How a real President does it:
Despite being trolled constantly by its Governor, President Biden made sure to approve DeSantis' request for emergency response assistance AND surge federal assistance to Florida well before the storm even hits.
Because THAT is how you adult President.pic.twitter.com/K0OeiqTETE
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) September 27, 2022
I love that folks on Medicare will be saving money. #BidenDeliversAGAIN pic.twitter.com/ftUlmDmVDz
— Brad Bo ☮️🇺🇸 (@BradBeauregardJ) September 28, 2022
Trump has called on GOP senators to sink bill, but top Rs believe there will be enough support to pass the bill in the lame-duck. Ted Cruz just now: “This bill is a bad bill.” Says it’s “not good for democracy…This bill is all about Donald J. Trump.” https://t.co/3tf6r30zWe
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 27, 2022
I’m inherently suspicious of anything McConnell ‘approves’, but it seems like Chuck Schumer has also given it his imprimatur:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined 22 Republicans and Democrats in backing legislation to prevent future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress. https://t.co/qSNkJsR3ia
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 27, 2022
… The Senate and House bills differ chiefly in how much they would change the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results. Currently, only one member each from the House and Senate are required to object to a state’s electors. The House electoral reform bill would raise that threshold to at least one-third of the members of both the House and Senate, while the Senate version would raise that threshold to at least one-fifth of the members of both the House and Senate.
Schumer had withheld his support because he preferred Democrats’ sweeping voting bill that also addressed access to the polls. But after that bill failed in the Senate because of a lack of Republican support this year, the bipartisan working group forged ahead on a narrower bill that would implement guardrails and clarifications regarding how presidential electors are appointed, submitted and approved.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Rules panel who had worked on his own electoral bill, said Monday that it was “critical” they pass legislation as soon as possible.
“This isn’t comprehensive voting rights reforms, but it is important because of the danger that we experienced on January 6th,” King told The Washington Post. “It’s critical we do this before next year when we are in the throes of the presidential election.”…
On The Road – Dangerman – More Lighthouses
brantl
All in all, I think the Repukelicans might be better armed. First? Son of a bitch!
Baud
McConnell might be trying to persuade weak Dems not to break the filibuster to pass voting rights next year.
Baud
The news doesn’t consider Biden’s decency newsworthy, but in today’s world, it really is man bites dog story.
Cameron
McConnell sees an opportunity to stick a harpoon in the Great Orange Whale.
New Deal democrat
I have a cousin whose house on the Myakka River is only about 1 mile from dead center of the hurricane’s projected path as of the latest projection.
Hopefully they evacuated and took all of their heirloom personal effects with them.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
If, fsm willing, the Dems manage to achieve an extra two Senators in November, and they don’t break the filibuster to ensure voting and fair election rights for all, they should be damned to hell.
On this issue, there can be no ifs and buts. Forget whether you hate or support union rights at work. Forget where you stand on Medicare for all. Unless and until the US can guarantee that every citizen can vote easily and without hindrance, that every vote is counted honestly, and that gerrymandering is outlawed, US claims about its commitment to democracy rings hollow.
Honestly, I get differences in policy preferences between the left and centre left in different countries-peoples histories and needs differ after all, but I just cannot with the US electoral system. It is borderline criminal what is allowed and worse, tolerated, by the only vaguely centre left party in the US. It is shocking.
Your base has to be corralled enough to vote between presidential elections-at least ensure that they can easily vote once you get them to the polls.
Ken
There’s a “three-fifths compromise” joke there somewhere, but it’s too early to find the setup.
Betty Cracker
@New Deal democrat: I sure hope your relatives skedaddled too and are somewhere safe. I just heard the storm is on the cusp of being a Cat 5 — just two MPH short. Looks like it’s going to be catastrophic when it hits.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
I agree. I’m not going to presume failure. If we get 52 Senators and keep the House, we’ll pass voting rights reform.
p.a.
One objector is ridiculous, but if Red states are successful in putting their votes (and voters) at the mercy of their state legislatures, the objector law may get a workout in coming years.
