December 25, 2020

Florida man arrested for tossing golf clubs into traffic

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man was arrested after authorities said he tossed golf clubs into highway traffic and then slugged a trooper who pulled him over.

The Florida Highway Patrol said they received a call Wednesday that a motorist was tossing golf clubs on Interstate 75 near Tampa out of his van, which had a “cherry picker” boom and basket attached to the top, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

A trooper spotted the van about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) away. The trooper pulled over the van and its driver, Jonathan Day, confronted the trooper with a golf club, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. ..... (more)

https://www.wcjb.com/2020/12/24/florida-man-arrested-for-tossing-golf-clubs-into-traffic/

December 24, 2020

Giraffes are stuck on a flooding island. But the rescues have begun

(CNN) Time was running out for Asiwa, a Rothschild’s giraffe in western Kenya.

For years, she and seven other giraffes had been living on a peninsula that reached out into Lake Baringo. But rising lake levels, caused by relentless rain, had gradually turned the peninsula into an island, leaving the animals stranded.

It was especially grim for Asiwa, who was stuck on a marshy part of the island, separated from the other giraffes with only about an acre of land to forage for food. And the flooding was only getting worse.

She needed to be rescued.

Conservationists have teamed up with Kenyan wildlife authorities and local members of the community to start moving the giraffes off the island and into a new sanctuary within the 44,000-acre Ruko Conservancy. ..........(more)

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/12/world/giraffe-rescue-kenya-cnnphotos/index.html

December 24, 2020

This is always how the Trump presidency was going to end

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 10:47 AM ET, Thu December 24, 2020


(CNN) It was once said about a famous TV personality that when he left a job, he didn't burn bridges with his past employer, he napalmed them.

That's exactly what Donald Trump is doing in the final weeks of his presidency -- as he savages longtime allies, pardons criminals solely because of their loyalty to him and threatens to rob the country of much-needed Covid-19 relief money just because he can.

"This is rotten to the core," Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said Wednesday night in the wake of Trump's latest round of pardons that included his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his political svengali Roger Stone.

That is, of course, true. But, what Trump is doing in his last days is also utterly predictable. This was always how this story was going to end. Anyone expressing shock and amazement simply hasn't been paying attention. .............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/24/politics/donald-trump-pardons-stimulus/index.html

December 24, 2020

The coup and the grift: Understanding Trump's evil endgame

The coup and the grift: Understanding Trump's evil endgame
Trump's cash grab is important, and so is his effort to hang onto power. But neither of those is the ultimate point

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
DECEMBER 24, 2020 12:00PM


(Salon) Donald Trump's villainy does not rest or find any respite during the holiday season.

As Michael D'Antonio, author of "The Truth About Trump," told Salon in a recent phone conversation, Trump will accept any help — legal or illegal, foreign or domestic, from friend or foe — in his effort to remain in power. Donald Trump is America's fascist authoritarian stalker. He will not stop.

During a video released on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump again suggested that he will not leave office as required on Inauguration Day. In that same speech, Trump also offered the American people payments of $2,000 each (instead of the paltry $600 dollars yielded by Republicans) in coronavirus relief support. In effect, Trump hopes to bribe the American people — even at this late date — into supporting his attempted coup.

How has America's mainstream news media responded to Trump's ongoing coup attempt? With some notable exceptions, the professional political observers and commentariat are focused on the political countdown clock and what they see as Joe Biden's inevitable ascension on Jan. 20. But while the media obsesses about a return to "normalcy," Trump continues to scheme and plot.

....(snip)....

Barring the unthinkable, Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States. Trump's coup attempt will metastasize into a shadow presidency, and his followers will mutate into a seditious fifth column, slavishly committed to the Great Leader, his family and his amorphous "cause."

....(snip)....

The ultimate goal of Trump's coup attempt is to overthrow the norms of democratic governance and legitimacy, by any means necessary. Trump would of course like to remain in power indefinitely, but that is only the proximate goal. On Jan. 20, he will likely be deposed — but the struggle will continue. If the American neofascist movement empowered by Donald Trump is allowed to keep growing, then his coup attempt will have achieved a major strategic success. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/12/24/the-coup-and-the-grift-understanding-trumps-evil-endgame/

December 23, 2020

The worst people of 2020 (who aren't Trumps), continued

The worst people of 2020 (who aren’t Trumps), continued
Part 2: Deniers and shitheads

By Jeffrey C. Billman


(Detroit Metro Times) Welcome to Part 2 of the Worst People of the Worst Year Ever (who aren't named Trump). In part 1, we lifted our leg on the seditionists who undermined democracy and the authoritarians who made a mockery of the constitution. To cap off our rogues gallery, this installment raises a glass (of antifreeze) to the criminally negligent COVID deniers and a potpourri of shitheads we'd just as soon drop off the face of the earth.

