Zorro
Zorro's JournalThe House GOP is a circus. The chaos has one source.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. Six weeks after his improbable rise from obscurity to speaker of the House in late 2023, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson decided to break bread with a group of Christian nationalists. He gave the keynote address (at the Museum of the Bible) to the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a group whose founder, “proud” Christian nationalist Jason Rapert, has said: “I reject that being a Christian Nationalist is somehow unseemly or wrong.”
Rapert’s organization promoted the pine-tree “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was among the banners flown at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021 — and which, by total and remarkable coincidence, was proudly displayed outside Johnson’s congressional office.
Confirmed speakers and award recipients for the gathering Johnson addressed included: a man who proposed that gay people should be forced to wear “a label across their forehead reading, ‘This can be hazardous to your health’ ”; a woman who blamed gay people for Noah’s flood and more recent natural disasters; and various adherents of “dominionist” theology, which holds that the United States should be governed under biblical law by Christians.
“I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here,” Johnson teased the group, unaware that his hosts were streaming video of the event. Johnson informed his audience that God “had been speaking to me” about becoming speaker, communicating “very specifically,” in fact, waking him at night and giving him “plans and procedures.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/18/speaker-johnson-trump-2024/
Injured Cyclist Briefly Regains Consciousness To See RFK Jr. Dragging Him Into Kitchen
MALIBU, CA—Groaning as his bruised head thumped along the tiled flooring, 35-year-old injured cyclist Paul Zablocki briefly regained consciousness to see Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dragging him by the legs into the former presidential candidate’s kitchen, sources reported Wednesday.
Confused and bleary-eyed upon awakening, Zablocki reportedly noticed a feral aroma of what seemed to be animal carcasses emanating from the room, and grew frightened after making eye contact with the environmental lawyer and conspiracy theorist, who gazed down at him while muttering, “Yes, this one is beautiful…perfect.”
According to sources, Kennedy then dropped the man on the floor with a thud, reached into a drawer, and finally began humming contentedly as he sharpened a set of knives.
At press time, sources confirmed the last thing Zablocki saw was Cheryl Hines walking through the kitchen and rolling her eyes.
https://theonion.com/injured-cyclist-briefly-regains-consciousness-to-see-rfk-jr-dragging-him-into-kitchen/
This country is now the world's first to have more EVs than gas-powered cars
Norway is the first country in the world with more electric vehicles than gas-powered cars on the road, according to vehicle registration data the Norwegian road federation, known as OFV, released Tuesday.
Of the 2.8 million passenger cars registered in the country, 26.3 percent are fully electric, just edging out the share of gas vehicles. Diesel remains the most common vehicle type, making up more than a third of Norwegian vehicle registrations.
“The electrification of the passenger car fleet is keeping a high pace, and Norway is moving rapidly towards becoming the first country in the world with a passenger car fleet dominated by electric cars,” OFV Director Oyvind Solberg Thorsen said in a statement. He predicted EVs will outnumber diesel cars by 2026.
Norway leads the world in EV adoption, thanks to government incentives that include exempting electric cars and trucks from sales and emissions taxes, lowering tolls and parking fees for these vehicles, and allowing EV drivers to use bus lanes. The country is also one of the world’s wealthiest, which helps defray the higher upfront cost of EVs. Electric cars now make up more than 90 percent of new-vehicle sales.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/09/17/norway-electric-vehicles-exceed-gasoline/
A $5 Billion NASA Mission Looked Doomed. Could Engineers Save It?
People at NASA headquarters take deep breaths when the words “First Story” appear in their email. Late this spring, Curt Niebur, the lead scientist for flight programs, received such a message.
“You open that email right away,” Dr. Niebur said. “You read it, and then you reply, ‘Thank you for sharing,’ and then you bury your face in a pillow and you howl in terror.”