RandomMonster
@Baud: We’ll break the filibuster over Roe anyway.
kalakal
Before Ian takes away power & comms* I’ll just share Danny Blanchflower ( the economist not the footballer) expressing his opinion on the UK’s latest self inflicted misery. Subtle he’s not, it’s brilliant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1574787435132817409
*due to southward shift in track from a selfish point of view the situation looks a lot better, a day & a half ago it was coming through my backyard as a cat 2. For the poor people a 120 miles south it’s coming through their backyard as a cat 4. This is a catastrophe
Rob
Maximum winds of Hurricane Ian are now set at 155 mph. This is almost a category 5 storm. It has rapidly intensified during the past day. Florida is in my thoughts.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/281056.shtml
Betty Cracker
At a press conference yesterday, DeSantis implied it was up to Biden to call him:
Later, Biden did call the squat, scowling, squinty pretender to Tangerine Baal’s cult of un-personality. Prior to the press conference, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Biden spoke to Tampa Bay area mayors about the storm; that’s probably what got under DeSantis’s thin skin.
Politico and other political gossip rags have elevated horserace coverage to nauseating new heights with speculation about how the hurricane might help DeSantis politically. I haven’t seen any speculation about how the targets of DeSantis’s nonstop culture wars have been affected by having vital, lifesaving government services monopolized by a person who has declared them the enemy.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Unfortunately, the media don’t consider it newsworthy either when the GQP throws sand in the gears, or when the Dems manage to do good stuff despite that.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I just assumed the hurricane was God’s punishment of Florida for electing DeSantis. That’s how the other side thinks, no?
p.a.
@Betty Cracker:
Absolutely hoping for the the best for everyone on the storm’s path; unfortunately good results will burnish the existing state admin’s rep.
Location location location.Timing timing timing.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
This is what drives me nuts about the media. And tbf, while Politico, Axios, etc. have made it significantly worse, it was already like this before they came into existence.
It’s all the fucking horse race. Although I’ve noticed over the years that, the day AFTER an election, or the day AFTER a big bill passes, the WaPo will do a big story on what it means in real-world terms.
Yeah. THAT is when they share the information you should have had before you cast your vote, or when you might’ve been calling or writing your Congresscritters about the big bill. It’s been driving me nuts forever. (Admittedly, it’s a short drive.)
Booger
@lowtechcyclist: Hell, I can walk there quicker than driving.
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker: Are you out of harm’s way? (Apologies if you have already posted on this.)
Scout211
Last night the storm tracker had Ian passing west of Orlando as it moved north but this morning it shows Ian on a path straight through Orlando. In fact, right over my sister’s suburban neighborhood. ☹️
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
How exactly would this new Electoral Count Act prevent another January 6th? What’s to stop somebody else from whipping up another mob?
And really, doesn’t this limit our ability to challenge actually illegitimate election results?
@Aussie Sheila:
“Only vaguely center-left party”?
I would hardly call the Democratic Party “vaguely” center-left. This isn’t 2004 anymore
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Brit in Chicago
Funny, I’m sort of coming around to the idea of having the VP choose the next President….
Cameron
Y’know, those folks who the guv hijacked from TX to MA via FL should be grateful he didn’t keep them in FL. I think a big “Thank you, Governor DeSantis, for keeping us safe. Maybe you could use the rest of your human-trafficking funds to do something for Florida.” is in order.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@Rob:
🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿😪😪😪😪
Betty Cracker
@MazeDancer: Looks like we may luck out if the current track holds. Bad news for people south of Tampa Bay is good news for those of us north of it. It’s dark and gloomy and rainy right now, but we’ll take it!
Soprano2
Found out last night that two of my insane regular customers, a married couple, WENT TO FLORIDA ON MONDAY!!!!! Nuts, absolutely stark raving nuts. Their place is somewhere on the gulf side in the area of Tampa. I just hope they’re OK, crazy as they are.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@rikyrah:
Good morning
The Oracle of Solace
@lowtechcyclist: I guess modern political journalists have found that analysis is hard work. They can churn out multiple numbers-go-up stories in the time it takes to do one serious analysis piece. So analysis is left up to hobbyists like us, I suppose…
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I wouldn’t either, but where we fall on the right-left political spectrum is of little interest to me.
