#hurricane ida power restoration

[fastrespondrestoration]

Hurricane Damage Restoration Near Me

When looking for a longer-term temporary solution, roof shrink cover may be the best option, as it lasts longer than standard blue roof tarps. Temporary roofing materials can be installed to prevent further roof leaks while you work through the insurance process to get a permanent replacement approved. Temporary roofing materials will aid in the prevention of roof leaks and further damage. If you need a relatively short-term solution after a hurricane, temporary roofing can include emergency roof tarping. Visit us: https://fastrespondrestoration.com/hurricane-damage-restoration.html

[weather-usa]

Weather-related power outages are becoming increasingly severe. What measures are needed to ensure reliable electricity as America’s grid faces escalating challenges?

Imagine this: It’s a Thursday night in Houston, and thunderstorms are rolling in. Suddenly, winds surge past 100 mph. Trees snap, windows shatter, and the city plunges into darkness as the power flickers out.

Even after the storm passes, it takes days for parts of the city to have their lights restored.

A week and a half later, the Tuesday morning commute is just starting in Dallas. Thunderstorms sweep through the city, unleashing hurricane-strength wind gusts and torrential rain. Trees and power lines fall, cutting power to hundreds of thousands. Many homes and businesses remain without electricity for days.

That's precisely what unfolded in Texas over the past few weeks, highlighting a troubling trend: extreme weather is causing more frequent and destructive power outages, overwhelming the aging electric grid.

According to Climate Central, a non-profit research group, 80% of major US power outages from 2000 to 2023 were weather-related. The number of these outages doubled from 2014 to 2023 compared to the early 2000s.

Losing power isn't just costly—disrupting work, school, and businesses—it's also dangerous. In Texas, summer temperatures can reach unhealthy levels without a heatwave. The lack of air conditioning at night is particularly hazardous, as the body needs to cool down after a hot day.

Climate and Average Weather Year Round in Oklahoma:

Experts suggest that while there's no perfect solution, there are ways to maintain power during extreme conditions.

So why can't we keep the lights on?

The US power grid, an interconnected network of power plants, lines, and substations, is aging rapidly and struggling to meet modern demands, as per the US Department of Energy (DOE). This struggle is exacerbated by increasingly intense weather due to climate change.

“Our (power) infrastructure was built for the weather of the past,” says Michael Webber, a professor of engineering at the University of Texas. “It wasn’t built for the weather of the future, and the weather of the future is already here.”

Much of the US electric grid was constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, with some parts dating back to the early 1900s. About 70% of US transmission lines are nearing the end of their 50- to 80-year lifespans, according to the DOE.

Every component of the power grid is vulnerable to extreme weather, Webber told CNN. Most power is distributed via above-ground lines from large transmission towers to numerous smaller poles. Failures in these lines and poles are the primary cause of outages, making them a significant weak point in the system, Webber explains.

Severe weather—including thunderstorms, high winds, heavy rain, and tornadoes—was the primary cause of major weather-related outages, accounting for 58% of such incidents, according to Climate Central. These events directly affect exposed power lines.

Power lines and poles can be knocked down by falling tree limbs, toppled by fierce winds, and snapped by heavy ice. Extreme events, like the derecho and tornado that hit Houston in mid-May, can turn massive transmission towers into mangled metal. Hurricanes, such as Ida in 2021, cause widespread damage on a colossal scale.

When infrastructure can't withstand extreme weather, it not only disrupts power but also creates additional disasters. For example, the massive Smokehouse Creek Fire earlier this year was ignited by a "decayed" power pole that toppled in strong winds, according to a report from the Texas House of Representatives.

But it’s not just power lines and poles that suffer from extreme weather; power generation facilities also take a beating.

Frigid cold snaps can freeze essential equipment, rendering it unable to meet demand. In 2021, historic cold in Texas shuttered power plants and froze non-winterized wind turbines, leading to vast and deadly outages.

Conversely, searing heat drives electricity demand sky-high as cooling needs surge. If the grid can't meet these needs, blackouts and brownouts occur. Equipment can also overheat and fail if temperatures rise too high.

See more:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/196653623/Weather-Forecast-for-North-Carolina

Modernized Equipment Can Keep the A/C Running – for a Price

To maintain power during extreme weather and quickly restore it afterward, the US grid needs extensive upgrades and fortification. This will cost trillions of dollars, according to Webber.

Power poles, lines, and transmission equipment need to be built or rebuilt stronger and to operate at higher capacities to handle increased power flow, even during demand spikes. For instance, wooden power poles are less durable and have shorter lifespans than metal poles. Installing sturdy metal poles can keep more lines upright during extreme weather, though making steel is energy-intensive and has an environmental impact.

Even fortified above-ground power lines can be knocked over by violent storms, so another solution is to bury power lines underground. Some US cities, like Anaheim, California, and Fort Collins, Colorado, are already doing this.