The matter prompting Dr. Niebur’s apprehension involved Europa Clipper, one of NASA’s most scientifically important missions. The agency’s science division created the “First Story” process to encourage science project staff members to communicate potentially bad news without fear of overreaction by leadership.
This news seemed exceptionally bad. If what Dr. Niebur was reading was true, Europa Clipper was cooked.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/science/nasa-europa-clipper-radiation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LU4.X8if.KLhXjovGpN9H&smid=url-share
Vance had better buckle up: His debate might go as badly as Trump's
JD Vance has had the most disastrous vice-presidential run in memory, gaining the distinction of having the worst net approval rating of the four candidates on the two major party tickets. And it could get worse: The Ohio senator’s debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is set for Oct. 1, with two capable female moderators — Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS News.
Like his boss, Vance does poorly with strong women interrogators. His recent appearance with CNN’s Dana Bash, which focused on his spreading of false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets, was a train wreck:
Losing his cool, Vance went so far as to tell Bash to “shut up.” (“Doesn’t that mean you should shut up about the residents of Springfield?”) When he accused her of showing favoritism toward the Democratic candidates, she replied tersely: “I think that if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were making unsubstantiated claims that had racist undertones about people eating dogs and cats, I would — and they didn’t answer the questions about that, then I would have similar interactions with them.” His interview triggered another round of rotten headlines for him and the campaign.
Vance’s role in fanning what amounts to a racist blood libel, followed by his confession that he feels compelled to “create stories” to score points with voters, will not be his only vulnerability. Whether backtracking on assurances that former president Donald Trump would refuse to sign an abortion ban, or staking out a position that rape and incest shouldn’t be exceptions to abortion bans, or suggesting that people should stay in “violent marriages” (an interpretation he denies), or insisting that childless people do not have a stake in the future of the United States, or saying he “doesn’t care” what happens in Ukraine, Vance’s record is littered with gaffes, extreme statements and offensive slurs. (Recall his statement about getting grandparents to solve our child-care problem). He certainly will need to explain why he went from calling Trump “America’s Hitler” to praise so obsequious that it would make former vice president Mike Pence blush.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/17/jd-vance-debate-walz-trainwreck/
14% of Republicans would 'take action to overturn' the election if Trump loses, study finds
Nearly half of Republicans say they won’t accept the results of the presidential election if their candidate loses, and some of them say they would “take action to overturn” the results, according to data released Tuesday.
About a quarter of Democrats said they wouldn’t accept the results if their candidate loses, and fewer Democrats than Republicans said they would “take action to overturn” the results.
The nonpartisan World Justice Project, which keeps an index of how strong the rule of law is in more than 100 countries, gathered the data as part of a larger study. The poll was conducted through online interviews with 1,046 American households between June 10 and June 18.
The report did not ask people what specific “action” they would take to overturn the election results, just that that 46% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats wouldn't accept results, and 14% of Republicans compared to 11% of Democrats said they would "take action."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/17/half-republicans-wont-accept-trump-loss-2024/75142477007/
Are tiny black holes zipping through our solar system? Scientists hope to find out.
A mind-bending hypothesis is gaining traction among scientists: The universe may be teeming with microscopic black holes the size of an atom, but with the mass of a city-sized asteroid.
Created just a split second after the Big Bang, these hypothetical black holes would whip quietly through the solar system roughly once every few years, traveling over a hundred times faster than a bullet.
Some have even argued that an immense explosion that flattened a Siberian forest in 1908 could have been the result of one of these micro black holes impacting Earth.
Now, researchers say they’ve figured out a way to test whether these cosmic bullets truly exist.
In a study published Tuesday in the journal Physical Review D, physicists at MIT say the presence of a tiny black hole speeding through the solar system could be identified by the gentle gravitational nudge it exerted on the Earth and other planets, which would alter their orbital paths by no more than a few feet.