Group 3. Deniers

DR. SCOTT ATLAS. Few people provided pseudo-scientific cover for Donald Trump's sociopathic indifference to the pandemic like Atlas, a radiologist who fell into Trump's orbit via (what else) appearances on Fox News and eventually became his special COVID adviser by telling Trump what he wanted to hear — herd immunity, open everything, masks don't work, etc. Atlas had no training in infectious diseases or public health, yet the White House took his quackery seriously. We'll never know how many people died because of it.

FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS. Nowhere has DeSantis's leg-humping obsequiousness toward Trump been more apparent than with the coronavirus, which has killed more than 20,000 of his state's residents. Following Trump's lead, DeSantis dismissed the virus's dangers. His health department stopped talking about it. He forbade local governments from enforcing mask mandates and capacity restrictions. He reopened businesses in early May and boasted of how he'd tamed the pandemic without "draconian orders." (Two months later, Florida was the virus's global epicenter.) His minions (allegedly) fired an analyst who refused to manipulate COVID numbers, then the state cops raided her house. He hired an Ohio sports blogger and COVID conspiracy theorist as a data analyst. He blocked newspapers and academics from accessing records and hid federal warnings ahead of Thanksgiving. And I'd be remiss not to mention that DeSantis wants to give the state's George Zimmermans license to kill anyone they think might vandalize a business. What could go wrong?

PANDEMIC RESTAURANT DINERS. Sure, you're fine — you sit outside, respect the waitstaff, tip well, and mask up. But you're in the minority. A recent survey of hospitality workers in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., not only showed that food-service workers are at greater risk of COVID exposure, but 41% noticed a significant change "in the frequency of unwanted sexualized comments from customers," and 25% said they "have experienced or witnessed" increased sexual harassment. Adding insult to injury, 83% said they've seen their tips decline, and 66% said they've seen their tips decline by at least half. Folks, this isn't hard: If you can't dine out in-person without being a cheapskate superspreader dick, get takeout. ..............(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/the-worst-people-of-2020-who-arent-trumps-continued/Content?oid=26056525&utm_source=featurefollow&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=hpfeatures&utm_content=HomeTopFeature

December 23, 2020

GOP Covid deniers who refused to wear a mask jump the vaccine line, adding insult to injury

GOP Covid deniers who refused to wear a mask jump the vaccine line, adding insult to injury
There’s a particular hypocrisy in GOP senators like Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst and Marco Rubio getting the coronavirus vaccine before the rest of us.

Dec. 23, 2020, 12:54 PM EST
By Dean Obeidallah, MSNBC Opinion Columnist


In recent days, America has watched some of the very same Republican senators — Joni Ernst, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, for example — who in the past undermined the risks posed by Covid-19, attend events that hastened its spread. We've watch as they failed to denounce President Donald Trump’s numerous lies about this deadly virus, but then had no problem lining up to get the coronavirus vaccine before the rest of us.

As one emergency room doctor put it on Twitter after seeing a photo of 49-year-old Rubio being vaccinated Monday: “I’m an ER doctor and despite trying, I have not yet been able to be vaccinated.”

https://twitter.com/jeremyfaust/status/1340547869309349891?s=20

None of this should surprise you. The GOP and hypocrisy go hand in hand at this point. It’s like Trump and lying. Yet, these three senators’ profiles in duplicity are still uniquely atrocious.

Let’s start with Ernst, the senator from Iowa who both undercut the deadliness of the virus and vocally opposed measures that would have saved lives as it continued to infect thousands in her home state. In early September, although 184,000 of our fellow Americans had already died from the virus, Ernst told Iowans that she was “so skeptical" about the Covid-19 death toll data that she suggested the numbers were inflated. In her view, “health care providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if Covid is tied to it, so what do you think they’re doing?" This baseless conspiracy theory had been championed by groups like QAnon, but Ernst gave it increased credence by virtue of her position and platform. ..........(more)

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/gop-covid-deniers-who-refused-wear-mask-jump-vaccine-line-n1252196?icid=msd_topgrid

December 23, 2020

'America First' puts the U.S. economy at risk while the rest of the world powers forward

Over the past four years, the Trump administration’s fear-based U.S. nationalism has moved the conversation on trade to degree of protectionism levels rather than any kind of global engagement strategy. “Where should we erect barriers?” was the operating philosophy, a short-term, ill-informed approach shown decades ago to be ineffective.

