Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

We still have time to mess this up!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

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

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Milton is looking for his stapler in Tampa Bay

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  1. 1.

    HinTN

    Looks pretty definitive @Adam and @ Betty. These “speed run” storms coming across the Gulf ain’t kidding. Be safe all y’all in the path.

  4. 4.

    Kent

    Be interesting to see from a scientific perspective if unexpected rapid intensification happens to this one as well.  That seems to be the trend recently.  A Cat 2 or 3 hurricane suddenly without warning intensifies up to Cat 4 or 5 right before landfall.

  5. 5.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    The deities that control weather are giving a clear signal that they want Ron DiSantis sacrificed to placate their wrath.

    Maybe TFG also, too.

    I report, you decide.

  6. 6.

    Chet Murthy

    @Kent: Months ago I read that the Gulf surface temp was crazy high (my memory was 90F, but that couldn’t be, could it?) and that that would drive this sort of intensification.

  7. 7.

    hrprogressive

    Someone make sure this one hits some of them there “blue” counties to throw MTG off the scent.

    /obvious S

  8. 8.

    scav

    @Kent: & @Chet Murthy: Yeah, I think the models and warnings based on them are pretty solid, although the speed at which these things are strengthening is higher than in the past.  Reality is changing, but the models can handle the new inputs.  But that’s more for the ocean end of things to a degree.  I don’t know if the existing models are as good at predicting some of the further inland effects as they’re going to need to be (for example, storm surge v. mountain / inland flooding and the importance of soil saturation on that, etc etc).

  10. 10.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Snarki, child of Loki: Then it’s time for Your Favorite President to stand tall, facing the oncoming storm with an upside-down Lee Greenwood Bible tucked under one arm and a bared Sharpie held high by the other.  God Bless AMAGAica!

  14. 14.

    Gretchen

    My son works at a restaurant right on  Naples Bay. They got hit 4 years ago and were closed for months. They’re closing today and planning not to reopen until next Sunday. I’m worried about whether he’ll have a safe place to stay.
    He plans to stay at his house but I’m not sure that’s safe.

  16. 16.

    Roberto el oso

    @Chet Murthy: yes, this past summer the surface waters got very close to 90 degrees. The Atlantic coastal waters are also getting warmer, which is just as alarming.

  18. 18.

    Jay C

    @Chet Murthy:

    No, I think you were right (or near right); regardless of the exact temps, it’s pretty clear that the Gulf has, in general, heated up considerably in recent years over historical ranges. And i’m not even a climate scientist, and I know that that’s going to affect storm (i.e. hurricane) development. And not in a good way.

  19. 19.

    Andrew Abshier

    Sarasota here.  We just got the barrier islands dug out after Helene.  If we end up on the south side of the eye, we get to do it all over again.   Of course (spit) Ron fucking DEESantis (spit) will be his usual useless self, just as he always is.  I never thought I’d pine for the good old days of Gov. Rick Scott, but here we are.

  20. 20.

    SW

    Pretty odd that the Republicans are groping for a way to score political points from the hurricanes when their policies if implemented would almost assuredly make them worse.  They think we are stupid.  Guess we are about to find out if they are right.

  22. 22.

    kindness

    You poor folk down there.  You just cleaned up from the last one.  Some times ya just can’t get a break.

  25. 25.

    RevRick

    A hit on Tampa Bay would be horrendous. The water would just pile up and be shoved inland. And if it were a category 3, well, that would compound the disaster.

  26. 26.

    Bill Arnold

    @Chet Murthy:
    At the moment, the track across the gulf is looking roughly like 85F/29.5C. (The last satellite readings are only part of the gulf, though.)
    Higher water temperature means more water vapor in the air. More water vapor means more latent heat, released with a phase transition to rain.

  28. 28.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    Bill Arnold : The depth of the warm/hot water matters too:

    from NASA JPL PODAAC

    Hurricanes are not only fueled by the heat at the surface of the ocean but also by the heat that is stored at depth, below the surface, that we call ocean heat content. At present satellites cannot directly measure the ocean temperatures below the surface. However, because when water heats up it tends to expand, the high ocean heat content can be observed in sea level data (higher ocean heat content means higher sea level due to water expansion). Figure c shows the sea level observed by altimetry satellites such as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in the Gulf of Mexico on September 23, 2024, a few days before Hurricane Helene rapidly intensified. Red colors show locations where sea level is higher (warmer waters at depth) that are particularly present where the hurricane intensified from category 1 to category 2 and then category 3. At the time Hurricane Helene moved over the Gulf of Mexico, not only the surface temperatures were significantly high, a lot of heat was also stored below the surface available to fuel the hurricane to intensify.

