howard Dean, the young women just as much as the young men. All these kids know is debt and budget cuts. Their entire childhood was spent watching program after program in their schools being cut. These are working to lower middle class kids who have worked since they were 16 and who are well aware they will be trapped in a bottomless pit of student loan debt, just to attend a public university until they are at least in their forties. To put it mildly, they are very, very cynical about the way our economic system works and for whom it is designed to work. We share NH’s media market so we see all the ads. Hillary’s are not very impressive and seem to be stuck in some kind of 1990s timewarp.
On a bright note, these young people really detest Republicans so there’s no risk of them voting for one of the clown car candidates.
Morzer
@OzarkHillbilly:
I suspect anyone dealing with Libya is going to be in a involuntary-canine-copulation situation. Obama at least didn’t invest too much in the way of cash or lives, which is about as good as it was going to get.
Cervantes
@Kay:
I’m with you all the way — except for the first line:
I’ll support her if and when the time comes, in order to keep the Republicans out; even if the Times suddenly pulls up its socks and starts doing the job I want it to do.
Betty Cracker
@David Koch: Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. The Obama administration has handled foreign policy far more competently than the criminally stupid Bushies, but the US under Obama helped engineer the ginormous clusterfuck that is Libya, we’re in Lalaland over Syria as the column by Josh Marshall Econ linked above points out, and there is no fucking reason on God’s green earth we should still be in Afghanistan in 2015.
Cervantes
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Same here, along with other government sites.
Cervantes
@Morzer:
Glad I saw it, then!
Morzer
@Betty Cracker:
The problem with Libya and Afghanistan is that, to the extent they are nations, they are nations constructed out of sand and a mouthful of spit. There’s no way to achieve anything for the long-term there by intervening, unless you are prepared to invest about a century, an immensely expensive military presence and an immense infrastructure and constitutional reconstruction program. Given that we can’t manage to find the money to repair our own infrastructure, never mind upgrading it, I somehow doubt that we can do better halfway across the world. As for Syria, heaven only knows whether Syria is still anything like a nation or will ever be one again.
David Koch
@David Koch: I should also add he’s been heavily criticized for pulling all the troops out of Iraq, like he promised, and not keeping 30,000 to prop up “democracy” in Iraq. Likewise the New York Times has constantly hammered him for not spreading freedom beans in Syria.
Once again, the skinny guy with the funny name was right.
Rob
@OzarkHillbilly #46:
I hadn’t thought about that angle. And I agree with that line of thought. So, yeah, Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
As for weather, I do most of my “weathering” on desktop and iPad so weather.gov with its point and click capability is my go-to site. For current regional temperatures that aren’t just at major airports, I go to wunderground.com, and enter the zip or town name in the Find Your Hyper Local Weather box.
eta: When I’m driving around the DC area I use the old-fashioned radio (WTOP and WNEW) as required for the latest on rain and temperature. There is some good information in between all the commercials and superficial headlines.
beltane
@Betty Cracker: The Obama administration is still too wedded to following the traditional role of the United States in dealing with the Middle East. It’s a method of business that has produced ever more negative outcomes with the passing of the decades, and which has now transformed much of the region into a reasonable facsimile of hell on earth.
Baud
@Cervantes:
I’ll also support her if and when the time comes, in order to get her in.
OzarkHillbilly
@Morzer: I definitely agree with you on the letting others take the lead (why not?) but in for a penny, in for a pound. We did not have to get involved. I really feel that the far bigger FP screw up of his was the ‘surge’ (I hate that word now) in Afghanistan. There was no way we were ever going to make the necessary investment in that country that would guarantee success, and that piddling joke was just pissing on a forest fire.
But during the campaign he made the mistake of calling Afghanistan the “right war” and felt he had to back up his rhetoric even after he (I hope) realized how hopeless it was.
Cervantes
@Baud:
You’re not planning to vote for yourself?
Humboldtblue
We in the far northern part of the state were very fortunate this summer. More than 188,000 acres of forestland burned in and around the region but it was primarily in remote areas and evacuations were due to poor air quality due to heavy smoke and not to homes and communities immediately affected by wildfire.
Only four structures were destroyed and while it was touch-and-go with the Mad River fire that scorched the hillsides around the popular Ruth Lake area and dumped ash into downtown Eureka, damage was limited to forestland.
It was far worse to the south of us, however, as Lake county and parts of Napa and Sonoma were scorched , and I mean scorched, by a fast-moving wildland fire that destroyed more than 1,500 homes and hundreds of outbuildings. Damage assessment teams have moved in and those numbers will most assuredly rise. The Valley fire also killed four residents including two elderly women caught in the initial fire storm and injured four firefighters. More than 16,000 people were forced to evacuate and many of them did so with whatever they could grab and with flames licking at their heels as they fled.
The disparity between the damage caused in Lake county and that led to the destruction of pretty little Middletown was the difference in climate, flora and drought effects. Up our way we have full reservoirs and enough water on hand to last four to five years without serious rationing. Anywhere south of us, however, and you see brown and tan everywhere because there just hasn’t been any rain.
Forest fires are a natural occurrence and have been used by native tribes as a way to manage forests for more than two thousand years, but our modern practices and the huge success of Smoky Bear has led to vastly overgrown forestlands that burn hotter and longer than they used to but those fires burn far from most settled areas.
In Lake county, however, you had the perfect conditions for a fast-moving wildfire. Four years of drought, tinder-dry 8-foot high chapparal and scrub oak and vast rolling hills that haven’t been green in three years. When that Lake fire got going and a little wind picked up there were no mountain to stop it, it ripped through the region creating its own wind and feeding its own flames.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better and unless we get rain in the central and southern parts of the state these fires are going to start burning down cities not pretty little rural towns. The fires in Southern California for this year are only now beginning.
David Koch
@Betty Cracker: Libya wasn’t about establishing democracy, it was about preventing another rwanda. Obama inherited Afghanistan. He has slowly withdrawn troops not to preserve democracy but to keep the taliban from taking over on his watch (which will happen the second troops leave). Even Sanders supports keeping troops in. On Syria, he has repeatedly rejected intervening against Assad. Fighting ISIL in Syria is a different matter, one that even Bernie Sanders has said is the right thing, which is about counter terrorism, not establishing wilsonian democracy. YMMV.
Morzer
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think Obama probably wanted out of Afghanistan, but saw the surge there as basically cost of business for getting out of Iraq and keeping the generals somewhat leashed. The least bad of the options, if you like.
Betty Cracker
@David Koch: He was right in 2013, which is the timeframe for the article you excerpted. In the intervening two years, the administration has shifted policy and trained and armed Syrian rebels. It’s better than what the Republicans would have done, and I’m glad the administration has taken a minimalist track WRT Syria, but it’s still a mistake, IMO. Help the refugees. Stay the fuck outta the civil war militarily.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
beltane
The NYT continues to cover itself in glory, this time with a RW circle jerk featuring Henry Kissenger and Niall Ferguson: http://crookedtimber.org/2015/10/01/clusterfuck-of-corruption-at-nyt-book-review/
Baud
@Cervantes:
We can’t vote twice?
And I said “if”.
Baud
@beltane:
LGM has a post on that also.
Morzer
@Baud:
Vote early, vote often!
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
In ’97 or ’98, a friend of a friend applied to be associate editor of The American Prospect — and so did Josh Marshall. The latter got the job and, in doing so, turned his back on academia. Whereas the friend of a friend stayed in academia and is now the public intellectual you feel Josh could have become. To all appearances they’re now both successfully feeding their families — but I agree with you: Josh did what he could; and he could have done worse.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Too many Americans feel the opposite.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: In truth Betty, I think Syria is a situation that he has managed about as well as can be expected. Yes, mistakes have been made but all of them were fairly minor because our involvement has been fairly minor. Some problems the US can not solve, can only make worse so tinkering around the edges in hopes of containing a situation is the best approach. I feel like he has tried to do that, and the successes and failures are a direct result of that approach.
