Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

In after Baud. Damn.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Florence check in

Florence check in

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Be careful, be smart, be safe.

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93Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    My Florence check-in is that I’m meeting with the cat wrangler at 5:30 to make sure, among other things, that she will be able to maintain Threadkill Platinum Tower Club concierge service for the housecat while I’m out of town. Threadkill Lane is not in a flood-prone area—although it will no doubt get a lot of rain—but I’d like to be reassured that the cat wrangler won’t have trouble getting over here.

    As for me, I’m checking out and heading to Las Vegas tomorrow. High and dry in the desert!

  2. 2.

    Waynski

    Be careful, be smart, be safe.

    Excellent advice. I lived through Sandy here on the Bayshore in NJ. It was no damned day at the beach.

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    Every time I see a snapshot of that monster the song “It was a one eye one horned flying purple people eater” comes unbidden into my brain. Now, hopefully, I have shared a little of that with you all.

  9. 9.

    Barbara

    My daughter is now living in Raleigh. She is in a second floor apartment and is unlikely to get flooding in her apartment, but roads are a different story. We told her to fill up her gas tank so she can leave if she needs to. I am thinking of calling her and telling her to drive up after work on Wednesday to get out of the flood zone. Not sure. I am looking at the route and it’s just really hard for me to envision what that much rain will do to the RT area. She can stay inside and wait for the water to recede and power to come back on. I don’t want her car to get ruined. Ugh.

  10. 10.

    shelley

    Didnt realize that Trump, on the morning of 9/11, bragged on a radio call-in show that his building must now be the tallest in NYC.

    There are no words.

  11. 11.

    Rileys Enabler

    @Barbara: having lived through Harvey and several other hurricanes/storms in the Houston area, it’s not just immediate flooding that’s the problem. It’s that nothing else has power – gas stations (no gas pumping), grocery stores (no food) – hospitals (dire emergencies only, many will close) – and that staff for those places has to drive in from wherever if they haven’t evacuated as well. So you have to consider that everything may be closed for a good long time. We lived on canned goods and bottled water for almost 2 weeks – without air conditioning – and it was NOT FUN. And that’s not counting storm damage from winds blocking roads and such. You just don’t know what’s going to happen, so plan for it ALL. Please use all caution.

  12. 12.

    stinger

    Not Florence-related, but can someone point me to the thread where SiubhanDuinne reported back on her sky-diving experience? (I’m assuming/ hoping she jumped, landed safely, and reported on it to BJ.) Thanks in advance.

  13. 13.

    Luthe

    I have tickets to L’Opera in Paris. Ok, they are for the ballet school demonstrations and in the cheap seats, but still: Paris Opera House!

  15. 15.

    daveNYC

    From what I’ve heard the exact landfall on this is still up in the air, and with the size of the storm there is a good chance that some people will be caught off guard.

  18. 18.

    Mike in DC

    I am on the third floor of my apartment building, but I could get stuck there without power for a while if the winds near dc are strong enough and if it rains enough.

  19. 19.

    zhena gogolia

    @stinger:

    She did it safely and has been commenting ever since. I’m not sure which thread she reported on, it was late in the thread. But I think I saw her around today on another thread so you can ask her!

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    @shelley:

    Didnt realize that Trump, on the morning of 9/11, bragged on a radio call-in show that his building must now be the tallest in NYC.

    There are no words.

    Let us not forget how he saw Muslims dancing in the streets of NYC celebrating the attack.

    Narrator: Trump lied.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    Stay safe, everyone in the path! Get out if told to do so. Take all high water seriously. Be prepared. Remember who is in charge of FEMA. Give yourself every chance. And don’t forget the pets.

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    Is it just me or is that Florence projection unusually suggestive of the East Coast about to get royally screwed?

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    @shelley:
    Trump voter: “He tells it like it is.”
    Sane person: “”He tells it like it isn’t.”

    No cure exists for the former.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    I remember when Hurricane Isabel (September 2003) surprised us in Richmond VA and came inland. Took out a LOT of trees on Monument Avenue (to the great dead of the lost cause, and Arthur Ashe) and all over the place. Got as far as DC and West Virginia. No one expected that one; was expected to hit the Outer Banks, but then Isabel roared inland, capriciously. And the ground was already saturated, so a lot of regional damage was done. Costliest storm of its season.

    Made our street into a cul de sac. Neighbors setting up long tables in the middle of the street, with candles, and all of us barbecuing communally, because no power and use it or lose it from the fridge/freezer. We got our power back in 3 days, but a lot of the area was without, some for weeks.

    Isabel name was retired after that blow. Never take any hurricanes lightly, as a result. Who knows what Florence will do?

    List from The State, Columbia, SC: What Groceries Should You Buy …?

    Groceries to buy:

    Bottled water. It’s No. 1 for a reason. The S.C. Emergency Management Division suggests having two gallons per person per day.

    Canned goods that can be eaten as-is. Tuna, salmon, beans, chicken, chili, soup. You don’t have to like it. You just have to be able to eat it. Also, this is a moot point if you don’t have a can opener.

    Snacks with a long shelf life. Cereal stays good up to a year. Peanut butter, cookies, crackers, chips and granola bars almost certainly will come in handy. Even hard candy can provide quick boosts of energy.

    Bread. It goes with everything and is super cheap. But don’t feel like you need to fight a stranger for the last loaf at Food Lion.

    Fruit. Apples have a relatively long shelf life, and they keep the doctor away, too. Bananas, grapes and other fruits typically will outlast most power outages.

    Disposable goods. Paper plates, plastic utensils, garbage bags and paper towels all will go a long way if the power goes out. zip-close bags can be a lifesaver, including for safely storing important documents like insurance papers and Social Security cards.

    Plenty of pet food and water. Because Spot can’t buy his own dog food.

    Prescription medicines. The University of South Carolina’s College of Pharmacy recommends having a week’s worth of prescription medicine on hand, especially if you must evacuate.

    Not technically groceries but still worth having

    First-aid kit. A no-brainer, if you don’t already have one.

    Tools, duct tape. You may not be able to leave your home for supplies to make a quick fix.

    Flashlights. And batteries, while you’re at it.

    What to avoid

    Milk: It will spoil quickly if you lose power. And spoiled milk is just the worst.

    Frozen foods: That bag of frozen chicken tenders probably won’t be worth eating once the fridge has lost power. Palmetto Poison Center Managing Director Jill Michels recommends throwing out any frozen foods from fridges that have lost power for more than four hours. “When in doubt, throw it out,” she said.

    Bonus tip

    If the storm is heading your way, fill your bathtub with water.

    Store some water in the freezer as the storm approaches. If the power goes out, it will thaw and offer you some cold water.

    Top off your car with gas before the lines get too long.

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    @raven: Oh yeah! The Fan. And the Museum District. (Just across Boulevard, near the VMFA — Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Enough said.)

    Do you recall where she taught in RVA?

  32. 32.

    gene108

    @Barbara:

    Also tell her to keep a good bit of cash on hand. When Fran came through, in 1996, stores and gas stations started reopening, but the credit card systems were down. It was all cash for about a week.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @gene108: In small bills!

    Our California earthquake kits included cash in small bills, lots of water, canned foods and other delights.

    If all you have is a ten or twenty, guess how much those supplies are gonna cost!

  34. 34.

    Kelly

    @Elizabelle:

    Palmetto Poison Center Managing Director Jill Michels recommends throwing out any frozen foods from fridges that have lost power for more than four hours.

    A few pounds of dry ice will save everything in a freezer for about a week. Around here dry ice is $1.25 / lbs in 5 lbs chunks.

  35. 35.

    gene108

    @gene108:

    Forget how long it took for banks to reopen, and ATM’s to be online, but it was after stores reopened selling goods for cash only.

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    @shelley: And once again: Can you imagine the media reaction if a Democrat had said something insensitive about 9/11? It would have been headline news for weeks. Certainly not something casually mentioned 2 years after the election.

  42. 42.

    Phylllis

    We are closed today on Governor McMaster’s order. He’s lifted that so we are going to school tomorrow. But I figure we’ll be out again at least Thursday and Friday, if the storm produces the wind and rain they are currently calling for. It was handy being off today; stocked up on good books at the library and hit the Publix for additional supplies. Possibility of approximately 10 inches of rain in the Columbia SC area.