  30. 30.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Andrew Abshier: Surely you won’t mention the forbidden words “climate change,” will you?  I do think Prince Puddinghands of the White Boots will accept Federal $$, but he’ll probably pout and scowl for the cameras like he did last time around.

  32. 32.

    Harrison Wesley

    Totally OT: something just popped up on my computer claiming Tim Walz is going to do an interview on Fox.  That sounds odd to me – is this true?

  35. 35.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    This is unbelievable.  The hurricane season doesn’t end until November 30th and, as of today, there are only 8 unused names remaining.  At this rate, the National Hurricane Center will have to start naming hurricanes using letters from the Greek alphabet.

     

  37. 37.

    bbleh

    All I can say is, I hope Milton is NOT happy with all the fraud and other game-playing that’s been going on at Mag-a-Lardo and decides to focus his energies on disassembling it from the top down.

    Otherwise, stay safe Tampa Dems and everyone else!  When in doubt, move out.

  47. 47.

    Suzanne

    @Chet Murthy:

    Months ago I read that the Gulf surface temp was crazy high (my memory was 90F, but that couldn’t be, could it?) and that that would drive this sort of intensification. 

    I had my feet in the Gulf a couple of weeks ago. It was terrifying how warm it was. Warmer than bath water.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @Ksmiami:

    omg the people at the Butler rally are the absolute worst of America. 

    Butler County is making the transition from rural farm country to Pittsburgh whitey-white exurbs. Butler-the-town is still pretty rural, but the suburbanization is spreading. And Pittsburgh people, including my studio leader, are moving out there.

    I don’t even like getting out of the car.

  53. 53.

    A Ghost to Most

    Great. My step-mother in Ruskin hasn’t sold her waterside house yet, and let the flood insurance lapse. Very glad to not be involved.

  55. 55.

    Gretchen

    @WaterGirl: I wish they’d move back here to Kansas City. We have tornadoes but they don’t seem to be making ends meet there even when they’re not out of work for months. But they love the beach, say it’s magical.

  57. 57.

    Barbara

    @Gretchen: ​I have thought about this as I read people’s accounts and I think many people perhaps fixate on personal safety — obviously essential — but discount the disruption to their lives from other, admittedly lesser, kinds of losses, such as cars or essential documents. I hope you can encourage your son to leave while he has a chance.​

  60. 60.

    eclare

    @Jackie:

    I bet!  My college bf went there too, I went to UT.  I remember going to Dores games where students brought tiny tvs to watch other games!

  62. 62.

    Anotherlurker.

    I would like to add: Let’s go Mets!    Taking it to Philly in the 8th inning and coming out a 6-2 winner after being shut out, 1-0 for 7 innings.

  63. 63.

    eclare

    @raven:

    Did I ever tell you that one of my former bosses played for UGA?  From linebacker to geeky CPA!

    Famous saying:  it’s not a good workout if you don’t throw up.

  64. 64.

    Sid

    @SW: I thought that Walz missed an opening during the debate to point out that Donald Trump’s Project 2025 would negatively effect NOAA, the National Weather Service, and FEMA. In fact, I thought he should have had a copy of the printed edition that Vance wrote the forward to. As I recall, Donald Trump’s Project 2025 was only mentioned once, which was a mistake.

  66. 66.

    yellowdog

    I read somewhere that the insurance companies just canceled thousands of policies in Florida.

  67. 67.

    eclare

    @Raven:

    Oh gosh l worked for him around 2000, so maybe early 90’s?  I remember him saying that he played for the UGA team that lost to Vandy.

  68. 68.

    Barbara

    @yellowdog: ​Florida has had a property insurance crisis for a while — but hurricane damage is more likely to trigger the need for flood insurance. Or so I have read..

  74. 74.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
      actually Obama controlls the weather

    Conspiracy Theorists Say Obama Engineered Hurricane Sandy

    By Elizabeth Flock
    Oct. 29, 2012, at 3:56 p.m.
    U.S. News & World Report

    As Hurricane Sandy blasts the eastern seaboard just over a week before Election Day, a number of conspiracy theorists have decided President Barack Obama engineered the mega-storm to secure his re-election.

    InfoWars.com, TheIntelHub.com, and ConsfearacyNewz all posted stories over the last several days alleging that the The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, helped the president engineer Sandy.

