Postman Dutifully Delivers Mail To Neighborhood That's Not There Anymore

A postal worker delivers mail to a neighborhood that
no longer exists after the California wildfires

One of the strangest videos I've seen coming out of that California wildfire tragedy is one you'll see here:

It's a United States Postal Service van delivery mail to a neighborhood that was completely incinerated by the wildfires.

It seems stupid at first, but then I'm thinking what else was the guy to do? The mailboxes were still somehow intact.

I guess he just hopes the people who lived in those destroyed houses will come back. Maybe even get a millisecond of normalcy back in their lives by checking their mailboxes.

Here's the spooky video:

Terrorists Don't Understand They're Making Us Embrace More Of What They Hate

Defiance: Crowds at a London vigil Sunday, basically
telling terrorists to piss offf.

UPDATE: See John Oliver take on this below the video of the guy reacting to the attacks.

Oliver cites this guy and notes that he returned to the restaurant to pay his bill and leave the staff a tip.

I agree with John that this guy is out on the town in London tonight guzzling gin and toniscs and  flirting with every handsome guy he sees.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:  According to the Islamic jihadists that conduct those awful and stupid and tragic terrorist attacks, like the one in London over the weekend, is that their efforts are backfiring spectacularly.

The extremists think that fun, and music and independent women and free expression and independent thought are all items that must be wiped from the face of the Earth.

Very few people think this way, of course, which is why there are (thank goodness!) relatively few terrorists.

One attack is too many, but the fact that this kind of thing doesn't go on every hour is a sign that the numbers of whacked out jihadists are small.

Jihadists tried to shut down free spirited teen girls by bombing an Ariana Grande concert? Pfft. Grande goes ahead and hosts another mega-concert in Manchester, England, where the original bombing took place.  The concert raised tons of money for bombin victims.

The headline in The Guardian was "Manchester Uplifted By Ariana Grande's Colossal Empathy."

By that we mean, the defiance is not devoid of real emotion and hurt for the victims of the attacks. Want a sample? Just check out Grande's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" she sang near the conclusion of the benefit concert.

The jihadists apparently hate joy more than anything, so the videos that surfaced of police officers gleefully dancing with youths at the Manchester concert last night must have galled them terribly.

Boo-hoo.

Frankly, the only person I see cowering in the face of these terrorists is Donald Trump, who gets all alarmist, probably for imagined political gain, when something like London happens. He just ends up looking shrill and fearful. What a snowflake!

My favorite reaction to the London tragedy is this guy, in the BBC interview below. He's got it just right. Let's hope the rest of us follow his lead.



John Oliver's take on why Britain is not "reeling."

Very Scary High Rise Fire, Collapse In Iran

The Tehran high rise building on fire before it collapsed

In case you missed it on the news, there was a very scary fire in a high rise building in Tehran, Iran yesterday in which at least 30 people, mostly firefighters, lost their lives.

The fire was in what is described as Tehran's iconic Plasco building, which was the first high rise built in Tehran, back in the early 1960s. The structure was 17 stories tall.

It's unclear at this point what started the fire, but it appears it began on the ninth floor and spread quickly.

The building's collapse came as scores of firefighters sprayed water on the structure, trying to put out the flames.

In the awful video clip you'll see below, there's a firefighter on a tall aerial ladder spraying water into flaming windows when the building came down. That firefighter survived, but many of his colleagues died.

Watch:

 

Breaking: Horrible Man Kills Five People On Vermont Interstate

From WCAX, the wreckage of the stolen police cruiser
that a man took the wrong way on Interstate 89 in Williston,
Vermont, killing 5 people. 

I've delayed going to work this morning because a section of Interstate 89 in Williston, Vermont is closed for a terribly tragic crime.

A man, driving the wrong way on the Interstate, caused several crashes. He then stole a police cruiser, and continued driving the wrong way on the highway. The multiple crashes killed five people and injured numerous others.

Television station WCAX in Burlington, Vermont is reporting this morning that all of the dead were teenagers in a car that burst into flames when the wrong way driver hit it.

NECN identifies the horrible person behind this as Steven Bougoin, 36, no hometown given. He survived and is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, says NECN.

The identities of those who died had not been released as of 9 a.m., pending notification of families.

NECN said Bougoin drove the wrong way on Interstate 89 between Bolton and Williston, Vermont, causing several crashes.

Then, he came to a stop. Then, one police officer was trying to pull a woman from a Volkswagon Jetta while another officer was trying to squelched the flames with a fire extinguisher.

At that point, Bougoin stole the police cruiser, blasted down Interstate 89, turned around to drive the wrong way on the Interstate again, causing more brutal crashes.

This White Guy Has Questions About All Those Police Shootings

Police officers comfort each other at an Dallas
area hospital after a sniper killed five officefs
Thursday night during a Black Lives Matter
 demonstration. Photo by Ting Shen/
Dallas Morning News.  

Here we go again with the deaths of black men during encounters with cops.

Even worse was the violence we saw in Dallas Thursday night when that sniper opened fire on cops who were protecting peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Five officers died.

It just goes on and on in such a sickening fashion.

The whole week made no sense. All these good people dying for no good reason.

As is always the case in these too-often mass killings,  most of the nation was shocked, supportive, and wanted to help, but also felt helpless.

Unfortunately, again as always a few people took the tragedy as another opportunity to Not Help. There's always a few morons to make a situation worse. Thank goodness they're not in the majority.

As you no doubt heard on the news, this latest episode all started with  the deaths of two African-Americans during police calls this week. One in Baton Rouge, one near St. Paul, Minnesota.

Understandably, the nation erupted in protests because of this new batch of sorrowful shootings of African-Americans who were not doing much of anything wrong to begin with.  Black Lives Matter organized demonstrations in dozens of cities. The demonstrations were all largely peaceful.

I'm a totally naive white guy, so I hope somebody can answer some questions that came to my mind during this terrible week.

Question 1. Please explain and put in context and the reasons behind the all-too-frequent incidents of black males dying at the hands of white police officers.

I have found some facts that partly help, but still, it's all so unnerving.

We know from the Washington Post that nearly 1,000 people died in police involved shootings in 2015. Most of those shot were wielding weapons, were mentally ill or suicidal, or ran when officers told them to stop.