  43. 43.

    raven

    @Fair Economist: Apparently you have missed the howling about his Benghazi remarks?

    WASHINGTON – Former Army Ranger Kris Paronto said he wanted to reach through the screen and “choke” former President Barack Obama after the one-time commander in chief referred to “wild conspiracy theories” surrounding the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.

    Paronto, a then-CIA contractor who was part of the response to the attack, made the comment during a Fox News interview Sunday.

    “It’s disgusting,” Paronto told Fox News host Pete Hegseth, adding that he thought it showed Obama to be a “narcissist” and “elitist.”

    “It just raises the bile inside of me. I had a hard time just watching the speech itself,” he said.

    “I just wanted to see what he had to say. And when that came across, I just wanted to reach through the screen and just grab him — grab him and choke him and say, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me that you’d have the gall to disgrace the memory of my teammates and what we did there that night by calling it conspiracy?’”

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    @Elizabelle:

    Bread. It goes with everything and is super cheap.

    Unless you get the really processed white bread, most breads will go moldy after 3-4 days in non-ac humid weather.

    You have to toast it by day 2.

  45. 45.

    rekoob

    For what it’s worth, Armstrong High School is on Cool Lane in the East End of Richmond, and Patrick Henry High School is in Ashland.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Elizabelle:

    Our California earthquake kits included cash in small bills, lots of water, canned foods and other delights.

    I should move some of my cash from its current hiding place into my emergency kit. I bought one of those “thirty days of dried food” kits from Costco, though I assume it’s going to last considerably less time than that, and two 5 gallon water jugs. Other important things to consider:

    * Pet food for your pets. I make a habit of always having at least one spare bag of food for my cat. It has a good shelf life, and it’s one of those things you can easily cycle through. You may also want to have some of your pet’s favorite treats. They’re likely to be as upset by changes to their routine as anyone, so something to boost their morale could be helpful.

    * Make sure you have a means of opening containers and cooking food with your emergency supplies. You may have a can opener and a barbecue at your house, but will you have them if you need to evacuate? If you have camping supplies, just keep them near your emergency kit when they’re not in use.

  53. 53.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:
    On acquiring one of those pallets o’ freezedried food I wonder what one does as time marches onward? How long do you keep it before deciding it’s too old and then what? Give it to the hobos by the interstate?

    How do the Mormons deal with their year’s worth of food? At some point do they switch to feeding the family from their stash? The kids must LOVE that–endless days of lentil-chicken stew (or whatever) and textured soy protein slurry. Yum.

  55. 55.

    TenguPhule

    @trollhattan:

    How do the Mormons deal with their year’s worth of food? At some point do they switch to feeding the family from their stash?

    my understanding is they do a constant rotation of LIFO. Last In, First Out.

  56. 56.

    Kelly

    @Elizabelle:

    Bread. It goes with everything and is super cheap.

    Tortillas keep better and also go with everything. They were a mainstay of our lunches weeks 2 and 3 of Grand Canyon raft trips.

  58. 58.

    TenguPhule

    @Kelly:

    Tortillas keep better and also go with everything.

    And if you heat them in the oven first, they last a few days longer.

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    How do the Mormons deal with their year’s worth of food?

    I think most of them don’t buy those prepper pallets. Instead, they just stock up on the kinds of long shelf-life foods you’d use in ordinary cooking and then cycle through them. So they have lots of canned good and the kinds of dried foods (dry noodles, flour, sugar, jello, etc.) that keep indefinitely. It’s not the most exciting cuisine, but nobody accused Mormons of being foodies.

  61. 61.

    Ohio Mom

    @shelley: After the World Trade Center fell, Trump’s building was the tallest in LOWER Manhattan.

    There are two groupings of very tall buildings in Manhattan, way downtown, around Wall Street, and Midtown — where the Empire State Building, and many other buildings taller than Trump’s are located.

    (Those two areas are where the bedrock necessary to anchor tall buildings is closest to the surface.)

    But we already knew about Trump’s relationship with the truth.

  62. 62.

    Brendan in NC

    I’m on the outskirts of the path in Charlotte, and don’t expect too much. I’m actually chuckling, because our HOA just approved a $500 special assessment for…replacing the roof on our building. I’m in a 3 story condo, with the first floor being the garage; but again, I’m not expecting 3 feet of rain either.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    my understanding is they do a constant rotation of LIFO.