  75. 75.

    oldgold

    No state has been impacted as severely as Florida by climate change. In fact, climate change may pose an existential threat to the  state’s future.

    I have a sandy shack down there and I can tell you the natives are restless. Most of my neighbors, including me, are currently uninsured.

    Yet, the damn fools continue to vote for climate change deniers. My  guess is they will continue to do so until their places are blown away and/ or the water is permanently up to their asses.

  77. 77.

    sab

    @Barbara: After we had our local flash flood last month in Ohio, all the businesses said that they hoped their water came up through the drains, thus covered by regular business commercial insurance, and not through the doors and windows, covered by FEMA flood insurance.

    The commercial business insurance paid up promptly. The FEMA insured are still hassling to get anything.

  81. 81.

    sab

    @Gretchen: My stepdaughter does catastrophe adjusting for a national insurer. She was talking to an extended family yesterday where every car in every family household was totalled by the hurricane. And they live scattered all across their county. So they cannot even visit or help each other because nobody has transportation anymore.

  87. 87.

    Gloria DryGarden

    I’m happy to report my friend near Brevard and Hendersonville in NC will be getting power back on Wednesday if all goes well. It appears her home wasn’t completely destroyed, and they can keep living there, with a few repairs.

  101. 101.

    JWR

    Amanpour & Co. has been good all week, starting off with an interview with an author who’s written about the rightward tilt within the younger, largely male, Latino population. (Links are to Youtube):

    “The Rise of the Latino Far Right:” Why Latinos Are Turning Out for Trump
    The votes of 63 million Latino Americans will be a deciding factor in the November election. Despite his history of anti-immigration rhetoric, Donald Trump has been making inroads with this constituency, which in the past leaned Democratic. Award-winning journalist Paola Ramos investigates this shift in her new book “Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America.”
    Originally aired on October 1, 2024

    They’ve also been covering the Middle East extensively and excellently, capped off by this powerful interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates:

    Ta-Nehisi Coates on Visit to Israel/West Bank: “An Immoral Apartheid Regime” | Amanpour and Company
    Award-winning journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates says he must confront the truth, no matter how difficult. He is doing exactly that in his new book “The Message,” in which he journeys to Senegal, Israel, and the occupied West Bank. The author joins the show to discuss what he found.
    Originally aired on October 3, 2024

  103. 103.

    Gloria DryGarden

     

    @JWR: these interviews sound great. I’ll look them up.

    Those Latino men. Catholics, against abortion, sometimes highly male supremacist macho culture. You suppose that’s it?  Love a good bully.

    A lady acquaintance of mine says she’s for trump cuz we need a good bully, plus all the other talking points, economy etc, BS.

  104. 104.

    Bill Arnold

    @mrmoshpotato:
    The last interglacial periods have run from 50k years to about 15k years. So if humans weren’t causing global heating, they’d still have to wait many centuries for a bigger Florida. Takes a while for large kilometers-thick ice sheets to form. But they/we are causing global heating, plus we might build (space-based) technology to control levels of insolation (up/down).

  106. 106.

    RevRick

    @oldgold: When homes in Florida can no longer be insured, then the housing market will collapse. Every bank I know of demands proof of insurance for home loans. I have a line of credit with my local bank and even though the mortgage has been paid off and I haven’t used the line for several years, I have to provide annual proof of insurance to the bank.

    At that point, home sales will have to be all cash, kind of like the market before the New Deal. How many can put together that kind of money? The pool of potential buyers will shrink drastically, so the only way to sell would be by slashing prices.
    We’re going to enter a new era, where a lot of homeowners in flood/hurricane/fire prone areas will take a severe haircut on the value of what for many is their primary asset. And banks that hold mortgages in such areas will find themselves under severe pressure.

  107. 107.

    ArchTeryx

    @Gloria DryGarden: Seems to be a WHOLE lot of people lining up to smear their faces with BBQ sauce for the leopards to eat. I saw a “Trans for Trump” T-shirt just today.

  108. 108.

    JWR

    @Gloria DryGarden: I highly recommend both those interviews. They also did a great one with John Leguizamo, an apparent actor, but who I’ve only known as an activist / author. This one covers his latest PBS outing.