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2024-09-17/tiny-black-holes-zipping-through-the-solar-system
A pipeline explosion is shooting a towering pillar of flame over a Houston suburb
Source: AP Via Yahoo News
A massive pipeline fire shooting a towering pillar of flame for hours over suburban Houston on Monday as first responders evacuated a surrounding neighborhood and tried to keep more nearby homes from catching fire.
The blaze involving a 20-inch pipeline carrying natural gas liquids must burn itself out, according to its operator, Dallas-based Energy Transfer. The company said the gas flow was shut off but residual material inside could burn for hours to come.
Firefighters were dispatched at 9:55 a.m. after an explosion that rattled adjacent homes and businesses in Deer Park and La Porte, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Houston, long the energy capital of the U.S. The plume of smoke could been seen from at least 10 miles away, and nearby there was a chemical smell in the air. There was no immediate word on whether anyone has been injured.
Geselle Melina Guerra said she and her boyfriend heard an explosion at around 9:30 a.m. as they were having breakfast in their mobile home. “All of a sudden we hear this loud bang and then I see something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that’s outside,” said Guerra, 25, who lives within the evacuation area.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pipeline-exploded-fire-houston-suburb-160858563.html
Another day in Abbottland.
The GOP House won't govern. Send it to the backbenches in November.
Lucky for the Republicans who run the House, few Americans are paying attention to their antics of late, given the focus on the presidential race. Here’s what they’re up to: busily exemplifying the definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
“Led” by Speaker “MAGA Mike” Johnson, Republicans yet again are threatening by their actions to shut down the government. After their extended summer recess, they returned after Labor Day and set out to score preelection points — egged on by Donald Trump — rather than seriously trying to pass legislation to keep the government funded. And they’re doing this just weeks before the Oct. 1 start of a new fiscal year, though they’ve had months to pass regular bills funding federal operations to avoid a last-minute grab-bag.
Their doomed strategy — and they know it’s doomed — is a familiar one: Attach a pet right-wing priority onto the funding package and try to force the Democratic Senate majority and President Biden to accept it under deadline pressure. Except the House Republicans don’t have enough votes to pass the package, given the opposition of party defectors as well as Democrats.
In past years, Republicans’ “poison pills” on funding bills have included proposals targeting Obamacare, abortion rights, immigrants and transgender people. This time immigrants are their target again. They are demanding a law requiring Americans to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Voting by noncitizens is already a crime and one that virtually no one commits.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-09-15/federal-budget-shutdown-house-congress-mike-johnson
Laura Loomer is the symptom. The real problem is Donald Trump.
It’s impossible, unproductive and, frankly, tedious to respond to every Trump outrage. So I try to pick my shots and spare readers what would otherwise be an unbearable barrage. But the moment has arrived again — this time in the repulsive form of Laura Loomer, the far-right bigot, conspiracy theorist and, in recent days, campaign trail companion of the former president.
As with other Trump provocations — abjuring the intention to be a dictator “except for day one”; calling for the “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” to deal with supposed election fraud; praising those charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection as “hostages” — his association with Loomer is not an aberration but an illustration. It demonstrates who Donald Trump is and underscores the danger he poses.
Loomer is no outlier in Trumpworld. Rather, she is a particularly pungent example of the types of people with whom Trump has chosen to ally himself, from Stephen K. Bannon to Roger Stone to Stephen Miller. This is a man who dined at Mar-a-Lago with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, whom Trump described as “a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”
Loomer, though, might take the cake. The 31-year-old twice-failed congressional candidate, professional provocateur and self-described “investigative journalist” has proclaimed herself a “#ProudIslamophobe,” termed Islam a “cancer on society” and said “Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.” She posted a video on X that labeled 9/11 an “Inside Job,” although she didn’t use the phrase herself. She responded to a news story about the drowning deaths of 2,000 migrants with a hand clap emoji and the words “Good. … Here’s to 2,000 more.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/15/laura-loomer-trump-campaign/
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Gender: MaleHometown: America's Finest City
Current location: District 48
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 16,066