    Constant rotation is FIFO (first in, first out) not LIFO. LIFO is physically easier- you just put new stuff at the front of the shelf- but it means the stuff at the back will get way too old. They make special “can rotators” to make it easy to use canned goods FIFO. They have a place at the front where you put in the newly purchased cans, a track they roll down, and a thing at the bottom that keeps the last can from rolling out by itself.

  64. 64.

    TenguPhule

    With Hurricane Florence churning toward the Carolinas, Trump declared Tuesday that the government is “absolutely, totally prepared” for a storm expected to bring destructive winds and catastrophic flooding

    “We’re ready. FEMA is ready. Everybody is ready,” Trump said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    “We have everybody standing by. We hope for the best,” he said. “There’s a chance it could be a very bad one, as you’ve probably heard. . . . But we are absolutely, totally prepared.”

    Sorry folks, you’re so fucked.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @catclub:

    Don’t know about the mood enhancers, but Las Vegas is 2,000' above sea level, which is a little surprising, since it’s in a basin.

  72. 72.

    TomatoQueen

    Hunkered down in Alexandria, where I’m tucked into the side of a slope with a drainage field just outside the front door, and away from trees; son’s caregiver lives down the hill and has realized he needs to gas up just in case. Lots of little emergency lights, crackers, books, and cat food abound.

  75. 75.

    Mart

    You can type an address at this FEMA site:

    https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home

    to see if you are within, near, or could be surrounded by a 100 year flood event. Of course if you are getting thirty inches of rain it could be a many thousands of years event, which are all too common now. Crazy ass monster rainstorms seem to be happening much more frequently; not just the now too frequent crazy ass monster hurricanes. At least this has all been good for the building trades…

  76. 76.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    what if Katrina had hit in 2004 instead of 2005.

    Probably wouldn’t have had enough time to sink in to the public’s awareness. It took months to really get traction.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    It goes with everything and is super cheap

    If by super cheap one means ridiculously overpriced, then okay.

    At least here. More than made up the initial cost of the super duper bread machine in savings garnered from not having to buy bread at the market. A 25 pound sack of bread flour costs less than 2 store bought loaves.

  80. 80.

    JAFD

    @trollhattan: Back around ’05, I’d gotten some _real_ US military MREs (friend back from Iraq). Kept them around, about ten years, In Case Things Got Really Bad.
    Finally, the outer plastic envelope started to crack into pieces, and I moved into new apartment, and tthat night had no dishes or utensils on hand, no energy, no cash to spare. So dug in.
    The cheese in the ‘pasta with cheese sauce’ – well, the curds in fancy cheese shop, ‘aged 6 months’ – multiply the ‘sharp’ by 20
    The dye in the maraschino cherries in the fruit cocktail had turned whole thing mahogany-brown.
    An MRE is designed to keep a PFC hauling a machine gun up the hills of Afghanistan fed. Average civilian layabout may find it a bit much.
    But it all had kept well, tasted OK. Better than the surplus C-ration cans that were 25 cents/5 for a buck at I. Goldbergs Army-Navy back in the 70’s.
    YMMV

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    If by super cheap one means ridiculously overpriced, then okay.

    Depends on where you go. The Foodland marked down loaf is $.99.

  82. 82.

    JAFD

    Note that if you’re living in place with electric stove, and power goes out, problem you’ve got, getting stuf warmed, outdoor grill, maybe, but in rain and cold weather… Not to mention clothes washing and showers if no hot water.

  83. 83.

    JWL

    “I was afraid, knowing the hurricane was barreling straight towards me, until I saw president Trump staring vacantly at a guy standing beside his desk with a pointer and a chart. I knew, right then and right there, that everything was going to be OK”.

  84. 84.

    JAFD

    Time of Sandy, was living in South Jersey, near Exit 4. Was thinking, hearing reports of gas stations in NYC area with no power, that US Army probably has ‘mobile gas stations’, some equipment to get armored brigade fueled up quickly, from bulk tank trucks, with a mobile power generator and field kitchen in OOB? Mayhaps Nat’l Guard should get some of these, stationed around country so one could quickly get to disaster, set up at ‘mall parking lots’ near area, get gas supplies in power-out area, portable floodlights, have internet-equipped communications for people seperated from family, etc…
    Military folk, would appreciate your ideas about this.

  89. 89.

    John 2.0

    I’m in Cary (just under the R in Raleigh in most maps of the state) I spent the larger part of the afternoon getting batteries and gathering up lawn furniture and securing the storage area. I live next to a giant retention pond, and have flooded twice in the last two years, once during the last Hurricane. I’m hoping we fixed that with some new drainage we put in and getting rid of all carpet on the lower level.

    I’m still pretty concerned what’s going to happen over the next week. All our lines are buried, but our transformers go when it rains hard, and well….three feet of water is pretty hard rain. It’s fairly hilly in the area, so water will pool in roads, making them impassable.

    Also, I just read in the News and Observer that the hog industry, which has fought tooth and nail against any sort of environmental oversight (and bought off the General Assembly) hasn’t made any changes to the waste lagoon system since the last storm, so I fully expect the storm to push lakes of Johnston County hog waste across all of Wake and Durham Counties.

  91. 91.

    BroD

    ” President Donald Trump declared an emergency in North Carolina, allowing it to access federal funds. “I think that any amounts of money, whatever it takes, we’re going to do,” Trump said.

    And I’m thinking, “unlike what we did in Puerto Rico.” an aide muttered.

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @John 2.0:

    @J R in WV:

    And of course, this happened before, and no one could be arsed to do anything about it. There will be bovine and porcine corpses littered for miles, also too! Along with the people who don’t flee.!!!

  93. 93.

    SWMBO

    WATER. Crackers and tortillas for bread. Peanut butter. Dry roasted nuts. WATER.

    If you are under a boil water alert after, turn off the water at the outside cutoff. Fill the bathtub before the storm. Your hot water heater holds Xgallons that will still be usable if you don’t pull in water from the outside. If you have cpap, bipap or autopap breathing machines, make sure you have distilled water for them. (We run ours with the generator off an extension cord.) Fans that don’t pull enough current to trip the generator’s breaker.

    A small sand box (3 x 3) with kitty litter for pets inside during the storm. We let our dachshunds out between squalls during Irma. One squall caught us outside and Oggie (being an aerodynamic shape) was facing into the wind and it lifted all 4 feet about 3 inches off the ground. He gave me a “I’m done, I’ll pee in the house” look. Pee pads if you don’t have the sandbox/kitty litter. This is also useful in shelters. TRANQUILIZERS for any pets that don’t do storms well. Poor old Sparky nearly had heart attacks during a regular thunderstorm. We got enough tranks to do several days with dosing instructions. He hid under the covers on the bed, nearly comatose from the tranks but at least he didn’t spend 14-18 hours of Wilma singing the songs of his people. Rawhides or other chewies to let them burn off nervous energy.

    For small kids with no tv or radio, books to read.

    If you’re going to leave, sooner is better than later. Do not get caught out in the storm in a long line of stalled cars that can’t move. I think that was a big problem in Houston during Harvey.

    Charge up everything that can be charged. Cell phones, external power, batteries,tablets, whatever you have.

    WATER. Enough for you and your pets.

    Drinks (fruit drinks like cranberry, apple, orange) Everyone here has said no milk but you can get milk in juice boxes that won’t spoil. Beer, wine, other adult beverages. Water. (have I mentioned that?)

    Garbage bags. Lots of sizes. The bigger ones can double bag the smaller ones for sanitation purposes. If you can’t use your water, you can line the toilets with a garbage bag and change it every few hours. Bleach. You may need it to kill bacteria in water. Disposable gloves to change the toilet. Hand sanitizer.

    We have old underwear that we use when there’s no electricity to wash clothes (or water). Wear them and pitch them. Buy new when the crisis has passed. These were going to be pitched anyway and so it just becomes a twofer. Keep your arms down. Deodorant will only carry you so far.

    We have a small electric chain saw and long extension cords in case we have to trim trees after. A hand saw will work but it takes more energy.

    If you bug out, take your pets papers with you. If you get separated, you’ll have their tags/microchip numbers with you in case they are found.

    This, too, shall pass.

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