Four percent of those who died in police shootings during 2015 were unarmed black men, the Post says.

That doesn't sound like much until you realize, as the Washington Post did, that black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population but accounted for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police in 2015.

Says the Post:

"In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number -- three in five -- of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic."

OK, there's obviously some sort of racial problem going on here.

In the Minnesota case this week, the state's governor, Mark Dayton said:

"Would this have happened if those passengers, the driver and the passengers, were white?......I don't think it would have. So I'm forced to confront, and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront, that this kind of racism exists."

Question 2. The officers involved in the deaths are not KKK white hood wearing cross burning bigots. But there seems to be some sort of terrible racism going on. What's up?

I have the displeasure of knowing a couple awful racists/bigots. I never hear even these asshats saying black guys ought to be hunted down and shot.

Which surely means police aren't hunting down and killing black men for sport. Were many of us white guys - some of whom became police officers - sort of semi-subconsciously instilled with the notion that African-Americans are somehow "scarier' and "more of a threat" than white guys?

Does that make some police officers more ready to shoot a black guy?  Regarding the death of Philando Castile last week in Minnesota, the lawyer for the cop (who is Latino) involved said he was reacting to the presence of Castile's gun rather than his race. (Castile had a conceal carry permit, and had the gun with him but did not threaten officers with it.)

Would the cop have reacted to such an extreme had Castile been white? Quite possibly, I think.

 If so, how do we erase this ingrained, perhaps rather involuntary racism? Or do a small minority of police officers just plain hate African Americans?

Beyond that, there almost alwasy seems to be acquitals when police officers get in trouble for causing a death. Fair justice or is something wrong with the judicial system too? I don't know, but it's worth asking.

Question 3: Is this issue with black men dying during encounters with cops a new thing, or has it always been going on?

Obviously, we've been hearing more and more about these shootings in recent years. But how long has this been going on? Decades? We probably weren't aware of these white cop on black man shootings until everybody suddenly had a smart phone with a camera in their pocket.

Castile's girlfriend posted the immediate aftermath live on Facebook, which ensured no corrupt cop could erase her video. (That sometimes happens, though I have no idea whether that would have happened in this case.)

Are all these cameras bringing a long-standing but "quiet" crisis to life?

Question 4: Isn't it possible to be both pro-cop and pro-Black Lives Matter?  I am.  So why do some people think the two ideas are mutually exclusive?

I'm stating the obvious here, but most cops are incredible people. It's an unbelievably tough, dangerous job, requiring life and death split second decisions.

Many police departments are excellent, but none are perfect. They're run by humans, after all. All cops are human, so they can  make mistakes.

Isn't pointing out that there are too many incidents in which white cops kill black men in a way supporting cops? Isn't that in part an effort to improve policing in the United States? Don't we all want our great police forces to be even better?

On The Daily Show the other night, Trevor Noah said it best:

"You know, the hardest part of having a conversation surrounding police shootings in America, it always feels like in America, it's like if you take a stand for something, you automatically are against something else....

"But with police shootings, it shouldn't have to work that way. For instance, if you're pro-Black Lives Matter, you're assumed to be anti-police, and if you're pro-police, than you surely hate black people. When in reality you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we should all be."

Question 5: So why do some so-called leaders fan the flames of division when we have a terrible week like the one we just had?

As note, there are always asshats out there. The biggest meme among these idiots who are so-called political leaders is that Black Lives Matter wants all cops dead.

It seems like there's a competition among these merry band of asshats to outdo each other with their outrageousness.

Perhaps the winner of this sweepstakes was Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, who had this to say about the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Dallas that ended in that fatal sniper attack on the police who were protecting the protesters:

"All those protesters last night, they ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to turn around and protect them. What hypocrites!"

In other words Patrick is so stupid he thinks that the demonstraters hate all cops and should just protect themselves. How the hell did he get to be lieutenant governor?

Another question for the top brass and union chiefs of all the cop shops around the country: When someone criticizes the actions of a particular police officer, will you please stop getting your panties in a wad and saying that these criticisms are attacks on each and every police officer out there?

Here's one response, as noted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

"'Gov. Dayton's extraordinary presumptive conclusion that the tragic incident in Falcon Heights was motivated by race is the height of political malfeasance that could lead to a miscarriage of justice, if not more violence,' Dennis Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said Friday."

Yeah, we don't know exactly what was in the officer's head, but Governor Dayton was right to at least consider some form of innate racism a possibility.

I have to repeat and emphasize police officers have incredibly tough jobs and sometimes have to make life or death decisions in milliseconds.  Mistakes are inevitable.

But it's the job of the citizenry, and investigators, to hold our public servants accountable. Did a particular officer do anything criminal? Or should we beef up training?

These aren't questions that indict every police officer in the country, many of whom do amazing work. Including on the behalf of racial minorities.  So, union bosses and police chiefs: Will you quit ordering us to stop asking questions already?

Question 6: Are we, the citizenry supporting the police enough through our tax dollars? If we're indeed stingy, do we share the blame?

 I know you get what you pay for. Is one reason for these police shootings inadequate training? Are some cops not adequately trained to handle highly charged situations when guns are around?

Do they also have training on how to deal with those subtle and not-so-subtle racial undercurrents that seem to stew in some (most? all?) jurisdictions?

That takes money.  And time. And commitment. Are politicians too ready to embrace trying to do things on the cheap and not pay for adequate training and policing? Are taxpayers, who understandably can't pay all of their income for services, also trying to get police services on the cheap?

Are we paying in the long term with lives so we can save a few bucks in the short term?

Fearmongering Is Behind The Orlando Atrocity And Many Others

People outside the Pulse nightclub massacre in
Orlando today. 

Everything about the Orlando mass shooting is about fear.

Obviously, the shooter, Omar Mateen, wanted to instill fear, directly on the people who were in the Pulse nightclub, and other people in general.  

Like me. And many others, of course. Probably everybody.

Mateen targeted gay people in a gay nightclub when he killed at least 50 people and injured dozens more early this morning.

Most readers of this blog know I'm gay, and married to what I and a lot of other people know to be one of the best, kindest men on the planet.

Most people support us, love us, or like us, or at least are perfectly willing to leave me and Jeff alone and let us live our life. This is as it should be.

