Hurricane news 4

(cont'd from last week's posts)

Just days after Hurricane Helene carved a path of wreckage into the eastern U.S. interior, Hurricane Milton swept across central Florida (photo).

The Gulf Coast took much of the property damage, but millions more in the region lost power.

It was expected and prepared for. Over 50,000 linemen from multiple states volunteered to come fix the massive problem of fallen power lines. The Florida governor says they were "pre-staged" so they could get to work as soon as Milton was gone.

Volunteer linemen also came to Georgia to restore power after Helene. Residents of one community gathered to say a grand "thank you" complete with their local high school band. You'll enjoy it, so go here to see them express their appreciation (posted on X last week).

Hurricane news 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

How important is internet access to us all for communication, news, banking, etc.--and it was lost for a while in hard-hit regions. Starlink is internet access operated by SpaceX, a "crucial lifeline in parts of southern Appalachia that were devastated by Hurricane Helene." It was donated and delivered freely to hundreds of survivors as you may have seen in yesterday's videos. 

Satellite-powered, it works even in remote and devastated communities if there's a good view of the sky. Instructions for making it work are pretty basic: "Plug it in and point to sky." 

Another difference maker is Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization of 1600 employees run by the family of evangelist Billy Graham. "At our sites across North Carolina, we are doing tree work, mudding out homes, removing debris, and tarping roofs. Heavy equipment is being used to clear private driveways and private roads. In some areas, we are also offering water and potable water to the community."

 

Speak up 3

Follow-up to these posts

"Speak up!" is urged by a number of people I've written about on this blog. Speak up when you want to dissent, to tell the truth, instead of taking the easy way out. Speak up, even when you know certain people won't like it and may try to make you suffer for it. (But use the good advice of Kay Coles James when you do it.)

You probably have a "community" of like-minded people--call them your "tribe"--who agree with you on important things. What you might be surprised about is that a lot of Americans outside of your tribe agree with you on the importance of speaking what you believe. (A point that I've heard Vivek Ramaswamy make more than once.)

For example, a gay man writing for FAIR objects strongly to the assumption that he's defined by a mythical "LGBTQ community": "it reinforces an us vs. them mentality, and . . fuels division at a time when Americans desperately need to come together. . . and is frequently conjured as a cudgel wielded by the left to blame and shame." He doesn't like cancel culture, either. 

image

Don't just assume that other people are woke or leftist. Sometimes Americans of other tribes believe, as you do, in telling the truth and speaking up. 

from Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism

Second gen

His parents immigrated from Bangladesh in 1976 and settled in Brooklyn NY. Reihan Salam calls himself a "lifelong Brooklynite" because he still lives there. He's a second generation immigrant who never felt limited by his ethnicity, but rather learned from his parents that he could get ahead by being thoughtful, conscientious, kind, and by putting in the work.

Both his father and Reihan himself have been victims of crime (mugging, burglary). Personal experience has led him to believe that safety is the foundation of freedom. Makes sense.

"When you have safe streets, you have community, you can build relationships with strangers and go beyond your group. When you have violence, people retreat-- they look on their neighbors with suspicion," not seeing them as potential friends or business partners. 

If we want integration, civic harmony, friendships, diversity and inclusion, people must feel safe; if someone is a danger to the family or neighborhood, that person must be dealt with appropriately.

"We need a cultural message: if you put yourself in harm's way to protect public safety . . you should be celebrated . . . We have under-invested in our criminal justice systems for too long."

They got sick

Follow up to this post

Residents of that Ohio town where the train derailed in February report that some are getting sick, potentially because of the incident. A million pounds of hazardous chemicals were being transported in the train cars and some of it leaked into a creek and the soil.

Officials decided to channel some vinyl chloride into a trench and ignite it. A big black cloud of smoke from the fire rose over the town. It's not hard to imagine that such a thing would make the air unsafe.

photo

Federal and state officials told residents that there was no problem with the air or water. But the U.S. Center for Disease Control sent agents to investigate.

During the investigation a month ago, seven of the fifteen investigators developed symptoms like those reported by the residents. It's not proven that those chemicals caused the illnesses. But what does that sound like to you? If I run across a final answer, I'll post it.

from CNN

Derailment 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

It happens more often than you might think. So far this year there have been a dozen train derailments nation-wide, and there were 54,539 from 1990 to 2021 (averaging 1704/year). 

But most are not as spectacular as the one at East Palestine, Ohio, thirteen days ago, and most don't spill hazardous chemicals into water sources or fill the air with a big dark plume of smoke.

Maybe most surprising, some happen by intentional design. According to this 2021 report, the FBI at the time was investigating at least 41 incidents of railway sabotage in the state of Washington.

It's not just railways either. A water treatment plant operator personally prevented the poisoning of local people in 2021 when he reversed a hacker's attempt to manipulate the acid content of the water supply in Oldsmar, Florida. 

We all depend on our public utilities, the infrastructure. It's probably not as secure as we'd like it to be. 

Derailment

Days ago, back on February 3, a train carrying dangerous material crashed in Ohio. Dramatic drone footage shows the scattered train cars, some burning.

East Palestine, Ohio, was the site of this fiery disaster. Chemicals got out into the local environment and more leakage was expected. So authorities took a bold step: they set the material on fire to keep it contained. 

Gov. DeWine ordered evacuation of the area, calling it a matter of life and death. Crews released vinyl chloride into a trough and ignited it. But fears abound that the water and air may still be unsafe.

from CBS News

(cont'd tomorrow)

Tolerant 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

There's a question posed in yesterday's video, a question that provokes strong opinions.