PaulWartenberg
Outer bands of Ian are hitting me now.
Power went out for 10 minutes. Don’t know how much longer I’ll have this.
If I don’t make it, I want a guarantee from 69 percent of all surviving Floridian voters that they will vote a straight Democratic ticket. BLUE WAVE 2022!!!
kalakal
@Soprano2: They should be fine. Idiots but fine. The hotels can stand up to what’s coming here, they’re going to have a scary/boring day and a half stuck inside listening to hell breaking loose outside. Here in the Tampa area it’s going to be very wet and windy, the really horrible stuff is going to a 100 miles south. With hurricanes you want to be on the left side, we’re a fair distance on the left side
Baud
@PaulWartenberg:
👍
kalakal
@PaulWartenberg: Stay safe and good luck.
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker:
Excellent news. Happy to know you’ll be okay. (knock wood)
Betty Cracker
The company he keeps:
I wish the Beltway press paid more attention to DeSantis’s history of appointing racists and right-wing cranks to elected offices and his overall pattern of making appointments vs. leaving vacancies to gain political advantage. It’s highly partisan and inconsistent.
MazeDancer
@PaulWartenberg: Good to have your priorities intact, even if other things are not. Stay safe.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: That’s the way TFG made appointments too. It undermined the effectiveness of government while also rewarding loyalists. We’re still paying for that.
I had my second cataract surgery yesterday. That eye is blurry this morning, which I gather is normal. I’m seeing the doc in about half an hour for a routine follow up.
prostratedragon
@Betty Cracker: I read somewhere that that community is majority Black.🤬
Amir Khalid
@Aussie Sheila:
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
In any country but the US, the Democratic party would be considered centre-right. The Republican party would be considered far-right, like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Soprano2: I’ve been using my weather app to check Florida locations’ weather today as a more granular view of Ian. Just insane numbers. 11 inches in Tampa, 17” in Sarasota.
Another number to think about what that means. An inch of rain is considered to be equivalent to about 12-13” of snow. Think about one storm dumping 12, 15, 17 FEET of snow.
Betty
@Rob: As a survivor of Hurricane Maria, I can tell you there is no way to prepare for the damage of a Cat 5. Assuming you make it okay through the storm with property more or less intact, the shock you experience during recovery given the devastation around you is traumatic.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PaulWartenberg:
Good luck, stay safe
Almost Retired
Mrs. Almost Retired’s sister and brother-in-law are brand new Floridians, retiring to Bradenton from Michigan three months ago. Uh-oh. While they are tornado-tested, they’re clueless about hurricanes (“wait…where’s the fucking basement?!”). Fortunately, their new neighbors have been wonderful in tutoring them on basic hurricane survival and helping with boards and shutters or whatever you do when a Category 4 storm is coming your way.
prostratedragon
My, that NOAA page is sobering even if you understood that it is a big one. Now they say some surges could be over 12 feet. Be thinking of everyone.
Brit in Chicago
@kalakal: Thanks for this—I hadn’t seen it and it is, as you say, brilliant.
Has anyone seen Tony Jay? His take on recent events would no doubt be… interesting.
NotMax
So old can remember when Florida hurricanes were “proof positive” of celestial wrath because Disney went all in on the gay.
//
Friend who happens to be in Tampa, in a flaming red Zone A evacuation area, said he’s been “hearing conflicting reports” so thought he’d just ride it out. Took several of us here on Maui to convince him to get his ass out of there pronto.