It’s good enuf for me.
ps: I should note that unlike so many others, I do not think ISIL is any kind of a real threat to the world. A problem? Yes. But not the “Greatest Threat to Our Great Nation ™ since the Nazis” that the GOP is pissing themselves over.
beltane
@Baud: I would like to read DougJ.’s review of the Kissenger hagiography, That would be worthwhile.
Morzer
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, we only have 10 aircraft carriers as opposed to the glory of the ISIL fleet and its slavering jihadi hordes.
Right to Rise
Another Walker donor is about to choose Jeb over Rubio.
More ad buys to move the numbers.
BRINKS. TRUCKS.
rikyrah
@EconWatcher:
tell it
have said it. will continue to say it.
I don’t trust Hillary when it comes to foreign policy.
I haven’t always agreed with what President Obama has done with regards to foreign policy.
But, there is not one instance..
NOT ONE
is his entire Presidency where I have said..
” Hillary would have done it better.”
Not. one.
Cervantes
@Right to Rise:
It’s almost as if you were talking about selling soap, or high-fructose corn syrup, or adult diapers.
Morzer
@Right to Rise:
Finally Jeb Van Winkle will hit 8%! Or, as we call it in our leftist coastal enclaves 0.3 Trump Units.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
My concern with Assad becoming absolute ruler again in Syria is how many heads will he chop when the opposition lays down its arms.
If Assad had been willing to share power there never would have been a civil war.
And what political price will the current refugees face because they fled and did not stay and fight for Assad.
At this point I think de-escalation would be best, but that is not the direction the world powers are going.
Maybe a heavy handed mid-1990’s Yugoslavian type intervention is needed, where in through the UN a LARGE peace keeping force is sent in, cracks heads and probably figures out how to redraw the Middle East borders, in the same way the borders in the Balkans were redrawn 20 years ago.
rikyrah
@EconWatcher:
Good Lord. I wish I could bronze this.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Even so, aren’t you going to vote twice for yourself?
beltane
@rikyrah: Yep. For me, your sentiments extend far beyond foreign policy.
OzarkHillbilly
@David Koch:
Well, that’s the story we’ve been fed and I am sure there is some truth to that, but when you remove the leader of a country, you have to have a plan for what follows. They didn’t. (and by ‘they’ I mean all who were involved)
rikyrah
For those in the path of the Hurricane…please stay safe and heed all weather warnings.
ThresherK (GPad)
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Whoohoo for the government! This is my go-to also.
PS Has anyone made the obligatory joke asking if the spaghetti map of Joaquin was of the unskewed models?
Right to Rise
@Cervantes:
And you sound like Adlai Stevenson when he whined that TV would mean presidents could be marketed like “breakfast cereal”.
My response : damn skippy!
“Early to bed, early to rise, market like hell and advertise.”
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly:
I agree that’s a better approach than going in whole hog in the way warmongering idiots like McCain recommend. But IMO, tinkering around the edges militarily isn’t preferable to limiting involvement to diplomacy and refugee assistance only.
beltane
I had a dark thought about hurricane Joaquin hitting Washington when Congress was in session (a Mexican speaking hurricane no less), but then I thought better.
David Koch
@beltane:
What hasn’t he done that he should have done?
Now, people will say, bring all the troops home from Afghanistan immediately. But not even Sanders supports that.
Now, people will say, don’t get involved with ISIL, it’s their problem, not ours. But not even Sanders supports that.
Libya is debatable. But even Sanders called for Qaddafi removal, saying he just didn’t want the US involved in his removal. Well, fine, I want to eat ice cream without gaining weight.
So what reasonable position should have taken that not even the outward left pole of debate supports?
Cervantes
@Right to Rise:
If only.
