Ever wonder what the fuck is wrong with Florida? This partly explains it:
But there are things that are right with Florida too, like this medium-sized gator with all the teef:
Open thread!
Archives for 2024
Saturday Morning Open Thead: We Are Not Resigned
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
Harris to Deliver Speech Urging Young People to Stay Civically Engaged – The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/u…
— Charlie Richmond (Gyro Gearloose) (@charlierichmond.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 7:38 PM
The torch is being passed to a new generation, which should please some complainers. Per the NYTimes, “Harris to Deliver Speech Urging Young People to Stay Civically Engaged” [gift link]:
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has kept a low profile since she lost the presidential election, will give a speech in Maryland next week urging young people to stay civically engaged, the White House announced on Friday.
The event will take place in Prince George’s County and will be Ms. Harris’s fourth visit to Maryland this year, the announcement said. She is expected to address an audience of high school and college students, recent graduates and apprentices who have been active in their communities, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.
The official said Ms. Harris was not expected to focus on President-elect Donald J. Trump, and the announcement said her message would center on the “ongoing fight for the future.” The official said she would emphasize that young people’s leadership is more necessary than ever and remind them that young people have been at the forefront of pivotal moments of progress throughout American history…
“Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place,” she said on Nov. 6. “You have power. You have power. And don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.”
Saturday Morning Open Thead: We Are Not ResignedPost + Comments (348)
SIGN UP TODAY FOR THE ACA
Sign-up for coverage that starts on January 1, 2025 TODAY on the ACA.
Every state will have the open enrollment period for 1/1/25 go through at least 11:59:59 local time on December 15th.
This week about 40% of all ACA sign-ups happen so please don’t wait to the last minute as bad things can happen. Give yourself an extra day to navigate a complex and at times opaque system.
And then give yourself grace. Picking insurance is hard, so look for good enough instead of optimal. Good enough is, like most pizza, good enough.
OMG I Forgot the Amazing News
So many things going on plus the end of the semester that I forgot about the good news in my nightly post. It’s very exciting!
Last night, I apparently left the windows of my car down in the carpark next to the house- I don’t know what else to call it- it’s attached to the house but open on the sides and has a roof, but it isn’t a garage, and it’s part of the driveway. I’m just settling on carpark.
At any rate, I left the windows down, and Joelle was the first one out the door this morning as I was taking her to work, and she said “Looks like you had a visitor.” And we did! There were cat tracks all over the hood of my car, on the seats, and a trail across the dashboard. So that means my neighborhood has a free range kitty I get to look for. Tempted to put out a little bowl of food.
And yes, I am a hillbilly, it was not a possum or other critter, it was a cat, because I know what cat paw prints look like and trust me they look nothing like a raccoons or possums.
Exciting, right? Especially because the only thing I really miss about West Virginia are the abundance of critters roaming around and the birds.
Friday Night Open Thread
Another busy day today- first up, dad is in the hospital again, and they figured out why he was having problems last week. He had some indigestion and chest pain, so mom and dad called an ambulance and whisked him away. They took him to one hospital, which then sent him to another for cardiac care, and my mom had to take an uber rather than drive in downtown Charleston. At any rate, he had a mild heart attack and his stent from several decades ago was completely blocked. They have replaced/fixed/cleared that, and he is currently resting.
Obviously this is not a good thing, but it is kind of impressive that cardiac care is so good these days that a man can have a heart attack, have stents put in, and then live another 20 years- long enough to clog the stents. That is all I know and I will update you with more tomorrow when I know something.
***
This made me laugh out loud when I read it:
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned relentlessly on grocery prices in the 2024 race, vowing to bring down costs quickly for American families if given four more years in the White House.
But in an interview with Time in conjunction with being named the magazine’s “Person of the Year,” Trump now says doing that will be a “very hard” task.
Trump was asked if his presidency would be considered a “failure” if he didn’t deliver on his promise to slash Americans’ food bills.
“I don’t think so. Look, they got them up,” referring to the Biden-Harris administration. “I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard,” Trump said.
It’s going to be so much fun watching the Republicans in control of every branch of government, break every “promise,” and still, with an assist from the media, blame the Democrats.
***
Got another busy day tomorrow prepping the house for an invalid, as Joelle’s surgery is on Monday. Picked up some Family Medical Leave act paperwork so she can get some time off, picked up her post op meds, anddid some other minor stuff, and tomorrow it will be arranging furniture in the living room which is where we intend for her to stay for the first week or so. Just don’t need any obstacles or stuff in the room for her to trip or fall over, and to give her space to do rehab at home. So that should be a fun day.
Y’all behave.
War for Ukraine Day 1,024: Russian Drone Swarms Followed by Missiles
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. She’s jumping up on the bed more often. Three times just yesterday. She and Ruby are a bit stir crazy because I’ve not been able to walk them for about ten days or so. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations to help with her chemo.
Second, while the congestion is finally starting to break up, I still feel bleh. I’m just going to run through the basics again tonight.
Unfortunately, as expected, the Russians used the drone swarms to try to open the way for their missiles to attack.
Sitting in the corridor during a massive missile attack, the second this month, and reading about plans to negotiate with Putin. Feels surreal.
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 1:16 AM
Impressive interception of a Russian cruise missile by the mobile air defense group of the 114th Tactical Aviation Brigade. 13.12.2024
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 8:34 AM
Interception of a Russian cruise missile with the help of MANPADS during todays Russian missile attack on Ukraine.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 8:08 AM
Approximate tracks of Russian missiles and drones used in this morning’s large-scale attack on Ukraine.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 4:37 AM
Updated figures from Ukrainian Air Force: 287 weapons used in this morning’s Russian attack on Ukraine – 94 missiles of various types, 193 drones. 81 missiles, 80 drones shot down, 105 drones jammed, location lost, 5 drones flew back to Russia, and 1 flew to Belarus.
— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 5:35 AM
Today Russia launched a massive strike on Ukraine, launching 93 missiles and about 200 drones. As reported – 81 missiles were downed, 11 of which by F-16.
Video show one of the intercepted Kh-555 cruise missiles.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 4:15 AM
The Kyiv Independent has the details:
“As a result of the mass missile-drone attack, energy facilities in multiple regions were damaged,” the state energy operator Ukrenergo said. Repair works are underway, but the scope of emergency shutdowns will increase, according to the statement.
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast suffered the “most massive attack during the full-scale war,” Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk announced. Cruise missiles and drones struck critical infrastructure facilities in the region, but no casualties were reported at the moment.
Six energy facilities were targeted in Lviv Oblast, according to regional authorities. Neighboring Ternopil Oblast was also impacted, the regional military administration said without revealing details.
“There are no casualties. Critical infrastructure facilities are operating normally,” the Ternopil Oblast authorities said on Telegram. Earlier in the morning, officials said that half of the region’s residents were without power due to emergency shutdowns.
Two people – employees of a civilian enterprise – were injured in the village of Myrne in Kharkiv Oblast, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported initially. The number of injuries later rose to four.
Five of Ukraine’s nine operational nuclear reactor units have reduced power output due to the attack, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The Polish Air Force scrambled its fighter jets as Russian drones and missiles entered western Ukraine, a usual precaution Warsaw takes during Russian mass strikes.
“This is (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s ‘peace’ plan – destroying everything. This is how he wants to negotiate, by terrorizing millions of people,” Zelensky said.
“Oil gives Putin enough money to believe in impunity. A strong reaction from the world is needed: a massive strike – a massive reaction.”
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 1,024: Russian Drone Swarms Followed by MissilesPost + Comments (14)
About Comments
In the comments on yesterday’s post that mentioned Voldemort (Erik Loomis at LGM), there was some discussion of the difference in commenting at LGM vs here. I was surprised that some commenters didn’t know that every new commenter’s first comment has to be approved by a front-pager. In addition, the reason there’s not a lot of spam here is that policy, plus our spam filters. Also, I won’t re-hash our commenting policy, but the net of it is that we hardly ever ban a commenter unless they’re spewing hate.
I don’t want to re-hash the LGM stuff, but I did go and read the comments on a couple of Cheryl Rofer’s posts there. I prefer the formatting and style of our comments, but I found it helpful to sort by comment rating, since the commenters there seem to pretty consistently rate comments. I think this is one of the only ways that places with a large number of comments (like Reddit) are usable, since the crowdsourced rating pushes the garbage down. The threads here generally max out at about 250 comments (for a busy post), so thankfully we don’t need to use some of the tools that the commenting system there (Disqus) uses. (All of this is my opinion, not John’s or anyone else who writes here.)
The main point of this post is to let everyone know that we spend a lot of time keeping garbage out of the comments, and if you didn’t know that, it’s worth pointing out that it just doesn’t happen by accident. We also don’t pay writers here, which I think some other blogs do, so we’re able to self-support without ads, which is a major reason this place is usable.