Wow….
Israel edges towards early elections as Netanyahu struggles to form a coalition – The Washington Post
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Record Flooding Hits U.S. Midwest, Threatens South – Scientific American
Actually, never mind. It’s just riverbeds, which are flat and low, but not under 50 ft.
Use the National Map viewer ( https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer/ ) and add layers “Elevation Contours” (in feet) & “Elevation Tinted Hillshade”.
It’s really kind of amazing how much of the country is under fifty feet off elevation, even far into the interior. Eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, southwestern Illinois, half the old South.
«Flood warnings were issued from eastern Oklahoma into southeastern Kansas, southern Missouri, central Illinois and parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Florida panhandle.»
Thread by @alexandraerin: “So I just saw someone wondering how liberals can cut ties with conservative friends and family members over immigration policies when most A […]”
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1004400861865488384.html
“I know of a woman who comes to pick up her welfare check in a Cadillac.”
«A lot of people would back the change because Obviously Some People Take Advantage. (Positing that someone, somewhere is taking advantage is a great way to get the masses on your side in our politics, sadly.)»
Thread by @studentactivism: “The recent revelations about Naomi Wolf’s sketchy relationship to sources and research are … not news to people who’ve interacted with her […]”
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1131900999621402624.html
Follow-up to my Naomi Wolf post from yesterday.
«The Naomi Wolf story is less a “this could happen to any of us” thing than an “it was inevitable that this would eventually happen to her” thing.»
Ranked-choice poll of Democratic candidates
https://twitter.com/fairvote/status/1132315607305736192?s=17
SUPER interesting to see who gets the votes of eliminated candidates.
(163 votes at this time, so of course it’s Yang and Sanders among the Very Internet.)
FairVote (@fairvote) Tweeted:
🚨NEW POLL🚨
Rank your favorite #2020 Democratic Presidential candidates by taking our #RankedChoiceVoting poll. #2020
Vote here ➡️ https://t.co/3g8GXowFE6
#President2020 #Rankyourvote #Democracy https://t.co/aEAUdmzgg6
NYCSOUTHPAW | Frederick Douglass: Decoration Day Speech
«The essence and significance of our devotions here to-day are not to be found in the fact that the men whose remains fill these graves were brave in battle. If we met simply to show our sense of bravery, we should find enough on both sides to kindle admiration. In the raging storm of fire and blood, in the fierce torrent of shot and shell, of sword and bayonet, whether on foot or on horse, unflinching courage marked the rebel not less than the loyal soldier.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause. We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic. We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers. If today we have
a country not boiling in an agony of blood, like France, if now we have* a united country, no longer cursed by the hell-black system of human bondage, if the American name is no longer a by-word and a hissing to a mocking earth, if the star-spangled banner floats only over free American citizens in every quarter of the land, and our country has before it a long and glorious career of justice, liberty, and civilization, we are indebted to the unselfish devotion of the noble army who rest in these honored graves all around us.»
*I’d strike that part about the Franco-Prussian War, but, eh, hindsight.
Naomi Wolf and historical accuracy
https://twitter.com/threadreaderapp/status/1132289956054032384?s=17
«There is no publishing house on earth with enough editors and fact checkers to delve deeply into archives to see if an author is right. That simply does not happen. Scholars are assumed to be acting like bona fide scholars, not partisan hacks with an ideological agenda. /7
The people who catch archival flubs are historians, not publishing houses, nearly all the time. Yes, this does happen. The difference here is Wolf got caught early and may now have time to correct her book. Though the centrality of her debunked claim seems central to her work. /8
That said, Oxford needs to be asked some questions immediately, since Wolf’s book is based on her recent PhD dissertation. Which now clearly needs to be reexamined to check for archival accuracy.
The university, not the publishing house, is the one really on the hook here.»
Tweet from U.S. Army (@USArmy)
https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1131704927963766785?s=17
U.S. Army (@USArmy) Tweeted:
How has serving impacted you?
A SEARING series of tweets results.
Happy memorial day.
#820: P Is For Phosphorus : NPR
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=581149776
A thing we could go to war over.
Opinion | America’s Cities Are Unlivable. Blame Wealthy Liberals. – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/opinion/california-housing-nimby.html
This: «What Republicans want to do with I.C.E. and border walls, wealthy progressive Democrats are doing with zoning and Nimbyism.» The hypocrisy is obvious and I think it’s part of why Dems lose elections.
«Not-in-my-backyardism is a bipartisan sentiment, but because the largest American cities are populated and run by Democrats — many in states under complete Democratic control — this sort of nakedly exclusionary urban restrictionism is a particular shame of the left.»
Actually not sure I believe the following bit. There seems to be plenty of local news in big cities; it’s the sparse markets where local news is dying away (has died away):
«One continuing tragedy is the decimation of local media and the rise of nationalized politics in its place.»
….
«Then there is the refusal on the part of wealthy progressives to live by the values they profess to support at the national level. Creating dense, economically and socially diverse urban environments ought to be a paramount goal of progressivism. Cities are the standard geographical unit of the global economy. Dense urban areas are quite literally the “real America” — the cities are where two-thirds of Americans live, and they account for almost all national economic output. Urban areas are the most environmentally friendly way we know of housing lots of people. We can’t solve the climate crisis without vastly improving public transportation and increasing urban density.»
True. Cars are the single greatest consumer of petroleum, the single biggest cause of global warming.
«Yet where progressives argue for openness and inclusion as a cudgel against President Trump, they abandon it on Nob Hill and in Beverly Hills. This explains the opposition to SB 50, which aimed to address the housing shortage in a very straightforward way: by building more housing.
….
For the first time, something extraordinary looked possible: California’s wealthy homeowners would abandon their restrictionist attitudes and let us build some new housing.
Nope. Instead, Anthony Portantino, a Democratic state senator whose district includes the posh city of La Cañada Flintridge and who heads the appropriations committee, announced that he’d be shelving the bill until next year. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, he worried that the law would spur lots of people to move near residential bus routes, which he suggested would alter the character of enclaves like his.
And? Why is that so bad?
….
What Republicans want to do with I.C.E. and border walls, wealthy progressive Democrats are doing with zoning and Nimbyism. Preserving “local character,” maintaining “local control,” keeping housing scarce and inaccessible — the goals of both sides are really the same: to keep people out.»
(O hai, Chapel Hill, you quaint college town.)