Morzer
@Right to Rise:
I tried to warn Skippy that his gay kangaroo marriage was going to draw some extremist reactions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Morzer: Heh. A veteran buddy of mine was going on about ISIL and “Why aren’t we doing more?” etc. I told him, “Call me when they get a boat.”
Morzer
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wonder when Incapacity to Rise is going to demand that we build a wall around the entire seacoast to ward off the ISIL kayak-borne hordes.
beltane
@David Koch: I’m not contrasting Obama to Sanders or anyone else. I was an Obot from the beginning and yet the President has still managed to exceed my high expectations regarding foreign policy. This does not mean that the transition to a post-Imperial US foreign policy has been seamless. Perhaps Libya did not end up as another Rwanda (the dynamic in the two countries were always vastly different), but an enormous toll on human life was still the end result. We in America are not on the front lines of the refugee crisis so it’s easy enough for us to minimize the impact it is having.
Pointing out the rare missteps of the Obama administration is not the same thing as saying “OMG, Obama sucks! We should have elected Sarah Palin.”
Betty Cracker
@David Koch: Here’s what I think PBO should have done differently: 1) declare victory after SEAL Team 6 offed bin Laden and GTFO of Afghanistan; 2) let the Libyans sort their own shit; 3) let the Syrians sort their own shit; 4) let the Iraqis sort their own shit; 5) pursuant to items 1-4, invest in diplomatic efforts and refugee assistance instead of further military clusterfucks. I don’t give a good goddamn what Sanders would have done and don’t see how that’s relevant to this discussion. ETA: Also, what Beltane said.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
Most of those borders were not redrawn. Yugoslavia was a FU conglomeration of former nations that were held together by Tito (and rather admirably so at that) post WWII. They just went their separate ways, the sadness was that they had to do it violently.
The Middle East is a whole different kettle of fish.
rikyrah
Found at TOD:
rikyrah
the music should be good
Don Cornelius’ ‘Soul Train’ Story Is Heading to Broadway as a Musical. ‘CSI’ Creator Will Write
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
September 29, 2015 at 2:32PM
Long in the works, in 2012, it was announced that there was renewed interest in exploiting the “Soul Train” franchise – likely thanks in some part, at the time, to Don Cornelius’ death (February 1, 2012).
The news then was that Soul Train Holdings was working with WME to find ways to exploit and grow the brand, which would include a film, a stage musical AND a TV show.
“Certainly we want to proceed in a way that will highlight the contribution of Don to the creation of the brand and its subsequent impact on American culture,” said Kenard Gibbs, CEO of Soul Train Holdings.
However, there were some rights issues that they had to deal with, notably the music used in each episode of the series. But they were confident that it wouldn’t be a problem.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/don-cornelius-soul-train-story-is-heading-to-broadway-as-a-musical-csi-creator-will-write-20150929
Kay
@beltane:
Thanks. It’s been my impression but of course I don’t know because it’s all local. I met some in the course of staffing a county fair booth for the Democrats and I was struck by how many of them were non-college- 18 to say 21 year olds who are working full time. That’s kind of an interesting demo to me, because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@EconWatcher: Yeah, I visit Talkingpointsmemo daily but a lot of the articles are very gossipy these days. They’re trying too hard to be a liberal Politico, rather than doing in depth policy stuff these days.
gene108
@Morzer:
Libya had oil money. It could have improved itself, with Qaddafi out of the way and had it not gotten into a civil war.
Afghanistan’s problems are internal. If they could take a tough stand against corruption and get that under control, the other problems facing it will be reduced. From what I gather, post 9/11/01 those with resources and money have decided to grab as much money as possible, by hook or crook, and that has undermined confidence in the government, the economy, and given an opening for the Taliban’s resurgence.
Syria and that part of the Middle East will probably need to be split up like when the Balkans broke apart in the 1990’s. I just do not see how you put Iraq and Syria back together, when groups do not want to share power in a multi ethnic nation-state. It seems one group has to rule all or bring the rest to ruin.
