Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The revolution will be supervised.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You cannot shame the shameless.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

You are here: Home / Climate Change / How about that weather? / Respite Open Thread: Good News Out of Texas

Respite Open Thread: Good News Out of Texas

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The ‘sea turtles stunned by cold water’ situation is common enough here in New England that the Boston-based New England Aquarium has a hotline:

… Our response area ranges from Boston north to the New Hampshire-Maine border. If you encounter a sea turtle in distress on the beach within this territory, please call our Sea Turtle Rescue Hotline at 617-973-5247.

Our rescuers rehabilitate endangered sea turtles. In the past decade alone, our rescuers have treated and released hundreds of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles as well as many green and loggerhead sea turtles. These numbers are especially significant considering the Kemp’s ridley is the most endangered sea turtle in the world.

Each fall, staff and volunteer walkers from the Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary comb dozens of miles of beach trying to find stranded sea turtles. The turtles are transported to the rescuers and veterinarians at the New England Aquarium with extreme hypothermia, severe dehydration, pneumonia, and often shell or bone fractures. While 2014 was a record-smashing year when 733 turtles were treated at the Animal Care Center in Quincy, on average we treat about 300 turtles each year. Their treatment can last between two and eight months, sometimes longer. Most of the sea turtles that arrive alive at the Aquarium recover and are released back into the ocean…

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  3. 3.

    Benw

    One of my happy t-shirts is a race tee for turtle rescue that has the rescue org’s phone number on the back. If I ever find a turtle in danger I’ll know whom to call!!

  7. 7.

    realbtl

    2nd Covid shot for me and my two 72 yo friends here in Montana. Just in time as the new R (of course) Gov repealed the mask ordnance last week and compliance is even worse than before.

  9. 9.

    Hoppie

    @rikyrah: Good to hear.  My second scheduled Saturday PM, also Moderna; hoping for minimal reaction.  My wife’s second’s (Pfizer) swelling and redness is only now going down after 5 days.

  11. 11.

    bjacques

    My mom and pop (80 and 87, respectively) in Texas got their second Modena shots during the Tiny Ice Age but are just now coming out of the boil water order.

  16. 16.

    Miss Bianca

    @David Fud:

    Five members, a full third of the ERCOT board [the Electric Reliability Council of Texas], resigned today.  I guess their families all needed them to be around more.

    If only to huddle together for warmth, right?

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @David Fud:

    A friend of mine is an engineer with an unnamed multinational company that has large facilities in and around the vicinity of Houston. They’re shut down and had to claim force majeure on multiple contracts for products, and don’t know when they’ll  be able to restart as so many water pipes and critical junctions are broken (heating, cooling, gray water and potable water all affected). Apparently, when the power went down, their protective heating elements quit.

    His Texas counterparts also tell him that plumbing supplies have been stripped bare in every hardware wholesale and retail store.

  18. 18.

    TS (the original)

    @David Fud:

    Blocked by paper to read all of the article you linked, I perused their front page & found this item –  everything you need to know about GQP Government. No power, no water, but the important issues according to the Lt Governor are:

    Abortion restrictions, transgender issues top Patrick’s priority list
    Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presides over the Texas Senate, giving him power to set the agenda for what legislation will ultimately pass or even get to the floor for a vote.

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @TS (the original):

    May not go the same way it did in the past. There’s going to be a Battle Royale – Big Chemical and Big Insurance vs Big Energy.

    Maybe they can start up 70s era rollerball.

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Saw Yelp’s Top 100 restaurants earlier today. Seemed like a third of them were sushi restaurants. Kinda made sense. If you don’t mind eating raw fish and getting intestinal worms, you’re probably not real picky.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @David Fud:

    Five members, a full third of the ERCOT board [the Electric Reliability Council of Texas], resigned today

    Abbott’s bullshit rationale for forcing these folks out is that all the board members should be Texas residents. Which is bullshit because Texas residence correlates weakly (if not negatively) with competence.

  31. 31.

    taumaturgo

    Horrible optics out of Texas for the administration. After savaging Trump on the kidnapping and caging of undocumented immigrants Biden is opening not one but two children detention centers.WTF.

  34. 34.

    Ken

    @burnspbesq: Anyone want to speculate on the consequences if Dominion’s lawsuits are successful?  I’m pretty sure they won’t get 1.3 billion out of Giuliani or Powell – kidneys and corneas don’t sell for that much on the black market.

  35. 35.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @burnspbesq: Great movie. Wondered what the backstory was on the corporate honchos like Houseman. Storyboards had to be interesting.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @TS (the original):

    Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presides over the Texas Senate, giving him power to set the agenda for what legislation will ultimately pass or even get to the floor for a vote.

    Is this why the Texas Lt Gov has more power than the governor? Ability to set the legislative agenda?

  38. 38.

    taumaturgo

    @Baud: I see pass your strawman. No separation and unification with parents. What’s yours? Continue with the inhumane treatment of children just like Trump? Common, aren’t we better than this?

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @taumaturgo:

    I’m sorry, is Biden separating children? Is he refusing to reunify them when the parents are found? Show your work, if that’s your accusation.  All you said is that they are opening new facilities.  That tells me nothing.

  41. 41.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @TS (the original): Years ago, a friend of mine had a rich, clueless, divorced mother who bought a table at a fundraising banquet for a Republican candidate for the local district attorney.  She didn’t actually support him, she told us, she just got talked into it (probably from a guy who picked her up, we’re guessing.)  Her friends refused to go, so the clueless divorcee turned to her daughter to fill up the table, and thus I and my friends wound up at a fundraising dinner just for the free food!

    Anyhow we heard the candidate’s speech outlining key elements of his proposed Republican agenda: curbing the “homosexual lifestyle,” restrictions on abortion, a sex offenders registry (which now is law) etc. Listening to the whole thing, the thread combining all his different positions was that the only purpose of government, apparently, was policing other people’s sex lives.  I remember thinking, what does this guy think people should or shouldn’t do during the day?

  44. 44.

    burnspbesq

    @Ken:

    The defendants will be wiped out, and won’t be able to accumulate any significant assets for a good long time (details depend on state law, and I suspect there are some interesting choice-of-law issues that will get litigated eventually).

  47. 47.

    burnspbesq

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Agreed. Defamation is an intentional tort, and damages liability for intentional torts isn’t dischargeable. None of the current defendants will keep their houses, because none of NY, TX, or MN has an unlimited homestead exemption (TX is particularly stingy for non-agricultural property).

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop:

    Listening to the whole thing, the thread combining all his different positions was that the only purpose of government, apparently, was policing other people’s sex lives.

    Apparently, if you are a Republican, the free market takes care of everything else.

  50. 50.

    Josie

    @taumaturgo: ​
     
    The administration is not separating parents and children. That facility is for minors who cross the border without parents. They are there only until a responsible adult shows up to take them. It is a totally different situation. Do your homework.

  51. 51.

    tokyokie

    @Benw:

     

    One of my happy t-shirts is a race tee for turtle rescue that has the rescue org’s phone number on the back. If I ever find a turtle in danger I’ll know whom to call!!

    But only if you wear the same shirt every day.

     

    Here in North Texas, the temperature was about 80 degrees warmer today than it was a week ago. And my appointment for my second shot, which should have been a week ago Monday but was postponed because of the weather, has been rescheduled for whenever I can drop by Thursday.

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