A Ghost to Most
It’s Florida. If the weather don’t get you, the bipedal reptiles will.
sab 🐕
@Almost Retired: When we lived in Florida we had a set of 4’×8′ sheets of plywood with pre-drilled holes and bolts to put over the plate glass doors. We kept them in the garage and bolted them on every hurricane before we evacuated inland
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
The US Democratic Party has moved leftward over the past twenty years
Also this:
Geminid
Sometimes important legislation gets passed in “Lame Duck” sessions. The law that repealed the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and finally allowed gay people to serve openly in the military, was passed passed in the 2010 lame duck session.
Almost Retired
@sab 🐕:
That’s what I always see people on the news doing before every hurricane :) Hopefully, they’re getting a crash course in hurricane preparation for the coming years.
kalakal
@NotMax: He did leave right? That’s just a complicated way of committing suicide.
@sab 🐕: Yep, lots of people still do that, we got hurricane windows and doors a few years ago but I still have to board over a couple of doors until they’re replaced. ( they’re crazy expensive) . The guy opposite still uses plywood but these days the materials of choice are Kevlar or Polycarbonate.
The nice thing about polycarbonate is it’s really strong, light, AND transparent. When you board up all the windows is really depressing & claustrophobic, espescially when the power goes.
NotMax
@kalakal
Maybe will put on Key Largo in solidarity. Or better yet, the original The Hurricane (the one from 1937 with Jon Hall).
;)
Soprano2
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: As a sewer professional, it horrifies me every time I see rainfall numbers like that, because I know what it means. Plus in Florida some people have lift pumps for their sewer, which means when the electricity goes out they can’t flush their toilets either. There are lots of lift stations and force mains there.
Gvg
@Scout211: Replay of Charley 2004. My parents were out of state when it hit. They live in Orlando but had gone to Alaska for a long planned vacation to the remote parts in the summer. My aunt and I in Gainesville knew their house hadn’t been prepped for a storm and no one was there. We tried to call neighbors we didn’t know who tried to at least put away loose objects like potted plants and trash cans. Then we waited, and drove down right after the storm with tools and tarps and trash bags to see what needed to be done. Orlando got the eye of the storm and it passed over their house but they got lucky.
That drive down afterwards really impressed me. Normally you are told to stay put and let the emergency responders get things back together right afterwards but we had urgent need to go to Orlando. The interstate was an impressive logistic movement in our sight of hundreds of utility trucks from every state, National Guard trucks mostly Florida but not all, supply trucks, groceries, Home Depot. The utility trucks were the most impressive. Lots of truckloads of power and telephone poles, cranes, heavy equipment of all kinds. I have never forgotten it. It made me so happy to see all those people coming to help and know all the planning that had been done by so many organizations. At the gas station on the way we met an insurance agent adjuster in a camper. He said he was one of many being sent in by all the companies and that he would set up in a parking lot, sleep in the camper, and do peoples claims even if the insurance office had been destroyed in the worst case.
These things did not happen when Hurricane Andrew came in the 90’s. We had to learn the hard way.
Soprano2
@Betty: My SIL works for a disaster recovery company. She was in New Orleans after Katrina for quite a while. She said even natives there couldn’t find their way around in some areas because the damage was so massive. She said there was no way to convey what it was like if you weren’t there.
kalakal
@NotMax: ooh, never seen The Hurricane, I’ll have to watch it after this is over and I’ve recovered a bit. Key Largo’s great
Ken
I’m surprised this didn’t continue “and is going to do his own research”, and possibly that he’d found some website pushing HAARP weather-control, or maybe that Jupiter tides are causing the hurricane.
But you did the right thing convincing him to evacuate.
Betty Cracker
@kalakal: We’ve got Bahama shutters, which I love.
Geminid
@Gvg: A couple guys from the central Virginia Rappahannock Electic Cooperative came by yesterday to check on their lines and poles. One said he expected to be sent to Florida after the storm passes. I remarked that it was a long drive, but he sounded like he was looking forward to the trip.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: I’ve always liked those, I think they look great. Ours is a 2 storey house which is pretty rare round here, ranch houses for miles, and when we bought it was a repossessed wreck with ancient windows, I was cool with putting boards over the ground floor stuff but no way was I going to be 12 ft up a ladder with a 6 * 4 sheet a plywood in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. The first casualty in any hurricane would have been me when I plunged to my doom. We got the top storey done just before Irma which was lucky
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: They must own it. Would not think a rental outfit would allow them to take residence.