Not everybody likes my sexual orientation. Or Jeff's. That's perfectly fine. Nobody owes us. Nobody has to like us just because me and Jeff exist.

The vast majority of people who don't like my sexual orientation  don't bring up the subject, or ignore us, or avoid us, and go on with their lives. And they let us go on with our lives. These are not fearful people.

Unfortunately, the world is full of fearful people. They're not in the majority, obviously. But this fearful subset cannot handle anyone or anything that is not like them.  So you get what you got today in Orlando.

People outside the Pulse nightclub shooting
in Orlando early today.  

To this fearful group, anyone who  is of a different race, has a different sexual orientation, adheres to a different religion, or has differing political viewpoints than theirs is to be avoided. Killed. Wiped off the face of the Earth like the scary spider in my kitchen sink that startled me this morning.

Of course, the consequences are far, far, far greater than a spider.  And the fear creates a worldwide spider web of hate and murder.

Omar Mateen was not born hating gay people. Somebody taught him to do that.  Somebody who fancied themselves a leader, who created the fear in Mateen that led him to do what he did.

NBC News reported that two months ago, Mateen became angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami.

It triggered the fear in Mateen - that toxic stew in Mateen's head brewed for two months until he killed all those people, who were just out for a good time.

Whoever instilled the fear in Omar Mateen knows their efforts worked.

I'm not letting Mateen off the hook here. He made the decision to kill all those people in the Orlando nightclub. He's no victim.

There are others, though, who had an indirect hand in this outrage, and in every other terrorist incident I can think of -- from 9/11 to Brussels and Paris and Charleston and Oklahoma City and countless others.

There are a number of people who call themselves leaders who exploit the fear they placed in the heads of people llike Mateen.  Pump them up. Encourage the fear.

That's because these so-called leaders really don't have any real solutions to any problems. Or, they're just trying to amass power.

The way to do that is to incite fear.

Nobody makes good decisions when they're fearful. Fearful people are easily led. Or more accurately, easily led astray.

So called leaders who exploit fear know that doing so distracts the fearful from the real issue, or from the real bad stuff these "leaders" are up to.

People who exploit fear know creating scapegoats can cow the masses, and let these "leaders"  get away with whatever they're up to.

That creates a population that hates gays. Or Muslims. Or Christians. Or women. Or Jews. Remember Hitler? He was the world's greatest master at exploiting fear by targeting Jews. The greatest masters at this cause the world's greatest tragedies. Like the Holocaust.

Fifty people dead in an Orlando nightclub is horrific, but obviously not anywhere close to the level of the Holocaust.

But the same fear exploiting playbook was at work here.

Fear and anger are close cousins. Fearful animals often lash out at what makes them fearful. Terrorize a dog and it might bite you out of fear. '

People are the same way. Mateen was fearful and lashed out.

Fear and anger mestasize like cancer.  Mateen knew his actions would make people fearful and angry, and they did. I'm fearful and angry over this, because that's the natural human reaction.

But remember, like I said, fear and anger make us irrational, and I think Mateen knew that on some level.

So called leaders know this. And they'll exploit Orlando just like they exploited so many other terrorist incidents. Because that's what they do. Each outrage lets them build on others.

They'll try to whip up the population. Let's ban Muslims! The gays deserved it! Let's take people's freedoms of speech and assembly and due process away in the name of combating terrorism!

Some leaders will do this out of genuine concern for our well being and that of the nation. A smaller number of other leaders will do that to continue amassing power, and screwing the rest of us.

I'm gay, so Orlando proves that I have a target on my back. I'm fearful and angry, yes.

But please, let's all try to rise above this fear and anger, and think rationally. Yes, we need to super aggressively go after the bad guys and gals, and the people who inspire them to kill and terrorize.

Let's also escape the fear cocoon that keeps us fearful of everybody that's different from us. The best antidote to fear is knowledge.

Knowledge is power. Fear is weakeness.   Instead of hiding away from what we don't like, try to understand it. Learn about it. What makes those who are "different" from us tick.

Once we get to know these "different" people, religions, orientations and such, we still might not like them. But I bet the knowledge will make us less likely to lash out in fear.

It's everybody's responsibility to do this. The nation's and the world's top leaders must do this. You and I must do this.

I don't think we'll ever stop these terrorist tragedies. But if we rise above the fear, and embrace facts and knowledge, I bet we can reduce the number of these atrocities and the level of death and suffering.

We have to. It's our only hope.

Jan Crouch, Televangelist With Very Interesting Hair, Has Died

I mocked televangelist Jan Crouch for her, um,
amazing hair and makeup, but to me she
was also a tragic figure. She died recently at age 78. 

The subject of what is so far, mystifyingly the most popular post in the history of this here blog thingy has died.

Jan Crouch was the subject of my February, 2012 post: "The Televangelist With The, Um, Amazing Hair," in which I contemplated the remarkable structure, if you can call it that, of her hair and wigs.

We learned this morning that Crouch died of a massive stroke at the age of 78.  

I guess it's a requirement that female televangelists have elaborate makeup and hair. Crouch's makeup, by the way, was as amazing as her hair.

Another requirement in third rate cable televangelism TV, Crouch became mired in infighting, lawsuits and allegations of criminal activity.

Crouch was the co-founder of Trinity Broadcasting, which pushed what is to me a very scammy sort of televangelism. Basically: Give all your money to me, and God will then reward you with material riches.

Though I'm not a Bible expert, I don't think that's the gist of the Holy Book, but what do I know?

I know it's mean of me to kick round Jan Crouch when she's just passed away.  It's true I didn't respect her.

However, I felt a bit sorry for her when I wrote that post about her hair in 2012 and I feel sorry for her now.

She seemed obsessed with gaudy, showy moneyed ickiness. I wonder if she was at all spiritual, and in her quest for money, did she miss out on what really matters in life.

At the end, she was estranged from much of her family, due to the infighting. Her grandchildren wrote pleading messages to her, saying that they loved her, but the grandchildren were kept away from her, due to the fighting and lawsuits about all the money the "ministry" raked in.

Jan Crouch's wigs were certainly works of art, of sorts. The artful beauty of love and compassion and just experience life as a human being seemed to elude her.

Which makes this subject of my mockery also a tragic cautionary tale.

Security Camera Catches Home Burning In Fort McMurray Cataclysm

Screen shot of security camera from inside a home
being destroyed by the Fort McMurray, Canada
wildfire disaster, that's still ongoing. 

I've been writing about that terrible wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada on my sister blog, Matt's Weather Rapport, but a video from that fire deserves a look here, too.

The video is a security camera inside a Fort McMurray home. Its occupants had fled 20 minutes before the video starts as the wildfire bore down on the neighborhood.

The couple that lived in the home is safe, but sadly their home, like many, many others in Fort McMurray, are gone.

Homeowners James and Candace O'Reilly watched the video of their home being destroyed on an iPhone as they fled the fire.

The escape was harrowing enough. They were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic as everyone fled. Hot embers rained down on the truck and camper they were towing.

The couple felt terrible that there was no time for them to save the clownfish you see in the tank, and important papers and photographs, and ashes of Candace O'Reilly's late father.

The video shows the fire just outside the windows, then breaking through. It happens very fast.

It's also a good instruction to not try to stay behind to save your home in a wildfire like this. The people who lived there would have died had they tried to stay and fight.

Here's the video:

 

Spider-Man Shows Up At Funeral, Nobody Thinks It's Weird And Everyone's Touched

Fort Worth Police Officer Damon Cole showed up
at a five-year-old boy's funeral dressed as Spider Man,
and it was probably the classiest thing anyone
could have done in this siuation 

One of the tackiest things you could do is show up a a funeral dressed up as Spider Man.

Except at one recent funeral in Texas, in which somebody did just that - came dressed as Spider Man -- and everyone was touched and honored.

For good reason.  It turned out to have been the classiest thing anyone could have done.

On April 2, Fort Worth, Texas Police Officer Damon Cole was dispatched to search for a five year old boy who suddenly went missing.

Cole searched for the kid, Joshua Garcia in the murky water of a neighbor's neglected backyard pool. Sadly, he found the child's lifeless body at the bottom on the pool, dressed in Spider Man shoes and a Spider Man shirt.

Cole said he wishes he had super powers to save the kid's life, but he couldn't. Nobody could.

"It just broke my heart," Cole told Today. "I have an 8-year-old daughter and I just couldn't imagine something like this. I heard all these stories about how Joshua was just happy and full of life, and this just made it more personal."

Joshua's favorite thing was Spider Man and his family decided to give him a Spider Man funeral. Officer Cole showed up dressed as Spider Man, which I think is as touching a tribute as any for a child who died far, far too young.

Cole has a habit of doing the super hero thing for kids anyway, so the Spider Man thing wasn't entirely new. He is a membef of Heroes, Cops and Kids, a group of Dallas-area offices who dress up as superheroes to cheer up children at various events and venues.

They do this on their own time and their own dime, notes Today.  

Cole might not have had super powers to save the kid's life. But he certainly does have super powers enought to make a sad situation as much less bad as possible.

Television station WLTX, reporting on this said it best: "The actions of this officer prove that it's not the cape or the custome that make the hero, it's the heart. Even a broken one."

Here's a news video of Cole at Joshua's funeral:

I Finally Figured Out That Donald Trump Is Like An Evil Rip Taylor

Rip Taylor portrayed an angry clown
is his comedy schtick. Is Donald Trump a
mean version of this?  

I'm going to start this post by apologizing profusely, in advance, to comedian Rip Taylor.

He's been around for decades. His schtick is the guy who is burned out from a career being the happy guy.

He angrily instead of gleefully throws confetti, (Taylor is known as the :King of Confetti") and his jokes are hilarious, bitter complaints about what's going on around him.

Rip Taylor is the angry showman, dressed flamboyantly, but mockingly pretends to be not enjoying life.  The whole thing is a little much, but it's funny, and he's built a long career on it. Good work, Rip Taylor!

I bring all this up because I've finally figured out what Donald Trump is all about. He's an evil Rip Taylor, but Trump's flamboyant anger is real and contagious, not a harmless act like Taylor's.

Instead of Taylor's confetti, he throws money around. Instead of acting like he's frustrated with an audience for not laughing at his jokes, Trump wants people to beat up dissenters who don't like his schtick.

As part of the act, Taylor dresses in ridiculous clothes, and wears a blonde wig. I don't know what's going on with Trump's hair, but you get the idea.

Rip Taylor is a showman, his act a frivolous, it's full of bad puns, fun distraction and completely harmless.

Maybe this guy should have been a bad comedian
instead of a bad politician  

Trump is a showman, spewing bad and dangerous policy ideas instead of puns. His act is a frivolous, not so fun distraction, but he's somehow gotten a lot of fans who vote for him. And take him seriously.

I get it that Trumpeters, as his fans and voters are called, are pissed off at the way politics works and want a change. Who wouldn't be? But Trump?

Rip Taylor's act is of someone who is frustrated and wants a change and is always complaining. He's negative. .He goes about it all wrong. But it's a comedy act, so it's OK.

Trump always complains about a litany of people and perceived problems. He's negative. Never offering real plans for solutions. Just unfocused anger about  walls on the Mexican border, all Muslims are bad, the economy sucks, etc. etc. Trump goes about it all wrong, and it's turned very serious. He raises the spector of fascism.

I can see why Rip Taylor has a lot of fans. His act is full of laughs.

We should also be laughing at and mocking Trump, the showman huckster that he is. Instead, he's turning into something that can really damage this country. I know Trumpeters vehemently disagree with me, but there you go.

Here's a clip of Rip Taylor: As you watch, you can, in your head, turn the schtick into a Trump speech.

Again, profuse apologies to Rip Taylor. But I just had to make the comparison.

Presidential Campaign Has Gotten So Depressing That Even "Bernie Baby" Passed Away

Benie Sanders with his pint-sized doppleganger last month.  

One cheerful, cute moment in the ongoing presidential campaign was the "Bernie Baby," aka known as Oliver Jack Carter Lomas-Davis.

At four months old, he became an Internet star when he showed up at a Bernie Sanders rally dressed as the candidate himself. Everybody loved it, including Bernie Sanders.

In a sign that there is no happiness in politics this year, I've got what is honestly the saddest news of all. Little Oliver has died of sudden infant death syndrome, otherwise known as SIDS.

Of all the bad things that can happen, this is the worst.

Oliver's mother wrote on Facebook: "I love you dearly, I love you most, I love you with all my heart and soul. I know that God will keep you near since God and truth are here."

Absolutely heartbreaking. It makes our complaints against the candidates and politics seem small, doesn't it?

My condolences to Oliver's family, And thanks to Oliver, wherever he is, for bringing us the bit of joy he did in a grim season. We needed it.

Checking In On Flint: The Scandal Keeps Getting Worse

The revelations about how the administration of
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder managed Flint's water,
leading to mass lead poisoning among the city's residents,
just keeps getting worse and worse.  

I feel like I should check in once in awhile to see how the scandal involving Flint, Michigan's water contamination is going.

The water isn't getting much better in terms of lead poisoning and other contaminants.

Speaking of contaminants, the drip, drip, drip of scandal news is getting worse and worse in terms of how the people running the show handled this whole thing.

I'm repeating reporting from publiciations like Flint Journal, MLive, Detroit News,  The Guardian and other outlets, as I believe their reporting on this tragic scandal ought to be repeated as often as possible. The bit of any optimist in me hopes this drumbeat of reporting and sharing information might help to prevent something like this from happening again, and/or hold people accountable.

Way back in April, 2014, so called financial "emergency managers," in a cost cutting move, switched Flint from a more expensive water source from Detroit to a less expensive source in the Flint River.

The Flint River is full of pollutants. City residents almost immediately began complaining about water quality, but, given that budget austerity is MUCH more important than people's health, or so the emergency managers, under the Gov. Rick Snyder seemed to think.

As we now know, the Flint River water was incredibly corrosive, and wore down pipes, which leached lead into the drinking water. Thousands of people were likely poisoned and many kids will now live the life long cognitive health effects of lead poisoning.

I've said before Snyder's handling of the whole thing is criminal and he should be jailed, much less the governor of Michigan.

And as with most scandals, new revelations over how bad this thing was managed keep coming out.

There was a growing, very loud chorus from Flint residents by October, 2014 about the water.

Michael Gadola, Snyder's legal counsel wrote in now-leaked emails that the Flint water situation had gotten "downright scary" and said the city "should try to get back on the Detroit system as a stopgap ASAP before this thing gets too far out of control," according to The Guardian. 

Well, it was too far out of control, but I get what Gadola was saying. He knew, correctly, that if Snyder stayed the course, this would get even uglier. Much uglier. We know now he was right.

However, other advisors to Snyder decided it would be too expensive to assume the monthly $1 million cost to return to Detroit water.

Yeah, that's pricey, but what about the effect on Flinters' health. And if you don't care about people, it's gotten a lot more expensive than $1 million a month, now, huh, Ricky?

The Guardian's reporting goes on:

Snyder's chief of staff at the time, Dennis Muchmore, told the Detroit News last week, "The assessment was you couldn't do it because it was a cost that should have been borne by the system."

On February 5, 2015, a reporter asked the Snyder administration about returning Flint's water to Detroit. State Treasury Spokesman Terry Stanton said, again, it would be too expensive to do so.

Later that day, according to the recently discovered emails and documents, Muchmore wrote that switching Flint back to Detroit would "probably be a good use of money as opposed to people refusing to use city water."

He went on: "After all, if (General Motors) refuses to use the water in their plant and our agencies are warning people not to drink it....we looks pretty stupid hiding behind some financial statements."

That memo referred to a previously disclosed GM's decision not to use Flint water in its plant because it was corroding the brand new cars it was trying to manufacture. And it referred to a state office building in Flint in which workers were given bottled water to avoid Flint water, a piece of the scandal also previously disclosed.

Snyder finally put Flint back on Detroit's water in October, 2015 when the public pressure finally became too much to bear.

This new information above, reported in The Guardian and Flint Journal, were part of a batch of 2,500 emails released last week under Freedom of Information Act requests.

Why didn't we read these sooner, when other batches of Flint water-related emails were released?

Because the administration, naturally dragged its feet on releasing them. I can give Snyder a quick PR 101 lesson here: If there's a mess up: Release all the information you have right away. No matter how hard you try to hide information, it's going to come out sooner or later.

The PR damage, if thats the only thing you care about, will be much less if you're upfront, early.

Getting back to the Flint water issue here,  Snyder's administration has repeated said, over and over again, it was Flint officials' decision, not his or his aides or his emergency managers, who decided to take Flint off Detroit water in the first place and start taking water from the dangerous Flint River.

The Flint Journal reported this weekend, that despite Snyder's claims to the contrary, emails show that wasn't the case.

Says the Journal: "Newly released emails show an aide to Gov. Rick Snyder disputed that notion just days before a damning op-ed by former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley.

'It is important to note that council did not take a vote to use Flint river (sic)',  Harvey Hollins, Snyder's director of urban initiatives wrote in an October 7, 2015 email to Dan Wyant, former director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Days later, Earley penned an op-ed claiming Flint officials approved the switch to the Flint River as the city's drinking water source."

The Flint City Council DID agree to stop using Detroit water, but they also never voted to start taking water out of the Flint River.

This doesn't make clear precisely who decided to make the switch, but it doesn't exactly absolve Ricky, does it?

I'm sure there will be a continued slow parade of new revelations about Flint, his emergency managers and the government of Michigan.

Meanwhile, Flint is still struggling with undrinkable water, an unknown number of kids from Flint, no doubt many, will have to contend with the lifelong effects of lead poisoning, and gawd knows new horrors we will learn about what happened to all those unsuspecting citizens of Flint.

I keep saying Snyder should face criminal charges. Investigations are still underway. But it's looking worse and worse for him. Though frankly, I care much less about him than I do about the fine residents of Flint, Michigan.

Don't Send Bottled Water To Flint, Michigan

Filmmaker and Flint, Michigan native Michael
Moore is quite understandably calling for the arrest
of Michigan's governor for allowing the mass
poisoning of Flint through the municipal water system. 

I'd swear, the state government in Michigan really wants to send the city of Flint back to the age of the Flintstones.

They've caused the now notorious problem of causing lead and other pollutants to flow through city residents' tap water in a move to save money and show how conservative they are.

Go Austerity!

You'd think a modern society would ensure everybody gets safe drinking water. Not in Michigan.

So what if a few thousand kids get brain damage from lead? We're fiscally conservative, Yay!

As the crisis intensifies, the administration of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder still seems totally aloof. If poisoning an entire city and seeming not to care doesn't get every American's blood boiling, I don't know what does.

I love the irony in the slogan on Snyder's web site: "Getting it right. Getting it done."

Ooookay!

Now, I grant you the headline on this post sounds awfully mean. Don't send bottled water to Flint? Let them drink lead?

After all, the water in Flint is still unsafe, Snyder's administration is clearly not interested in really fixing the problem and Flint's kids face lifelong disabilities because of the lead in the water.

So shouldn't we be sending everybody in Flint clean, safer bottled water instead of forcing them to literally drink poison from their taps?

Well, yes, that's been an OK short term solution. But forcing a city to live on mountains of water bottles is no way to go.  We definitely DO need to give a huge shout out to all the individuals, corporations and celebrities who have sent, or encouraged us to sent lots and lots of bottled water to Flint.

But, enough.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration
expected people to drink water that looked like this
in Flint. Maybe we should force him to drink that water? 

I have to agree with none other than Flint, Michigan native Michael Moore who also says it's time to stop sending bottled water.

Moore, the famous guerilla filmmaker, is not being mean to his home town either.

Moore, instead says Michigan needs to dig deep. And fast. The first step is getting that idiot Snyder and his administration out of the way.

Moore compares the Snyder administration to terrorists. To be honest, I think Moore is being rather fair.  Read his words and decide for yourself:

"There's not a terrorist organization on Earth that has yet to figure out how to poison 100,000 people every day for two years - and get away with it. That took a Governor who subscribes to an American political ideology hell-bent on widening the income inequality gap and conducting various versions of voter and electoral suppression against people of color and the poor."

Snyder had appointed "emergency managers" to several financially troubled Michigan communities., including Flint.

These managers reported to Snyder, so local residents and voters had very little say in what went on in their cities.

The many critics of these managers said it disenfranchised voters and the managers were insulated and indifferent to what residents were saying. (If elected officials were in charge, they'd presumably be voted out of office if they ignored voters. Especially ones up in arms about poisoned drinking water. )

And as the New York Times suggested, the worry is and was that "emergency managers are more concerned with fiscal discipline than public health."

Flint would be Example A of that.

Since the Snyder administration seemed so indifferent to the crisis in Flint, Moore wants Snyder kicked out of office and arrested.

I totally agree. Despite his denials and faux expressions of concern, what he did or more accurately, didn't do to Flint is criminal.

As Moore says:

"The perp who allowed the poisoning to continue once he knew something was wrong -- and his minions who cooked the evidence so the public and the feds wouldn't find out, must be removed from office ASAP."

Moore also notes that Snyder says the EPA has no legal authority to tell him what to do with Flint. Really?

Earlier this week, we got news that way back in last January - a year ago! -  Snyder was telling Flint residents the water there was hunky dory and drink up!.

Mother Jones reported Thursday on an email from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget to employees in a state office building in Flint.

"While the city of Flint states that corrective actions are not necessary, DTMB is in the process of providing a water cooler on each occupied floor, positioned near the water fountain, so you can choose which water to drink. The coolers will arrive today and will be provided as long as the public water does not meet treatment requirements."

By the "City of Flint" the email pretty much meant the aloof emergency manager appointed by Snyder.

My guess is that the Snyder administration was worried the public employees union would sue if they found out employees were drinking bad water.

Meanwhile, the residents of Flint, mostly African American, and many of them poor, were left to drink the scary water. Brown water for brown people, Governor Snyder?

Moore goes on to say that Snyder, with all his fiscal conservatism, along with previous administrations, did help Michigan develop an  $800 million surplus and $600 million in a rainy day fund. Moore says Snyder should use that money to fix Flint.

Snyder is the face of the state of Michigan broke Flint so he oughta pay for it, goes the logic.

That said, practically nobody, Moore included, doesn't trust Snyder's administration to fix the problem. Like the feds or not, they've got to step in even more.

Other sensible ideas Moore lists are to move people who want to from Flint to nearby districts that have safe water, at government expense. For those who want to stay in Flint, FEMA should set up temporary water supplies at each home.

The rest of us in the United States who are presumably not drinking lead-laced municipal tap water ought to care about Flint a lot.

First of all,it's a national tragedy and a disaster. Second of all, it's a cautionary tale. Yep, we don't want to pay high taxes to fund the government, and we don't like seeing governments waste money.

That is absolutely reasonable.

You need to strike a balance, though, and balance is now seriously lacking in American politics. Some Republicans, in particular, seem to be in a contest to see how badly they can screw over people without a lot of power. For fun and profit, I guess. Especially profit.

You know, African-Americans, Hispanics, poor people. OK, don't give these groups free hand outs. But don't take your hand and slap them across the face either.

As Slate points out, there's a lot of municipalities out there with marginalized population with aging infrastructure. Flint probably won't be the last town in the country to find out it has been poisoned. There's no political will, no desire to fix old pipes and other fixtures before its too late for residents.

I guess turning America into a Third World country is now political palatable, which is another real tragedy here.

In Michigan, Snyder's administration thought saving money was more important than protecting health and public safety. Maybe he thought if he caused brain damage to the voters of Flint, they'd be too stupid to vote against him in the next election.

But as Rachel Maddow's Town Meeting show in Flint demonstrated the other night, there are a lot of smart people in Flint.

Who won't take being victimized by some self serving politicians.

Are there others politicians like him across the nation?  If so, I hope we have the gumption to rise up against them, too.








 .

All You Need To Say About Mass Shootings Is Right Here

Front page of today's New York Daily News.

Click on the image to embiggen it:

Helping Hands: People Made Burn Treatment Mittens For Koalas Injured In Australian Fires

A koala bear with burned paws receiving
treatment with one of the special mittens
voluteers made for them. Image from
the International Fund for Animal Welfare.  

One of the saddest consequences of wildfires that recently burned through parts of Australia is that the flames consumed some of the habitat occupied by koala bears.

