May 2, 2021

Florida man dances in celebration after pawning stolen items, police say

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Police in South Florida are looking for a man who busted out some dance moves after pawning stolen jewelry, authorities said.

While the man will never be mistaken for Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly or even Michael Jackson, he has gained a following -- namely, members of the Port St. Lucie Police Department who want to bust him and his partner for theft.

The dancer was identified by police as Sean Gazo, 31, TCPalm.com reported

https://twitter.com/TCPalm/status/1388282020770500608?s=20

Police said that on Feb. 11, an 86-year-old person hired Gazo and Carl Jackson, 42, to help move heavy furniture, the website reported. ............(more)

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/florida-man-dances-celebration-after-pawning-stolen-items-police-say/SONAD2J6OBBGZDK4IZDTNJ2BUE/

May 2, 2021

Public transit hopes to win back riders after crushing year

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking the Los Angeles Metro for his first trip in months, Brad Hudson felt a moment of normalcy when the train rolled into the South Pasadena, California, station, harkening back to his daily commute into LA before the coronavirus pandemic.

Then Hudson boarded the train, and reality set in.

Not everyone wore masks. Metro staffing levels appeared much lighter, with more trash on the trains.

“I don’t feel at risk for COVID, because I’m vaccinated and I mask,” said Hudson, a child psychologist. But he felt security was worse now — he said a passenger shouted at him for no apparent reason and, on a subsequent ride, a man entered a train car with a large knife strapped to his leg. ..........(more)

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-government-and-politics-environment-and-nature-politics-lifestyle-56d36574e38cec038f77339ef12076bc?

May 1, 2021

They Were Stuck Atop Britain's Tallest Coaster, Then Had To Walk 200 Feet Down

Thrill-seekers at a theme park in the U.K. got a little more than they bargained for this week when their roller coaster got stuck near the top.

Eventually, as the footage above and below shows, they had to be escorted off The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach by foot ― step-by-careful-step down a steel staircase in the open air, from near the ride’s 213-foot summit.

The Big One was the tallest and fastest coaster in the world when it opened in 1994, according to Coaster Grotto. It’s since been surpassed. The current tallest, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, is more than twice as high at 456 feet.

But as the footage from the Big One shows, being stuck about 15 stories up and then having to walk down is still quite the thrill ― so much so that the park actually charges a fee for a tour that takes tourists to the top via the stairs.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stuck-on-britains-tallest-coaster_n_608b6f46e4b09cce6c1caf83?

May 1, 2021

Florida nurse performs butt injection on courtroom Zoom

A Florida nurse on Wednesday performed a butt injection on a patient while waiting for her virtual court hearing to start.

Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle earlier Wednesday tweeted a picture of a man getting a butt injection from a female nurse during the Zoom court hearing.

“MIAMI ZOOM COURT: We’ve reached peak 305. Someone appears to be getting a butt injection while appearing in a virtual hearing,” Ovalle wrote in his post, referring to Miami's zip code. .............(more)

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/549602-miami-journalist-reports-butt-injection-on-courtroom-zoom

May 1, 2021

America's Amtrak moment could finally be here

(CNN) — Created in 1971 from the creaking remains of the classic US railroads that helped build modern America, Amtrak has often lived a precarious existence.

Subject to the whims of politicians in Washington D.C. and constantly under pressure from the well-funded and hugely influential oil, automotive and airline industry lobbies, the national passenger rail operator has been threatened with oblivion on several occasions.

But as it celebrates a 50th anniversary that few would have been brave enough to predict, there are signs that Amtrak's moment may finally have arrived.

....(snip)....

President Joe Biden, a long-time rail commuter rejoicing in the nickname "Amtrak Joe," is calling on Congress to invest $80 billion in the rail network.

This massive chunk of change is needed to address Amtrak's repair backlog; modernize the flagship Northeast Corridor; improve existing corridors, create new intercity connections; and enhance grant and loan programs that support passenger and freight rail safety, efficiency and electrification. ..............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/amtrak-america-moment-50-years/index.html?

May 1, 2021

To be a modern-day Republican is to be a DSM-5 psychopath

Kansas Republican arrested for attack on student after rant about God talking to him: report

"Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville. Samsel, 36, was booked into the Franklin County Adult Detention Center after 3:30 p.m. Thursday," the Kansas City Star reports. "He has since been released on $1,000 bond, Sheriff Jeff Richards said."

"On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district's secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible," the newspaper reported. ..............(more)

https://www.rawstory.com/kansas-mark-samsel-arrested/

May 1, 2021

Whataboutism, the last refuge for Republicans, is on the rise

Whataboutism, the last refuge for Republicans, is on the rise
Unable to defend their own views, conservatives are turning to "whataboutism" to deflect criticism

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
APRIL 30, 2021 5:01PM


(Salon) Over a year ago, and in violation of my own good advice, I got caught up in a Facebook argument with a Republican relative about Donald Trump. I don't remember what the topic was, and it hardly matters now, since the past four years was just a constant churn of Trump doing terrible stuff and his defensive voters constantly grasping for dumb excuses for why the terrible stuff wasn't actually all that terrible. What I do remember, however, is that, at one point, I linked the Washington Post's daily counter of Trump false statements — he was up to over a dozen a day by then — and demanded an explanation of why she would support such a liar. (I am not proud of myself, as noted.) She retorted with something along the lines of, "Oh, like Elizabeth Warren has never told a lie!"

Now, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is an honest politician and well-rated by PolitiFact. But all politicians have succumbed to the urge to massage the truth a time or two, and certainly I couldn't prove on the spot that Warren had a spotless record. But what was really preposterous was my relative's underlying assumption: if Warren had ever fudged the truth, then all criticism of Trump was rendered null and void.

It's this tendency to compare two unequal things that provided Trump and his supporters a blank check to have no standards at all, because, after all, the other side was hardly perfect. It's Whataboutism, the common term for a version of the tu quoque fallacy. RationalWiki explains that whataboutism is "a diversionary tactic to shift the focus off of an issue and avoid having to directly address it" by "twisting criticism back onto the critic and in doing so revealing the original critic's hypocrisy."

....(snip)....

Perhaps the most dangerous way that the right-wing addiction to whataboutism manifests is in the way it's employed after every story about cops killing Black people in incidents that should not have been deadly. Inevitably, right-wing media will settle on pointing the finger at the victim for being "no angel." Apologists for Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd loved to harp on how Floyd had drugs in his system at the time. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/30/whataboutism-the-last-refugee-for-republicans-is-on-the-rise/

May 1, 2021

Fox News anchor Leland Vittert, once a Trump target, quietly exits network

Fox News anchor Leland Vittert, a longtime weekend show mainstay turned Trump target, has left the network after a lengthy absence from the airwaves.

When reached for comment Friday, a Fox News spokesperson said the two parties "mutually and amicably parted ways."

The news was first reported by ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams' media industry-focused website, Mediaite, which noted, "Rumors have circulated for months regarding the professional fate of Vittert, since he disappeared from the air at Fox News in January. His Twitter account has been dormant since Jan. 13." ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/30/fox-news-anchor-leland-vittert-once-a-trump-target-quietly-exits-network/