…show them this picture and remind them that there are terrible people who wouldn’t mind seeing this come back.
Category: The Current Situation
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The last day of 2023
It’s “123123” only if you use the U.S.-style numerical date order…
2024 will be an election year in the U.S., and it’s probably be a nasty one. One particular candidate — who faces a boatload of indictments, pretty much committed an act of treason (and possibly more than just that well-publicized one) — still has plenty of followers who see him as either a means to entrench their lofty position in society, or as an avatar into which they can channel their resentment.
That candidate has already campaigned on the fear of rising crime, with crime often being a code word for “the coloreds.” The Southern Strategy still lives.
But actual crime, it turns out, has been dropping:
The problem is that it’s all too easy to sell the idea of rising crime. The general perception, according to a recent Gallup poll, is that crime is up, in spite of the actual numbers. And for those who keep carping about “the illegals” contributing to the not-rising-but-rising crime, the numbers say that they’re may be less of a problem than other groups.
Expect a nastier news cycle in the new year.
Recommended reading
- ABC News: ‘It is historic’: US poised to see record drop in yearly homicides despite public concern over crime
- Axios: Border cities see homicides rates drop
- New York Times: After Rise in Murders During the Pandemic, a Sharp Decline in 2023
- The Guardian: ‘Sitting on a powder keg’: US braces for a year, and an election, like no other
Thanks to Los Angeles’ best blogger, Tony Pierce, for the find!
Tap to view at full size.
I think whoever was assembling the “lower third” for CNN’s news segment on the late great Jimmy Buffett (RIP, you magnificent bastard and musical role model of mine) was trying to choose between saying that he’d played for over 50 years or 5 decades, settled on “50 years”, and forgot to change the final word.
Consider this another reminder to use processes and tools to double-check your work before you put it out into the world, especially if it’s a rush job.
I’ve already filled up our portable tanks for our generator with ethanol-free gasoline, in case the power goes out. The gas lines near me were only a little longer than usual, but that was at 10:30 a.m., which isn’t a terribly busy time. If you need gas for your car or generator, get it as soon as possible, because the crowds will get worse as the day progresses, and by tomorrow, all the gas stations are going to be like the old Mad Max movies.
This morning, ethanol-free gas was selling at the Wawa at Florida and Waters (which has 4 pumps that dispense it) for US$4.49 a gallon (CDN$1.62 per litre for my Canadian friends and family).
Gasoline has a limited lifetime — 3 to 6 months — and ethanol-infused gasoline lasts half as long. My typical approach is to stock up on eth-free gas in late August (a little before the hurricanes typically come) and, if I don’t use it in the generator, pour it into the car’s gas tank in December, after the end of hurricane season.
Once again, because a hurricane watch has been announced for Tampa Bay for Tropical Storm Idalia, the graphic above provides a quick explainer for the often-misunderstood terms hurricane watch and hurricane warning…but with tacos!
Simply put:
- If the atmospheric conditions are ripe for a storm, tornado, or hurricane to occur, weather a services issue a watch. A watch basically says “It might happen; be on the lookout for it.”
- If a storm, tornado, or hurricane has formed, weather services issue a warning. A warning basically says “It is happening; get to shelter NOW!”
Meteorologist Chris Gloninger quit his job reporting the weather on Des Moines TV news because he’d been receiving death threats for talking about climate change during his weather reporting. This is yet another concerning data point in the general anti-science, anti-media trend being fomented by an aggrieved sector of America continuing its cult-like turn.
In spite of the evidence all around us, from a century’s worth of temperature tables to the increase in the number and size of forest fires, rising sea levels, and more days when it’s too hot for planes to take off, too many people see the world through a warped ideological lens and choose to defend that view with threats and violence. To quote the AP article Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends:
Gloninger’s experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.
Many meteorologists say it’s a reflection of a more hostile political landscape that has also affected workers in a variety of jobs previously seen as nonpartisan, including librarians, school board officials and election workers.
For several years now, Gloninger said, “beliefs are amplified more than truth and evidence-based science. And that is not a good situation to be in as a nation.”
For more, see this MSNBC piece, Meteorologist on receiving death threats over his climate crisis reports: