Category: Political

That Debate Thing

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date September 11, 2024

Debate results in one image

And this is what I waited for: The text transcript of the debate.

Trump didn’t become unhinged during the debate, he was unhinged from the start. He just got louder and more bellicose during the debate. And VP Harris played him like a fiddle.

From the transcript…people have to stop calling him President Trump. It’s either former President Trump or Mr. Trump. Journalists who don’t do this are doing everyone a disservice.

The moderators didn’t control Trump as well as they should. He was able to give rebuttals that weren’t allowed under the rules. He told Harris at one point to basically shut up.

I did, however, appreciate them actually doing some fact checking. And the push back and willingness to bring a topic back up because Trump didn’t answer the question. I thought they did a decent job. They could have done better, but considering Trump I think they did the best they could.

Did Kamala Harris fudge some stuff? Yup, and I have no problem with it. When the media normalizes what Trump says, and he lies continuously, it’s past time for us to make the points that really need to be made. I hate to say it but politics in this day is all about sound bites, and we need to realize this or continue to cede control of the country to Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and their like.

There was nothing of substance in this debate, because substance doesn’t work when you’re running against a fraud like Trump. It certainly doesn’t work with a Republican party like it is today. Hilary Clinton tried to focus on substance in her debate with Trump, as Biden did with his. It doesn’t work. Until Republicans actually have a candidate who isn’t a serial liar like Trump, debates are sound bites and gotchas.

Harris and her team know how to campaign against Trump. And the media isn’t altogether happy about it.

PS: No one is eating anyone’s pet in Springfield, Ohio.

Debate transcript

Tags Harris

Government Weather

Georgia Emergency Management sends Debby disaster request to President

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date September 7, 2024

Flooded Chief of Love Road

Some good news for Georgians impacted by Debby.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency has sent a package containing statewide damage assessments to the President, asking him to make a disaster declaration for Georgia. The value given was $20.7 million, barely passing the required minimum of $20 million for the state. But it does pass, and a disaster declaration should be forthcoming once FEMA has done due diligence.

As I noted in an earlier piece, if the folks of Project 2025 had their way, we would not have met the minimum and Georgia would not be getting any FEMA disaster declaration funds. Thankfully, it’s 2024.

TS Debby disaster declaration request sent to President Biden, says CEMA director

Debby does Project 2025

Tags Debby

Government Savannah Weather

Project 2025 and Tropical Cyclone Debby

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date August 18, 2024

Flooded Chief of Love Road

(source links following)

Just when I started going through the Department of Homeland Security section of Project 2025, tropical cyclone Debby hit Georgia. And it hit Georgia hard.

Areas along the coast and even inland that have never flooded before, flooded. Storm water systems failed to handle the amount of rain that fell, storm water lagoons overflowed, and sewer lift stations were overrun resulting in raw sewage spills in several areas. Roadways were flooded, or complete destroyed when earthen dams failed. Entire neighborhoods in Chatham, Bryan, Liberty, Effingham, Bulloch, and other counties watched the water creep up; sometimes it stopped, sometimes it didn’t.

Currently, FEMA is working with GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management Agency), assessing the damage and determining whether a Major Disaster declaration is warranted for the state and impacted counties. Some folk thinks this means calling our Congressional reps or the governor or other persons of power and telling them to declare a disaster so we can get on with our lives.

It doesn’t work that way.

Tags FEMA, Project 2025

Government Legal, Laws, and Regs The Democratic Difference

It is none of our damn business

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date August 9, 2024

My Dad shortly before he died

My Dad, who was a Republican, would have liked Tim Walz. He would have liked Walz’s plain speaking. He would have admired his bluntness, especially when Walz says that a woman’s right to choose is none of our damn business. He would have liked it because that’s exactly what my Dad used to say.

When Dad and I talked about things like abortion, his philosophy was, “It’s none of my business what happens between a woman and a doctor. This is no one’s business but the woman and her doctor.”

He felt the same thing about same-sex marriage: it was none of his business. I know he would feel the same thing about trans treatment: it was none of his business.

He took that same belief to what he expected from his elected representatives: interfering in a woman’s right to healthcare isn’t the government’s business. Whether a woman has an abortion or not isn’t the business of the state legislature. Or Congress. They have work to do that is their business, and abortion, same-sex marriage, pronoun use, trans healthcare, what books people read … none of these are their damn business.

My Dad was born in 1910. He didn’t always understand why a woman would want an abortion, but her having one, was none of his business. He didn’t fully understand the LGBTQ+ community, but he never expressed disapproval of any member of the community because it wasn’t his business to approve or disapprove. He felt he didn’t have the right to make judgements on how other people lived as long as how they lived didn’t hurt anyone else.

It was none of his damn business. And he fought in World War II as part of the 82nd Airborne to ensure that others didn’t interfere where they had no right to be.

Now, please take some time to watch Lawrence O’Donnell rip apart today’s media in one of his most eloquent and important video appearances, ever. Because he’s telling the media what is their business, and that they are failing.

PS I’ll tell you something else about my Dad: he never would have voted for Donald Trump.

Just Shelley The Democratic Difference Weather

Debby didn’t do Savannah

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date August 6, 2024

The eye of Debby passing directly over Savannah.

Well, we lucked out. Debby was slow moving, which wasn’t good. But it degraded over land. Better yet, it grabbed and incorporated a dry air mass that kept most of the heavier overnight rain away.

We lost power, so I don’t have an accurate rain measurement from my system. However, according to the University of Georgia weather station across the street from me, we had a total of 8.01 inches in less than 24 hours.

Now, we’ll get about an inch of rain today, maybe an inch tomorrow, and it will be done.

So far the only damage is to our roof dryer vent, which seems to be weeping some water internally and sneaking out through a join. Not a big problem. And the power outage didn’t last long enough to spoil food in the fridge or freezer.

Other sections of the city weren’t as lucky, as there was quite a bit of flash flooding. Chatham county and Savannah really need to think about better storm water management, and how much unrestricted development they’re both allowing.

Anyway, last TS post for this storm. Debby just said “Hey!” and is passing on through—its eye is directly overhead as I write this.

And Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz for VP! Let the politics begin!

Tags Debby