Many of the bears died in the fires. Others suffered burns, especially as they clung to hot trees or tried to escape the fires by running across flaming grassland.

Officials retrieved many of the injured koalas and brought them to wildlife rescue centers where workers are treating the koala bears burned paws.

A special call went out, and people responded: Wildlife rescuers released an easy to follow pattern where people could use cotton sheets or tea towels to make special mittens for the koalas.

Veterinarians have to change the koala bear's dressings daily to treat the burns, and between the treatments, they put on those specialized mittens to protect the koalas' injured paws.

The step-by-step instructions were simple enough so that even the biggest klutz at the sewing machine could make them.

So many people responded to the call to make the mittens that a new alert had to go out: Stop, for now. We have enough mittens.

In a Facebook post labeled "Mitten Accomplished," the International Fund for Animal Welfare thanked everyone for their outpouring of support. Because of that, there's a more than adequate supply of koala mittens.

"Our amazing supporters were more than koalified for the job," the animal welfare group said.

Let's hope the surviving koalas have a smooth and full recovery. And no more bush fires, please.




 And our amazing supporters were more than koalified for the job.

Woman Lets Dog Die In Hot Car So She Could Shop At Walmart For 13 Hours

Every year, we're "treated" to news of people leaving kids and pets in hot cars, where they die of heat stroke.

This woman is accused of leaving
a dog to die in a hot car in Florida
while she conducted a 13-hour
shopping marathon at Walmart.  

Many are tragic accidents. People get so preoccupied that they forget they left their kid behind. It seems impossible to believe, but all of us sometime don't pay attention, as they rush to be on time for work or school.

True, we should have a hightened sense of awareness when it comes to our children and pets, but still. The parents and pet owners didn't mean to kill their children or Fido.

Then you get idiots like Cassaundra Rasmussen, 49. Police said she left her dog in the car, in a hot parking lot, in late June, in Florida. Why? She had to go shopping at Walmart.

Worse, it wasn't just a quick trip into the store. She was in Walmart for 13 hours, according to police.

How can one possibly browse the, um, gleaming shelves of Walmart for over half a day? And worse, never remember during that time that her dog is in the car?

Is Walmart that compelling? That it's worth leaving your dog in the car to die?

A passerby did spot the dog in the car while Rasmussen was in Walmart. But by then it was too late. The dog had been in the vehicle for too long, in that terrible heat, with no food or water, for too long.

What gets me is she is only facing a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals. I guess that's the only thing under the law that might stick.

But still, the Internet can be a buzzsaw, and I'm sure Cassaundra is feeling the effects.

That's actually a good thing, except I worry people will take things too far. If Cassaundra is guilty, then a misdemeanor charge isn't enough for me. But I also hope the punishment via social media doesn't get so bad that she breaks before she understands what a horrible thing she did.

Shopping does seem to be  priority for some people.  A woman in Johnson City, Tennesee is accused of leaving her two kids alone in a car for 90 minutes while she shopped at Old Navy. 

Luckily, those kids were rescued.

I hope they are the only two people who think shopping is so exciting it's worth killing kids and pets over.

Small Bright Spot In Horrible Mudslide Tragedy: Dog Rescued. See Video

That mudslide in Washington state is about as bad a tragedy as you can get.

A dog is rescued from the debris of the Washington
State mudslide. Although he doesn't look
great in this photo, his family said he's already
pretty much made a full recovery.  

A hillside collapsed onto a neighborhood Saturday, killing at least 25 people. More people are missing, so we don't yet know what the final death toll will be.

When you get a big disaster like this, the natural tendency is to find any bright spot you can.

So, people are embracing a video that surfaced in which a family poking through the destroyed remains of their home find their dog buried in the debris and mud.

Miraculously, the dog is in good shape. He was covered in mud and terribly thirsty when rescued.  And it is a bit funny to watch him try to shake out the dirt caked into his fur.

And when the tail starts wagging, you know he's going to be OK.

Again, this isn't much, but it is just one small bright moment in a bad situation. Watch:

What's The Story Behind "Death Row Dog" With Lipstick Kiss Mark On His Forehead?

My husband Jeff showed me this sad story about an abandoned pit bull which really made me wonder about this dog's back story.

Dutch with the lipstick mark
from the woman who kissed him goodbye forever
Let's hope Dutch was saved and adopted
and the woman is OK.  

I also pray and hope that he is still alive.

His name is Dutch. Reportedly, a woman in New York City was seen tenderly kissing the 18-month old pit bull on the forehead and sadly walking away.  The woman said something about having personal problems.

With her goodbye kiss, the woman left a big pink lipstick print on Dutch's white forehead. 

This feels so tragic.

Dutch was checked out and it was clear he was well cared for, had been trained and is good with people, including children. Somebody loved Dutch, but had to give him up.

It makes me think something terrible happened to the woman who gave him up. Was she sick? Completely out of money and hope? Did somebody force her to get rid of the dog? Was she suicidal and giving up everything that she loved, or loved her?

We all rail against people who abandon dogs. It's infuriating, of course. But in some cases, there's a good but tragic reason why the dogs were abandoned. It's just that we, as a society, need to figure out why people have to give their dogs up. That way, we can do a twofer: Find a good home for a deserving dog, and help a human who is clearly at the end of his or her rope.

It looks like nobody knows how to find the woman who had to leave Dutch behind. And, since there's so many dogs up for adoption in New York, Dutch was scheduled to be put to death this week, because there was no room for him.

I hope somebody adopted him at the last minute. Dutch seems like such a sweetheart.

Dutch was among dozens of dogs featured on a sob-inducing Facebook page called Urgent Death Row Dogs. The proprietors of the Facebook page find out which dogs at which New York shelters have been there too long been and will be put to death within hours.

Urgent Death Row Dogs puts photos of the dogs and little bios of them on the Facebook page, begging people to adopt the dogs that night, before they are killed the next day.

I couldn't look at the page for more than 30 seconds. I wanted to cry, because I knew some of these gentle, innocent dogs are gone now. Despite the heroic efforts of the people behind Urgent Death Row Dogs, I know that not all of the dogs could be saved.

I want to adopt them all. Of course, I can't. I can't save the world. Or every dog in it.