"Any way you answer, someone's views are not going to be tolerated. There is no world in which the answer to this question accommodates and tolerates everyone and everything. The question which divides us is which public behaviors should be tolerated and which should not."

Old intolerance has been replaced with new intolerance. For example, 50 years ago a teacher might be fired for teaching A Communist Manifesto in school. Today a teacher could be fired for teaching the Bible in school. Did the parents of students choose this trade-off?

Should we have any standards at all? Who gets to decide what should be tolerated and what should not? 

Tolerant

Open-minded to everything, open to anything at all. Is that what it means to be tolerant today? That word is used a lot to describe how we all should be, what it takes to be a good person and a good citizen. 

But actually, not one single person is completely open to absolutely every thing. Each one of us is open to some things but not open to everything.

Today's American culture is intolerant of different things than Americans used to be. It's a question of what is good, what standards should we hold up. What things from our traditions should be preserved and what traditions should be changed? We've gone through this before.

Elon & Twitter

When you're massively wealthy, as Elon Musk is, you have social influence, as Elon so obviously does. You also have the means to support your position on issues that you think are important.

Hence, the news that last week he purchased about 73 million shares of Twitter stock. It makes him the biggest shareholder in Twitter, even beyond the recently exited CEO, Jack Dorsey. 

image

What's the connection? Elon believes strongly in the principle of free speech. He asked his gigantic following (80+ million) what they think:

"Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?"

They said "No," and they're quite correct. According to the new CEO, Twitter's role is to "focus less on free speech" and more on censoring speech they judge to be unhealthy. There's no doubt whatsoever that the speech you see on Twitter is the speech which they, in their role as judge and jury, allow to be seen.

Musk may try to change that. He'll be in a position of influence because, as their biggest stockholder, he's joining their board of directors. He had to promise to limit himself to only 14.9% of the company's shares 😄

As one analyst says, "It's time to get out the popcorn and watch the developments over the coming months with Musk on the Board." Agreed!

Good outcome

Minneapolis was the site of terrible things a year ago. What would it take to set off more violence this summer? A lot of people fear that it wouldn't take much.

But a Minneapolis Police inspector managed to keep a volatile situation from escalating into a crisis last week. 

As he responded to an armed robbery, he called a neighborhood church pastor and a community organizer and asked them to send people to the scene. He even called the suspect's mom. It made all the difference.

from Kare11

Scary time

"It's a scary time for the Jewish community," says actor Jonathan Lipnicki (30). He's one of the volunteers who offer their protection to a "community on edge."

Anti-semitic attacks are spiking in Los Angeles. Volunteer Remi Franklin put out a message after the sushi restaurant attack (video below): “If anyone in the Jewish community in greater L.A. is concerned about walking to Shul or home, I’ll walk with you.”

On his first protection shift, Lipnicki was thanked by an older Orthodox man who said, "We appreciate you so much. You're not scared?" Lipnicki replied, “No, you gotta do the right thing, man." His grandfather, an Auschwitz survivor, told him to "always do your part."

from LATimes

Boca Chica 3

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

SpaceX is willing to throw even more money at Boca Chica. They offered each of the  ~40 residents three times the appraised value for their properties. 

The company plans nothing but growth and construction, and finds it harder to adequately protect the village from possibilities like the explosion of Starship prototypes since all residents live less than 2 miles away. The Federal Aviation Administration required SpaceX to increase its liability insurance from $3 million to $100 million.

photo

Some sold their homes, took the money and left (as another incentive, Elon Musk said they could return for VIP launch-viewing events).  A few originally stayed, set up webcams and Facebook pages, and waited for better offers.

And some still remain. It's possible that the government could force them out by eminent domain in the interest of the local economy. As of last October, ten residents are still there. Meanwhile, SpaceX reportedly plans to make a resort out of Boca Chica.

from Business Insider

Boca Chica 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

From a coastal paradise, Boca Chica has been transformed into a technologically cutting edge rocket launch site of global significance with perpetual lights and noise. Some residents object, but not all of them. A lot of new money has definitely flowed.

photo

Most people spoke in support of SpaceX at that 2012 public meeting. Hundreds of new jobs would be created in a region that needed them. And there was the thrill that SpaceX always creates for "a new and exciting era in space exploration." 

The company would like to be a good neighbor. Last week Elon Musk announced that $20 million will be donated to county schools and another $10 million donated to nearby Brownsville TX for downtown renovation. The wave of job creation continues as well. In the next couple years they will hire several thousand more people.

But the burly presence of SpaceX is disturbing the community at a new, higher level now.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Boca Chica 1

So remote that fresh water is trucked in, Boca Chica is - or was - a sleepy, unincorporated little community in Texas. Residents like the quiet life there near the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, at Texas' southern tip, with no shops or amenities.

photo

A new neighbor wanted to move to Boca Chica in 2012, a newcomer so significant that a public meeting was called. SpaceX wanted to build its own launch site there for twelve launches per year of the Falcon 9 -- just a little noise 12x/year.

SpaceX broke ground in 2014 and Boca Chica will never be the same. Residents make a hobby of watching the rocket company and taking pictures. Federal regulations required a level of safety around the site, so checkpoints were set up to stop anyone who wasn't on the list of property owners from getting close. 

As you know, SpaceX is way beyond Falcon 9 now. All testing of their new Starship is done here, the one that is designed to take 100 people at a time to Mars. It's much bigger, there's a lot of construction, and the new neighbor is looking pretty burly.

from The Atlantic

(cont'd tomorrow)