FBI Director Christopher Wray said he feared the Middle East violence could embolden individuals or groups to carry out attacks inside the United States. read more
China has insisted it is safe to visit the country amid concerns about a rise in the respiratory illness human metapneumovirus (HMPV). read more
An independent federal agency recommends the House Ethics Committee open a full-scale investigation into U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles over discrepancies in his campaign finance disclosures. read more
Security camera video from a nearby business shows the plane was tilted on its side as it dove into a furniture manufacturing building, causing a fiery explosion. read more
Twenty-five years ago on January 1, despite panic and fear that the world was soon to collapse into chaos, nothing much happened. read more
@#3 ... Good op-ed. ...
Yup. One of the good ones, imo.
But, sadly ...
OpEd: My Last Column: Finding Hope in an Age of Resentment
www.nytimes.com
... This is my final column for The New York Times, where I began publishing my opinions in January 2000. I'm retiring from The Times, not the world, so I'll still be expressing my views in other places. But this does seem like a good occasion to reflect on what has changed over these past 25 years.
What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. And I'm not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites; some of the angriest, most resentful people in America right now " people who seem very likely to have a lot of influence with the incoming Trump administration " are billionaires who don't feel sufficiently admired.
It's hard to convey just how good most Americans were feeling in 1999 and early 2000. Polls showed a level of satisfaction with the direction of the country that looks surreal by today's standards. My sense of what happened in the 2000 election was that many Americans took peace and prosperity for granted, so they voted for the guy who seemed as if he'd be more fun to hang out with.
In Europe, too, things seemed to be going well. In particular, the introduction of the euro in 1999 was widely hailed as a step toward closer political as well as economic integration " toward a United States of Europe, if you like. Some of us ugly Americans had misgivings, but initially they weren't widely shared.
Of course, it wasn't all puppies and rainbows. There was, for example, already a fair bit of proto-QAnon-type conspiracy theorizing and even instances of domestic terrorism in America during the Clinton years. There were financial crises in Asia, which some of us saw as a potential harbinger of things to come; I published a 1999 book titled "The Return of Depression Economics," arguing that similar things could happen here; I put out a revised edition a decade later, when they did.
Still, people were feeling pretty good about the future when I began writing for this paper. ...
A tune that just appeared on a playlist here ...
Chameleons - Swamp Thing (1986)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
I can already hear your tune
Calling me across the room
When the world and his wife are on my back again
Not enough pleasure, too much pain
...
And then the King of Spivs will come
Selling blood by the litre
When nothing's sacred anymore
When the demon's knocking on your door
You'll still be staring down at the floor
...
OK, I had to look up King of Spivs ...
Spiv
en.wikipedia.org
... In the United Kingdom, a spiv is a petty criminal who deals in illicit, typically black market, goods. Spivs were particularly active during the Second World War and in the post-war period when many goods were rationed due to shortages.
According to Peter Wollen, "the crucial difference between the spiv and the classic Hollywood gangster was the degree of sympathy the spiv gained as an intermediary in the transfer of black market goods to ... a grateful mass of consumers."[1] ...
So the king of Spivs might be Pres-elect Trump?
(asking for a friend)
From the cited article ...
... Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, the new advisory says, after tobacco and obesity. ...
interesting.
Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps
www.cdc.gov
Unrelated, but just popped up on a playlist here.
A fun country tune from Tennessee ...
BR5-49 - Me 'n' Opie (Down by the Duck Pond) (Live at Robert's Western World, Nashville, TN - January 1996)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
[Spoken Intro]
Well, it looks like it's twelve-midnight, ladies and gentlemen.
Is that right?
Y'all know what that means: it's time to tell you the true story, all about the lost episode of The Andy Griffith Show.
It's a particularly heinous story about drug abuse and sexual deviance.
Looks like it's right up your alley.
[Chorus]
Don't tell Andy, don't tell Aunt Bee
They will come a-lookin' for Opie and me
Tell 'em we're dead or tell 'em we're gone
Me and Opie down by the duck pond
...
Trump overwhelmingly leads rivals in support from less educated Americans (2016)
www.pbs.org
... Trump overwhelmingly leads his rivals for support among the less educated, and draws more modest backing from college graduates and those with postgraduate study, according to exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research. ...
Among America's "Low-Information Voters" (August 2024)
www.newyorker.com
... Monica Sheppard lives in Rome, Georgia, where she runs a bee-themed arts-and-crafts shop. Rome is a right-leaning town in the rural, poor, and intensely conservative northwest corner of the state. Education rates are low, and mainstream news does not easily take root. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who became the district's congresswoman in 2021, was elected in part because, for many voters, identifying with the QAnon conspiracy theory, as she'd recently done, was less troubling than identifying with the Times. ...
Going back to the topic of this thread ...
Why educate people only to have them vote against you because of that education?
@#34
Found this ...
Welcome to Fort Bragg
https://www.soc.mil/NewComers/FortBragg.html
... Welcome to Fort Bragg, one of the U.S. Army's largest installations in the world.
The installation covers about 161,000 acres, or 251 square miles, stretching into six counties. More than 55,000 military service members and about 12,000 civilian personnel work at Fort Bragg, with about 25,000 family members living on post. ...
Woof. Six counties. 251 square miles.
That is not Fort Wadsworth.
Fort Wadsworth
https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/fort-wadsworth.htm
... Fort Wadsworth is one of the oldest military installations in the nation. The site occupies 226 acres on the northeastern shore of Staten Island, on the Narrows of New York Harbor. Rich in history and natural beauty, Fort Wadsworth affords you the opportunity to observe an important part of our nation's history, while offering magnificent views of New York Harbor. You can sit at the overlook and watch the harbor, ride your bike (click here for bike path map), run or walk through the fort.
Find a detailed history of Fort Wadsworth here.
...
@#2
But more to the point of the thread, I would have gone with ...
With the warnings that the FBI had issued, why did New Orleans not choose to use vehicle-blocking barriers?
Vehicle attacks are difficult to prevent -- but New Orleans fell short, experts say
www.nbcnews.com
... The city has 700-pound steel barriers but did not put them on Bourbon Street until a day after the attack, which the lieutenant governor called "a complete failure of responsibility." ...
@#14 ... Capitalism will Destroy US All.. ...
Much better to live under Pres Putin's rule?