WaterGirl
Betty, every time I see “Hurricane Joaquin” I think “Hurricane Joe Quinn” and laugh. Thanks for that!
Bobby Thomson
For future reference.
Bobby Thomson
Also, too.
Kay
@beltane:
I tink some of the confusion may be because older people (like me, I would be in this group) tend to believe online activity is an indication of education or class and I don’t think that’s as true as it once was. They all have really cheap data plans and they all use their phones for everything. I ran into this on a school committee because there was this assumption that the lower income kids wouldn’t have online access because they don’t have internet in their homes. That isn’t true, though, in the kids I see. They have phones and data plans and those are essentials to them-because they don’t have online access in their parents home or in their own home doesn’t mean they don’t conduct their whole lives online. If I ask them for a pay stub they ALL hand me the phone or I’ll ask them to do something- get me some info or a doc and they’ll immediately do it, on their phone. I’m still getting used to how speedy they are! :)
WaterGirl
@C.V. Danes: Nowhere good, foreign policy -wise.
debbie
@Cervantes:
Ha! “Jeb! The adult diaper for America!”
(Can’t help laughing; I’m listening to Glenn Beck agitating to make Cruz a Supreme Court Justice. Imagine the cat fights between Scalia and Cruz!)
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
There seems to be a fundamental issue in what is left of Iraq and Syria of groups wanting to share power.
Syria was held together because the Assad family had all the guns. Iraq was held together because Saddam had all the guns.
The Shia in Iraq did not want to share power with the Sunnis, so the Sunnis said fuck it and started backing ISIS/ ISIL. The Alawites in Syria did not want to share power with the Sunnis, when there were peaceful protests four years ago, and thus you have the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS/ISIL there that spilled into Iraq.
I just do not see how people are going to reconcile and rule a country together after all the fighting that has been going on. Give each of them their own country.
I am not trying to imply it will be easy, but I just do not know how you reconcile people after so much fighting has taken place.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Sadly, the answer to your question is yes. I know that for certain because someone on this very blog suggested to me that since I like Biden and not Clinton that I should examine my own sexism.
I find it maddening when people on BJ suggest that if you don’t like Clinton it’s because you are sexist. It happens so often that I have pretty much quit participating in any Clinton-related threads. So although you didn’t say that on this thread, I can see how EconWatcher could feel the way he/she does.
Happy vacation, and stay safe!
bystander
@EconWatcher: If only Marshall had the writing skills of a David Brooks, he could just devote himself to his writing. I’m a TPM fan, so not a very critical view of his website. They did the best coverage of the AG office scandals…well, they were practically the only ones covering it. Apparently, the entire corruption of the Justice Department lacks the frisson of Hillary’s emails.
What I really want to know is what was the embarrassing information about Chaffetz that the Secret Service people were rumored to be spreading? Chaffetz tried to get a job with SS? For once, I’m all for privacy breaching.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Morzer: JEB?’s spent more money than any other candidate on ad buys and his numbers keep going…down. Meanwhile Trump has spent exactly $0 on ad buys and leads the field.
Steeplejack
My weather needs are handled pretty well by the Weather Channel website, but almost exclusively on my phone. The desktop site is a morass of (slow-loading) ads, clickbait and assorted visual bullshit. On my phone I have a bookmark to the page for my ZIP code, and I regularly check the 36-hour and 10-day views. And I have links from there to cities where friends and family live. The page on the mobile site has a lot of junk, too, but it’s almost all “below the fold,” and the page loads very quickly.
On the infrequent occasions when I need something more, I go to Weather Underground or to NOAA (for hurricanes and East Coast storms).
About the only reason I go to the desktop Weather.com site, now that I think about it, is to check the recently added “Almanac” panel, where I look at yesterday’s high and low temperature and, this winter (I hope), the actual amount of snowfall the previous day. The thing that drives me nuts about all the “Snowpocalypse!” TV coverage is that they rarely follow up and tell you how much snow actually fell, and even then only in the most general terms. It’s all about the dire predictions and the frantic preparations.