    John Leguizamo on Learning the Untold History of Latinos: “It Changed My DNA” | Amanpour and Company
    The significant contributions of America’s Latino population to U.S. history and culture have long been overlooked. Yet the Latino vote will be a decisive factor in next month’s election. Emmy-winning actor and activist John Leguizamo explores all this in his new series, “VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos.” Leguizamo joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss what he learned — and what’s at stake.
    Originally aired on October 2, 2024

  109. 109.

    PaulWartenberg

    I live right in the most likely path of the eye of the storm, and I doubt I will be able to get out of the way in time because I’ll need to prep my library first for the hurricane.

    It’s looking to make landfall right on the southern edge of St. Pete, along the lowest elevated parts of Pinellas County. I swear, this feels like 30 percent of the landmass south of Ulmerton Rd. is about to go bye-bye. Look at all the damage the Pinellas coast got from Helene and THAT was just a glancing blow.

  111. 111.

    Chet Murthy

    @ArchTeryx: dafuq?  Holey fuck.

    ETA: this one? https://www.amazon.com/Transgender-Trump-Election-Funny-Gifts/dp/B07ZMDP1Q2/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RdWUX9W13GnWtyVNXKMrnZn4xsNqahfqOPOJhV8YBeOh7ULiLvw08Ylth9OeYFi8W1LemZXLJDXUvJ50kFN9Ym_Bg0j0MVDg7HwrZKbcEdqZUs88BxX2Y0IW1uh6kBw_YM5VBD7WGHoQ2vbYJxRmTOiukKiV0M2oD_e78Gafx5Ne76XJrnK0bggOJlHpnuBkVq-81XH7lKDFF8yGOtZav8pPrLKCEQ03JNSv0suXY3o1_s57WMkcCTLNljVbZo7B03iKlfgEbVzzQIxmLO5mxJ73oLbpNr84mMxyLcv5APM.BvvZie1i2VMeb0IQdqeJEXy6FHzOZHEnznQaPSKS0wA&dib_tag=se&keywords=Transgenders+For+Trump&qid=1728180895&sr=8-1

  112. 112.

    Anoniminous

    @JWR: ​

    Met some women here in NM who can not read, write, or do basic arithmetic. Hispanic and their families didn’t believe in education for girls.  Hispanic men can be real shits

  113. 113.

    ArchTeryx

    @Chet Murthy: No a different one. There are multiple designs going around and a ton of debate on BlueSky if they’re some sort of sick joke or they’re serious about it.

    The one I saw was actually on someone’s back in the wild. In Latham, NY. Some people just astound me with their eagerness to line up to be a hot lunch. I can think of far less painful ways of committing suicide. Tried a couple of them, too.

  115. 115.

    ArchTeryx

    @Anoniminous: The one thing the Right and a certain percentage of the Hispanic population seem to agree on is that women are just things that have one use. And they’ll happily vote in face eating leopards that tell them they’re right about women.

    Hope they don’t win, because if they do, I’ll be wishing them fun on the deportation cattle trains. Because if they think the leopards will not consider their faces tasty and delicious, they’re going to find out exactly what the Jews in Germany found out in the 1930s.

  117. 117.

    KatKapCC

    Some people just astound me with their eagerness to line up to be a hot lunch.

    Good way to put it.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    @Chet Murthy: Zooks!  That’s an ugly, ugly URL.

    Pro-Tip – On Amazon links you can delete everything after the “B0xxx/” number and slash to get directly to the item (without all the tracking stuff).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    JWR

    @oldgold:

    No state has been impacted as severely as Florida by climate change. In fact, climate change may pose an existential threat to the state’s future.

    I heard an interview with Marco Rubio a few years ago, and he was asked what he would to prepare for Global Warming. He said something like “heck, (some beach town in FL), was built on little more than a sandbar already”, so it was nothing he was gonna worry his beautiful little mind about. I thought, wow, I wonder how his constituents in, (some beach town in FL), would think about that non-answer.

  121. 121.

    Anoniminous

    Us DFH pinko-commies have been warning people FOR DECADES this was going to go down and we were scorned, insulted, and ignored. Well, it’s happening and it’s only going to get worse. People are thinking they need to establish standards for Category 6 hurricanes: any storm with wind speeds over 192 miles per hour.
    And a new study published last week projected the Gulf Stream will shut-down next year. We will see.​

    Do we live in interesting times or what?

  122. 122.

    ArchTeryx

    @JWR: Probably he doesn’t give two shits about them. He figures that even without them, he’ll have enough votes to continue to be Senator. So far, he’s been right.

  123. 123.