But this is a reminder: If there's any way you can give a dog a loving, warm home, please do it. If you can't, please give to or volunteer at a reputable organization that can keep a dog safe and alive until somebody gives him or her a home.

If Dutch is alive, or even if he's not, he'll thank you for it and give you a big kiss. And he won't even leave a lipstick mark behind.

Thought This Would Happen: Tornado Chasers Run Over by Tornadoes

I heard some sad news today that three professional storm chasers were among the nine people killed by the tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma Friday.

A big Oklahoma tornado about to send a vehicle
containing a Weather Channel chase team flying  

Three other storm chase vehicles got caught in tornadoes, including one with the Weather Channel's Mike Bettes, who suffered relatively minor injuries.

I knew this would happen eventually. I think everyone who knows anything about storm chasing realized this would happen.

There's been an arms race of sorts, with people getting closer and closer to tornadoes,  or even inside them, taking more and more dramatic videos that the public eats up, thereby making plenty of money from their videos.

As a weather geek, I admit I'm one of those who loves those storm videos.  But the whole concept of storm chasing has gotten out of control in recent years. Dozens of chasers regularly converge on large tornadoes, causing traffic jams that would make it hard to escape if the tornado changed directions.

And tornado chasers have been getting involved with increasingly volatile weather situations. Friday's Oklahoma tornadoes were especially sudden and erratic, popping up abruptly and changing directions without rhyme or reason.

Interestingly and tragically, the chasers who died, Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and Carl Young, 45, were reportedly some of the more safe chasers, a trio who didn't take as many chances as others.

Details on what happened are sketchy. The tornadoes were acting so far out of the ordinary that they might have been caught off guard. Or, they had an escape route but the roads were so clogged with cars that they were trapped.

Cars tossed around in Friday's Oklahoma tornadoes.
Cars are the worst place to be in tornadoes.
Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman.  

Adding greatly to the traffic woes was some very bad advice some Oklahoma City media outlets gave to the public:  Try to outrun the tornado in your car.  That's the worst thing you could do, as vehicles are easily flung by tornadic winds, and cars stuck in traffic jams surely are not going to outrun a tornado.

Even a building with no basement, which is common in Oklahoma, are much safer than cars.

We were also subjected this week to the aforementioned Mike Bettes of the Weather Channel being tossed about by a tornado, a another storm chaser being smashed up by a farm disintegrating in a tornado and a local television station's storm chasers getting caught in 100 mph winds on the edge of another twister.

The YouTube video of the chasers getting hit by the farm debris had racked up 500,000 hits within two days of it being posted, which demonstrates the popularity of these dramatic videos.

There have been other close misses among storm chasers in recent days. One chase team got themselves caught inside a very strong Kansas tornado last week, but survived to give triumphant television interviews on the morning news and talk shows.

Television networks eat up these dramatic tornado videos, too. It's great for the ratings.

I don't know if this will change the risks tornado chasers take. It's big business, and money talks. You can take vacation trips in which the general public can chase tornadoes for a week.

I chase the admittedly much milder storms where I live in Vermont myself.  I don't think I take too many unnecessary risks. I won't drive over flooded roads. In the rare cases when we have potentially tornadic supercells, I try to avoid getting myself in the middle of these storms.

But, like so many others, I'm fascinated by big storms, both the garden variety ones in Vermont or the giant ones in Oklahoma.

We have to remember to be careful, but human nature makes it such that some of us will get too close. To our great peril.

Predictable: Whackadoodle Conspiracists Say Newtown Was a Hoax

Once again I delve into the inevitable, in which the fringes inform us the awful stuff we've been seeing and reading about out of the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre was all a hoax.

Apparently, the government, or the United Nations, or I don't know, space aliens from Neptune orchestrated a fake school shooting so they can take all our guns away. Or so the UN can take over the world, or something.

Like all weird conspiracies, the hoax promoters going to great lengths to link vaguely similar, but mostly unrelated situations.  The fathers of both the Newtown shooter and the person responsible for the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado earlier this year are sort of, kinda working in the financial sector.

Neither man is the top dog in these businesses, but somehow, both were going to testify to the U.S. Senate on some weird financial scandal involving something called LIBOR.

The U.S. Senate was planning on no hearings regarding the matter, and nobody had heard either guy was going to testify for anything.  But of course we're not supposed to believe that.

All those newscasters, traumatized families, grim rescuers and police you saw on TV? All actors hired by the government. The proof? The father of one dead girl briefly laughed nervously before a press conference at which he tearfully rememebered his daughter

That brief nervous laugh proves he was an inept actor hired by the government, supposedly.

Another wacko site, Infosalvo, says Newtown was a "staged false flag attack" whatever that is, but it's some sort of plot to take away everybody's guns. 

Atlantic Wire sums up the conspiracy theories this way:

Depending on who you believe, it's the global banking industry, the Freemasons, and Barack Obama (who is also the anti-christ) acting on behalf of "his Illuminati Jewish handlers like Mayor Bloomberg of NY and Dianne Feinstein."

The conspiracy theories aren't all homegrown. According to AtlanticWire, Iran says the massacre was a hit by Israeli officials to punish President Obama for not being loyal enough to Israel, and Obama covered all this up, in order to take the punishment rather than retaliating.

I read these off the wall conspiracy sites every once in awhile because I get a strange jolt of entertainment reading stuff from people who have really gone off the rails.

But maybe I shouldn't read this stuff. Maybe when I do, I'm contributing to the problem. I give them all a Web hit, which in this day the more web hits somebody gets, the more "legitimate" they are, even if everything there is nonsense.

I'd hate to live the life of one of these conspiracy nuts. The paranoia!  So many people, lurking around the corner, trying to take your liberty, your rights, your life away. It could be anyone! And the web of conspiracy is so extensive! It's tentacles are everywhere! Everyone is suspect!

Can you imagine living in fear like this instead of seeing things logically. They've watched too many bad TV movies growing up, and now their life is now one big, awful, preposterous, cheap TV movie.

The conspiracists also have a caustic effect on society overall.  Few people believe these nutcases, of course. But does exposing ourselves to their delusions nudge us just a bit toward a bit of increased paranoia.

I hope not. We sure don't need it.