Betty Cracker
@kalakal: I hear you about the ladder! We’re in a stilt house, and if we ever need to shut the Bahama shutters, we can do so from inside the house. I love the shade they provide year round.
Paul in KY
@sab 🐕: Good idea. For those that have to buy them, make sure they are 3/4 plywood. Might also heavily duct tape them to minimize splintering.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: Does the river regularly flood? Looks like we should be both be ok with this one but will the roads wash out round you?
Rob
@Baud: Seconding!
Honus
@brantl: as General Binh said “That is true. It is also irrelevant”
ian
@Baud:
Here is to hoping they bait and switch him like they did with Chip bill then the IRA
lowtechcyclist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
This. The Democratic Party of 2022 is a vast improvement over the Democratic Party of 2004.
Joey Maloney
@Amir Khalid: I think that view is at least 10 years out of date. In European terms the Democrats are a perfectly respectable center-left coalition now, and – since Europeans aren’t nearly as squeamish about calling a spade, a spade – the Republicans are openly fascist.
Soprano2
@Paul in KY: Yep, I think they do.
Betty Cracker
@kalakal: Our river (the Withlacoochee) gets high sometimes, but the last time it flooded enough to inundate people’s homes on this stretch was in 2004, when we had the four hurricanes. Its headwaters are in the Green Swamp in Central Florida, which got a ton of rain that year.
Last year it got unusually high and reached the land endpoint of our dock, but it wasn’t close to flooding the downstairs. I did worry about gators crashing through the downstairs screened porch though! (None did.)
Any sizeable storm can wash out our crappy dirt road, but we both have 4WD vehicles that can get through most anything. A direct hit from a big storm could conceivably strand us, but we figure we could boat to a nearby ramp and pick up supplies, etc. I wonder if Instacart would deliver to a boat ramp? They sure won’t come back here! ;-)
Ella in New Mexico
I’m guessing Republicans are backing this bill because they know how many state legislatures, secretaries of state and governors will be able to do what Trump wanted–flip an election they don’t like the results of–and this will ensure no one at the Federal level will have the power refuse fixed results when they certify the election.
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: Also I’m not sure any of these “In Europe The Dem Party Would Be…” comparisons are very useful. Our population (demographics), system of govt and our history (especially with regards to Slavery) is very different from theirs. While racism absolutely exists everywhere, White Supremacy doesn’t play out, or shape politics the same way it does in the US. When you realize that the legacy of Slavery effects EVERYTHING in America (economic inequality, policing, guns, environmental policy, healthcare, voting rights, immigration etc.) it’s hard to make any real apples-to-apples comparison with countries that don’t have race so dominantly centered in our politics. The fact that half of the US freaked the fuck out over the ACA (a policy that seems like it would be non-controversial in most European countries) speaks volumes about the major difference between the political terrain and popular sentiment in America vs. the rest of the world. Or look at guns. Common-sense regulations are normal in Europe but here even the slightest hint of restriction gets fierce and violent opposition. People in Europe joke about being unable to even wrap their heads around our bat-shit gun worship in America. This to me, is key in understanding why political parties will never align in the same way they would in other countries, and ignoring these gigantic, cultural/historic/demographic elephants in the room is one of the reasons I can never take US-Dem-Party-Would-Be… comparisons very seriously. We are still, in 2022, fighting essentially over Reconstruction/Slavery. That’s something that is pretty unique compared to the rest of the world. And it shapes our politics in ways that don’t translate to other countries’ politics.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
Well, as I heard General Honore say last night, the real test for DeSantis is the aftermath, especially since this is a double catastrophe for FL in that it’s a major hurricane on the level of some of the worst in history and the debacle of the FL home insurance industry falling to pieces due to the machinations of him and his minions in the legislature.
cmorenc
Perhaps this is a petty gripe with too-typical TV news coverage of people preparing houses / businesses for a hurricane, but they nearly always depict someone nailing plywood over windows instead of the far better way of using screws. It’s not just because screws make more secure attachments, but also after the storm has passed and you need to remove the plywood, nails usually pull out at an angle, creating a damaged area to the surface they were nailed into, whereas screws usually come out straight and cleanly, leaving only the small screw-diameter hole that can easily be filled with putty.