A “Made in the USA” requirement for goods and services when the world has spent the past 75 years developing an integrated, efficient global system is a fantasy. It is based not on need, value, nor even fairness, but on fear and distrust, stoked by the same forces already deeply dividing the U.S.

Some attention needs to be paid to that fear, and President-elect Joe Biden has proposed a $400 billion “Buy America” initiative in connection with sorely-needed infrastructure investment. But the global system is moving ahead, and “America First” puts us at risk. ...........(more)

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/america-first-puts-the-us-economy-at-risk-while-china-europe-and-the-rest-of-the-world-power-forward-2020-12-23?mod=home-page

December 23, 2020

Housing Market Goes Crazy, Everyone Sees It Can't Last, and then the First Dip Appears

Housing Market Goes Crazy, Everyone Sees It Can’t Last, and then the First Dip Appears
by Wolf Richter • Dec 22, 2020 •

There is already a sudden and historic housing glut in San Francisco.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.


That the housing market has gone crazy in many parts of the country – a phenomenon of the Pandemic stimulus extend-and-pretend forbearance free-money foreclosure-ban economy while households reported a loss of 9.0 million jobs in November, from February – and that this crazy housing market couldn’t last has become apparent to everyone months ago. In October, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said just that. It wasn’t “sustainable,” and “there’s no way it can last forever,” he said. So today we got another dose of crazy housing numbers, with the first dip since all this started in the spring.

The National Association of Realtors reported today that sales of existing homes – single-family houses, condos, and co-ops – dipped 2.5% in November from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales of 6.69 million. But given the explosion of sales in the prior months, sales were still up 25.8% from November last year (data via YCharts):



....(snip)....

“Amazing” is the word. Echoing Redfin’s Kelman words that it “can’t last forever,” the NAR report said it will carry “well into the new year.” So five months? And then what? Those are rhetorical questions.

At the same time, many homeowners are struggling with their mortgages: 2.7 million mortgages are currently in forbearance, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the delinquency rates of FHA-insured mortgages, which support the lower end of the market spiked to a record of over 17%, including mortgages that were delinquent before they entered into forbearance.

A lot of unsold inventory always gets pulled off the market before the holidays, to be put back on the market in the spring, which makes the “days on the market” look a lot better. Sharp seasonal declines in inventory are the rule this time of the year, but this November was nevertheless special. ...........(more)

https://wolfstreet.com/2020/12/22/housing-market-goes-crazy-everyone-sees-it-can-last-and-then-the-first-dip-appears/

December 23, 2020

Kirk Cameron -- D-list actor, A-list douche

THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA) — A large group of people, lead by actor Kirk Cameron, gathered again Tuesday evening in Thousand Oaks to protest the likely extension of the Southern California stay-at-home order.

More than 150 people came together in the parking lot of the Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks around 5:30 p.m. Many were not wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines. ........(more)

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/12/23/large-group-of-carolers-protest-stay-at-home-order-extension/

December 23, 2020

Chicago: Red Line Extension Project approved to enter project development phase

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has approved the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Red Line Extension (RLE) Project to enter the New Starts Project Development phase of the FTA's Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program.

Entering this phase is a major step in the CTA’s continued commitment to move forward the construction of the RLE project. The CIG program provides partial funding for transit capital investments like RLE. Federal transit law requires transit agencies seeking CIG funding to complete a series of steps over several years, including project development.

“While this year has brought forth a tremendous amount of uncertainty, one thing that remains certain is CTA’s unwavering commitment to advancing the Red Line Extension project,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “A project of this magnitude requires careful planning and design, which I’m proud to say has been done and will continue every step of the way as we work to advance this transformational project that will benefit the Far South Side and the entire city of Chicago.” ............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/infrastructure/press-release/21203727/chicago-transit-authority-cta-ctas-red-line-extension-project-approved-to-enter-project-development-phase