    Gvg

    @Kent: It is normal since at least 2005. The gulf is warm and they get heated up when they get there. Heat drives Hurricanes. The gulf is also pretty shallow so it heats up easier than deeper water because there isn’t as much of it. Deeper water would dilute the heat. This is why Katrina grew so fast, and also every other gulf hurricane does it too. We have all learned a lot here in Florida since Andrew. You should listen to work place chatter all over the state. We all know so much we didn’t used to. When I was a kid here it had been decades since we had a bad one. Now, we know.
    The shallow water of the gulf causes another problem in that there is a long slope off the west cost where it only gradually gets deeper and it is essentially a very large bay. When a hurricane comes it pushes the water before it and there is no where for it to go but on to land. There are several super bad scenarios that have been worried about for decades. Cedar key was one of them (last week). Another one is Tampa bay coming in from below. We have missed that one several times by last minute swerves. One day one won’t swerve.

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    @Chet Murthy: FYWP didn’t have any trouble wrapping that URL on my phone, so I think you’re good there.

    I don’t know what URLs break the text wrapping, but there are a few types.  Apparently they were smart enough to make sure Amazon links work!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    BR

    Maybe it’s time we start back up some relentless positivity? It’s been way too doom and gloom lately and that’s where MAGA wants us to be.

    There are lots of positive stories and video clips of Harris/Walz and Dems generally that can be shared. This is not to say there are no bad things out there, but all that is baked into the cake. Now it’s about GOTV and that requires optimism. (I’m not naturally an optimistic or a pessimist, but it’s times like this where you fake it till you make it.)

  128. 128.

    Jackie

    @Anotherlurker.:

    I would like to add: Let’s go Mets!

    YES! Too be honest I have no skin in this playoffs. So I’m rooting for ALL the underdogs. Especially against LA and the Yankees.

  129. 129.

    JWR

    @Anoniminous:

    Hispanic men can be real shits

    The interview I posted up at #101 with journalist Paola Ramos tied a lot of the anti-Hispanic, anti-Latino movement to a caste system, learned over the last hundreds of years. I dunno how that ties in with the way men treat “their” woman today, but I think that has to do with Conservative Catholicism. (?)

    And in the interview with Leguizamo up at @108, and I’m sure every one here is aware of this, he talked about the last great American Purge, “Operation Wetback“, and how everybody suspected of being of Hispanic descent, to include U.S. citizens, were rounded up along with “los illegals”.

    Some people just never learn. :(

  136. 136.

    ArchTeryx

    @wjca: I’ve always used Tide got Rolled. Ever since Ohio State beat them en route to the national championship some years back.

  137. 137.

    Jackie

    @Jay: I’m currently dealing with a beloved family member spewing those lies.☹️

    I’m currently sending links disputing that misinformation from her own governor. Whether she believes those or not… I’m still waiting.

  139. 139.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Anoniminous: I’ve been following the stuff about the Gulf Stream, and the Atlantic meridianal overturning current, AMOC for short. And it’s a very big deal.

  141. 141.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Anoniminous: I’ve met women in neighborhoods who can’t give me directions in english, when I’m “lost”. They say, “no English”

    When I ask again in Spanish, I get directions, then I ask how long they’ve been here (years). Then I tell them, I learned this much Spanish in less than a year. ( I sound really good, too).

    i think the men go out to work and learn English, but the women stay home or in Spanish speaking community, and don’t have an opportunity to learn. It isolates them.

  142. 142.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @ArchTeryx: don’t try any more of them, ok? I got really good at calling a friend for help when it got really bad. It’s long ago now, but it’s an accomplishment to pull through that.

  144. 144.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Chet Murthy: I don’t have his recent links, but where I’m getting info is on YouTube, some great explanations about Amoc and the Gulf Stream, with some predictions.

  145. 145.

    wjca

    @Gloria DryGarden: I’ve been following the stuff about the Gulf Stream, and the Atlantic meridianal overturning current, AMOC for short. And it’s a very big deal.

    If (when?) the Gulf Stream shuts down, Europe is looking at some massive, and fairly immediate, climate changes.

  147. 147.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @wjca: didn’t I read somewhere, that it’ll make a 30-40 degree drop in the low temps? I hope that’s  Fahrenheit.

    So intense.

  149. 149.

    Barry

    @Chet Murthy: “I see it existed until 1935.  One wonders what members were thinkin’ 1933-35.  Truly I do.”

     

    Our Fuhrer only meant *those* Jews, not us.

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