Cervantes
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Shhh!
David Koch
@Betty Cracker
Sanders is running to be the next president; he’s leading in IA and NH, which makes his positions relevant, especially as he occupies the outward left pole on policy.
My discussion with beltane wasn’t what should have been done, but could reasonably, feasibly have been done that wasn’t done. According to Sanders, nothing.
Since reasonable or feasible are relative points, not an absolute points, Sanders positions are helpful in determining the bounds of reasonableness.
If there is someone politically who moves positions to Sanders’ left, I’d be happy to read them.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: Agreed. And you just put your fingers on a number of ways the ME situations are so different from the Balkans. Tensions remain but mostly in Kosovo and between Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I will be very surprised if there is another shooting war there in my lifetime. The ME…. Well, I’ll be very surprised if I see an outbreak of peace there in my lifetime.
Elizabelle
@Kay: We need to start calling it “The Judith Miller New York Times.”
Because that is how bad the NYTimes political coverage has become. It’s horrifying. They are cruising for an embarrassment.
But that they put up good articles and content on other topics, I would cancel my sub.
rikyrah
Media Alert…Sleepy Hollow Returns!!!
……………..
Watch 3 ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Season 3 Clips: New Opening Sequence, Abbie in Her New Post + Pandora
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
September 30, 2015 at 10:22PM
Lance Gross is one new face this season of Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” who will be introduced as Abbie’s (Nicole Beharie’s) FBI boss Daniel Reynolds. According to IMDB, he’ll be appearing in all 18 episodes this season.
A character that will be a series regular, Gross’ Reynolds will be “reunited” with Abbie when he’s assigned to Sleepy Hollow.
Other Season 3 castings include Nikki Reed (“Twilight”) as Betsy Ross, and Shannyn Sossamon (“Wayward Pines”) as a mysterious newcomer named Pandora.
The supernatural drama returns to Fox on a new night to start, tomorrow, Thursday, October 1 at 9/8c, competing directly with “Scandal.” That’s going to be an intriguing ratings battle. I’m looking forward to seeing the numbers.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-3-sleepy-hollow-season-3-clips-new-opening-sequence-abbie-in-her-new-post-pandora-20150930
Elizabelle
@bystander: I find the timing of the “Chafetz is a VICTIM of the mean Secret Service!” report to be very odd.
Specially since Chafetz just made an ass of himself and his GOP colleagues in their [mis]handling of the Cecile Richards PP hearing.
henqiguai
@OzarkHillbilly (#9):
Yeah, that would be http://www.weather.gov. But it’s easier to type “noaa.gov”; same spot.
Admiral_Komack
Hillary Clinton is a mediocre politician.
I hope Joe Biden runs.
bystander
Re: HRC (and Kerry, for that matter) and the pro-war vote, I ask myself instead, if either of them were POTUS on 9/11, would she or he have invaded Iraq as a consequence? I also ask myself how I think they would have reacted if they got the “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US” memo. I don’t see either of them ever doing the things Bush did. Removes any hesitation about voting for HRC.
BTW, Bernie is telling us that, unlike Obama, he would not have been naive about bargaining with the repubs. The repubs will be as intransigent with Bernie as they are with Obama. Everything he will propose will be labeled “Socialism” and the Andrea Mitchells and Chuckie Toddlers will dittohead ad nauseam.
Betty Cracker
@David Koch:
You brought Sanders up in a response to me before your reply to Beltane, but no matter. I think the points I outlined, which boil down to engage diplomatically and provide humanitarian aid only, are completely reasonable and feasible. The original question was what could PBO have done differently, and that’s my take. He’s been a great president, but his tenure has not been without its cock-ups and lost opportunities. Still, we’ll miss him when he’s gone.
rikyrah
I love The Flash!
The West Family Expands – Vanessa Williams & Keiynan Lonsdale Join Cast of ‘The Flash’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
September 30, 2015 at 1:16PM
Vanessa Williams has been cast as Iris West’s mother on CW’s “The Flash.”
The character is played by Candice Patton, whose father, and thus, Vanessa Williams’ would-be husband on the show, is played by Jesse L. Martin (aka Joe West).
Williams will make her debut on the hit superhero drama series during its upcoming second season which kicks off next week Tuesday, Oct 6 at 8pm
Fans of the series will know that the whereabouts of Iris’ mother haven’t really been addressed on the show yet, although it’s only been 1 season. In fact, she’s barely referenced, if at all, as I recall. I think I just assumed that she wasn’t alive.
Clearly, she is; unless she’ll be appearing in flashbacks
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/the-west-family-expands-vanessa-williams-keiynan-lonsdale-join-cast-of-the-flash-20150930
Poopyman
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: If you feel like some exercise, walk up the hill to East Halls and say hi for me. I lived there 4 years back when they were (almost) new.
rikyrah
@Morzer:
Afghanistan is not a country. It’s a land mass with tribes on it.
rikyrah
@Admiral_Komack:
tell us how you really feel.
LOL
the Conster
Interesting theory from Pierce about the Pope and Kim Davis. Very interesting.
catclub
@C.V. Danes:
Hey, hey, ho, ho,
Sykes Picot has gotta go.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: I find Pierce’s connecting the dots to be very persuasive.
It was immediately apparent, when the news of the Kim Davis meeting broke, that someone had tipped off ABC’s Terry Moran and it’s why he asked that question, a very general question about a very specific situation that went unmentioned to the Pope.
I find Moran’s question to be proof of the tip. It was astonishing.
I hope we hear the Papal Nuncio has retired, within a week or two.
dmbeaster
@EconWatcher:
This, and I share most of your observations about Hillary. Two big additional points. The Iraq war vote is now 14 years ago, and she has far more experience since then under her belt that seems to have matured her. She is still tepid and cautious, which provoke the same doubts, but for very good reasons. No one is subject to more bs; i.e., the Clinton Rules.
Second is Bernie Sanders and his hugely positive impact on the primary
policy debates, and so far she has not triangulated in response. If she has been stupid enough to surround herself again with Penn type advisors, the urge to go negative and run to the right would be massive and also a horrible mistake. It would prove her lack of leadership and triangulation impulse trumping a core based on beliefs. But so far this has not happened – the Keystone announcement being
strong proof.
I think between her and Bill, she is steadier and more reliable. The Iraq vote and the flaws of the 2008 campaign are hopefully the parts of herself that she has outgrown, and there is plenty of evidence to think she has. But I worry too about the direction she will take.
the Conster
@Elizabelle:
Yup – I mentioned in a thread yesterday how I was suspicious of how the whole meeting was characterized to the Pope – Davis is not Catholic, and many real Catholics would have loved to have had her time. It smells like a ratfuck.
Betty Cracker
@the Conster: Interesting theory from Pierce. I also like how he refers to Davis as a “noted civic layabout” and “gold-bricker.” Her refusal to do the job she voluntarily ran for, the fact that her mother hired her and that she hired her own son should always be noted in any story about Davis. Religious martyr my ass!
Heliopause
Last I saw the center of the cone is roughly on Providence but the model runs are all over the place. They’ve even got one hitting the Jacksonville area. I wish these eggheads would spend less time counting their global warming grant money and more time praying for guidance, then maybe we’d get an accurate prediction.
Elizabelle
@the Conster: Francis has unceremoniously dumped a lot of dreadful bishops and cardinals.
Also telling: Kim Davis mentioned the interpreter was not present at their meeting. That got my attention immediately. He would have known of Davis’s notoriety at once, and could have whispered a warning to the pope in another language.
The interpreter was not there. To protect the pope, whose visit was a smash until news of that moment surfaced. Maybe he did not even know Kim Davis had been with the pope, however briefly, and so did not see the intent behind Terry Moran’s question on the airplane.
Be interesting to see how Pope Francis handles this.