Been there, done that the wrong way and the right way with the windows on our house at Sunset Beach, NC when it went through two hurricanes in 1996. With nails, I spent 2-3 days repairing all the cosmetic damage they left in their wake around windows. Second storm with screws, each window took 5 minutes max to putty-fill the holes.
Better still is to have permanently mounted hurricane shutters, either roll-down or accordion-style – we now have the accordion-style shutters for the windows and doors. Takes me only a half-hour to close and lock all 11 windows and two doors, and same to re-open them after the storm passes. They cost me 10.5k to install (probably now more like 20k) but in the big scheme of things, they prevent risk of far more expensive damage to the house. A shattered window during a hurricane not only lets in a firehose worth of water, but allows rapid pressure fluctuations to stress the house structure in similar fashion to repeated bending of a coat-hanger (actually, the stress mechanism is more like a bellow pump).
Llelldorin
It looks like the Electoral Count Act is turning into an intelligence test for Republican Senators. The smarter ones know they have a cooked-in advantage in the current system, so the last thing they want to do is roll the dice and blow it up. The stupid ones are, as ever, those lining up with Ted Cruz.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Here in Illinois, shutters are static things that are permanently attached ON EITHER SIDE of the windows, and ornamental thing. Which I happen to think looks really dumb.
cain
@Soprano2: Hey, I bet rentals are really cheap right now, amirite? (although maybe not since people are probably trying to find safe places)
Rob
@Betty: I bet. I am hoping for the best for Florida.
StringOnAStick
@Llelldorin: I saw where Marc Elias supports this bill now that Senator Klobuchar’s modifications have been incorporated. If Marc thinks it’s good, that my gold standard.
Kayla Rudbek
I need to go get dressed up in a suit so that I can go over to Walgreens and scream at them about not having my anti-anxiety medication refill done (the suit so that I Look Like A Lawyer and so that they take me seriously and will give in and give me my prescription). I hate all gatekeeper insurance companies and I hope that their C-suite is first up against the wall when the revolution comes. I have called the goddamned gatekeepers TWICE this week and still no refill.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I hadn’t seen that. Good to hear.
Christine
@UncleEbeneezer:
I just wanted to say a big YES to this comment. It is central to any understanding of the US and most white people don’t use this lens (and that is not really an individual decision, it’s cultural conditioning on a systemic level).
Anyway
@UncleEbeneezer:
Well said. These US-Euro comparisons are not very meaningful.
Citizen Alan
@Ella in New Mexico: This is honestly what I think too. We’ll see this November whether any red state legislatures intervene to flip a close Senate race from Dem to GOP.
Geminid
@Anyway: I think a lot of people saying the Democratic party is equivalent to center-right European party are just frustrated lefties who yearn for a Left party. Some even know better, but know that if they repeat it enough many uncritical people believe it. This leads to cynicism and is a soft form of voter suppression, I think.
Sister Golden Bear
@NotMax:
God supports trans rights and she’s pissed at the Florida haters. //
But seriously, my thoughts are with all those affected. Except DeSatanic.
WaterGirl
@StringOnAStick: That is reassuring. What were Amy’s modifications? (First name easier to spell than last name.)
sab
@Paul in KY: Sometimes I get the idea that everyone ithere. They have had hurricanes forever, and every new hurricane is worse than the last few. Why on earth are people surprised?!
ETA Absolutely not saying I am unsympathetic. Evacuation absolutely sucks, especially if you aren’t sure you will have a house on the other end when you return.
Ruckus
@brantl:
repukelicans – seem appropriate
I like rethuglicans as well.
Not too many names to use that don’t involve massive amounts of swearing…….