ETA: When Davis said the interpreter was not at the meeting, I assumed it was to protect a false story — I did not initially believe she’d met with the pope, and thought it was an attempt to head him off as a source of confirmation. He couldn’t call her out on the lie, because she specifically said he was not there.
Now the interpreter’s absence takes on another meaning.
Cervantes
@the Conster:
I notice there are no Bishops from Kentucky in his theory.
Also, he writes:
But the question (as reported) wasn’t all that vague:
the Conster
@Cervantes:
That really isn’t dispositive. It’s much more believable, to me, that the Pope – old, tired, non-English speaking and heading home – was simply not aware of all of the details of Kim Davis’ notoriety, and any reporting around what was said, who said it and how it was said, and how it was interpreted should be taken with a large grain of salt.
Cervantes
@the Conster:
What’s “not dispositive”?
All I said is that the question was not as vague as Pierce suggests it was (if I understand him correctly).
Surely you agree with this.
Elizabelle
@Cervantes: Moran could have used the two words “Kim Davis”, who is most prominent among those individuals with tortured souls about complying with same sex marriage at their paid government jobs.
He did not. That was very interesting to me.
Also: the pope is 78 years old. He had a tremendously busy schedule, and arrived in this country after 2.5 days of events in Cuba and a long flight from Rome before that. Schedule at bottom of this link. It’s exhausting. ETA: flight time, Rome to Havana, is 11:35-45 minutes.
Not surprised he was tiring out. It was tiring to watch all the Pope occupation stuff.
I’d give him a pass, of sorts, on this, and look forward to seeing how it plays out.
the Conster
@Cervantes:
The question, if it was as reported, when asked is vague – a generalization about religious liberty, blah blah blah. If Moran didn’t specify the question was really about Kim Davis, then it was sufficiently vague as to the Pope’s intentions on the subject of her.
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
You’re defending the Pope on this. I’m not attacking him, simply observing that the question he was asked was not as “vague” as Pierce indicates. Could the question have been more pointed? Sure. If it wasn’t, then why not? I haven’t the foggiest.
@the Conster:
[See first part of this comment.]
Cervantes
@the Conster:
The question asked about “government officials, who say they cannot in good conscience … abide by some laws or discharge their duties as government officials, for example when issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples?”
You think the non-mention of Ms. Davis by name was a fatal flaw in the question?
Elizabelle
@Cervantes: Yeah, I am defending the Pope. I think there’s a huge chance he got sandbagged.
I think it’s possible he might have recognized Davis, when she was in the room with him. A little late, then.
Looked at the transcript, and Terry Moran’s question is actually pretty blunt, if you know about the Kim Davis situation. He led with the Little Sisters of the Poor, but the gay marriage question is not hiding. The Moran exchange, in full:
On to the role of women in the Church: Francis shut the door on women priests, with absolutely no good reason but precedent (transcript edited):
Shorter Francis: not going there. Wouldn’t be prudent.
To kind of quote the late great Ann Richards: “If the Church loved women any more, they would have to take in washing.”
Elizabelle
Linky to the Pope’s inflight news conference.
From The Catholic World Report. Presser ran about 45 minutes.
PurpleGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Didn’t some RWNJ want to restrict the NOAA to giving its information to private companies and not publish their own predictions a few years ago? Perfect way to make sure the public didn’t understand that the government could work.
PurpleGirl
@C.V. Danes:
If we could do it all over again, we should probably have never carved up the middle east to begin with.
To do things all over we’d have to go back to the end of WWI when the Ottoman Empire was carved up between the Western European powers. Promises concerning borders were made to various tribes and their leaders and they weren’t kept. And the aftermath of WWII just made things worse.
A guy
The climate change alarmists are absolutely giddy that after years of predictions of hurricanes in greater numbers and force as a result of mans insensitivity to Mother Earth there is finally a hurricane that legitimately threatens america. They pray for destruction so they can say see told you so. Ten bucks it’s nothing more that a rain storm.
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
Thanks.