Weather Forecast For Maine:

However, underground power lines are not a perfect solution. They are often ten times more expensive to install than overhead wires, and they are susceptible to flooding and difficult for crews to service, according to Rob Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, a power grid consulting firm.

Modernizing outdated power lines costs around $100,000 per mile, while installing new power lines can range from $1 million to $10 million per mile, depending on geography and whether they are above or underground, according to Webber.

However, this investment will pay off by preventing costly outages and wildfires sparked by failing power lines, which can cost billions of dollars, Webber argues.

A stronger grid also requires smarter controls to rapidly reroute power when outages occur.

See more:

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-85011

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-85012

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-85013

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-85014

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-85015

“Any number of things can happen to power generation in any one area,” Gramlich told CNN. “But if you have fortified inter-regional transmission, you have an insurance policy against many risks.”

[insideusnet]

Entergy Louisiana Customers to Cover $1.5B for Ida Repairs : Inside US

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — About a million customers of an electric utility in Louisiana will cover more than $1.4 billion in repair costs related to Hurricane Ida. Entergy Louisiana said residential customers will see about $5.50 added to their monthly bill for the next 15 years to cover the remaining costs of damaged equipment and the thousands of workers who rushed to restore power after the August…

[crimson-vow]

hey everyone - I wanted to take a moment to spread some awareness about Hurricane Ida and share ways to help the southeast United States.

my hometown and the surrounding region are currently experiencing one of the most catastrophic natural disasters we’ve seen in decades, apart from Hurricane Laura last year. storm surges, heavy rainfall, and 90+ mph winds are destroying infrastructure and have already left hundreds of thousands of people without power (which, for many, may not be restored for weeks or months). this storm developed so rapidly that many people had no time to plan an evacuation even if they could afford to, and it’s moving VERY slowly over the region, meaning that these torrential winds and rainfall will continue into the next day or longer. all of this compounded with the fact that hospitals are already overwhelmed due to COVID-19, the lack of air conditioning in the coming weeks will spell disaster for many, and the 16-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is today creates an incredibly bleak situation for residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and beyond.

if you are able to help, please consider donating to the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief fund, Imagine Water Works, or directly to those impacted seeking aid. DO NOT DONATE TO RED CROSS OR THE SALVATION ARMY. if you know of any other funds or individuals in need of donations, please reblog and add them to this post! if you’re unable to donate, that’s okay - please consider spreading the word regardless, because we desperately need your awareness and support. thank you for reading this far ♥️

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Op-Ed from the New York Times:

For more than 20 years, I have been studying the historical ecology of New York City and thinking about what it means for the city’s future, and I can tell you one thing: Water will go where water has always gone.

When Hurricane Sandy roared into New York in 2012, where did the sea surge? Into the salt marshes. They may not have looked like salt marshes at the time. They may have looked like Edgemere and Oakwood Beach and Red Hook, but these neighborhoods are marshes first, disguised with landfill and topped with buildings.

And so it was recently with the remnants of Hurricane Ida. It is heartbreaking and tragic that people died in flooded basements, and that so many lost so much property. Where were these flooded basements? Judging by the news reports, mainly dug into the old stream courses and freshwater wetlands of the city. Places such as the block of 153rd Street, surrounded by Kissena Park, in Queens. That’s Kissena Park, named after Kissena Creek, which up until the 1910s met the tidewaters of the Flushing River right about where 153rd Street is.

Or the flooding in Central Park? Those are the old wetlands that Frederick Law Olmsted tried to engineer out of existence in the 19th century, wetlands that provided slowing points for streams that rose on the Upper West Side and flowed southeast across the island to the East River.

In the aftermath of Ida, politicians have taken up talking points focusing on poverty and the lack of affordable housing that forces some to live underground. Others argue that our infrastructure, writ large, is no longer up to the task of protecting us from climate change. These responses are perfectly valid, but they miss the point.

The losses are mainly the result of our inability to read the landscape where we live and conceive fully what it means to live there. We need to see the landscape in new, by which I mean old, terms.

The Lenape people who once inhabited the hills and valleys that we now call New York City knew better than to dig caves in stream beds. They noticed how salt marshes and barrier beaches worked together to protect the coastline and restore it after storms. They saw with their own eyes that soil absorbs water, and rock repels it.

Most importantly, they understood, as their descendants — contemporary Native Americans — often remind us, that we need to live on the land with humility and compassion, as if we will be here for a while. We can learn from the streams, forests and marshes what it means to be living in a particular place. And it is our job to put that knowledge into practice. It is our home.

We might think we have dominion of the land, but our power is nothing compared to the glaciers that shaped New York or the climate change that is taking shots now.

What to do? The truth of it is, some people are going to have to move.

[kaile-hultner]

Nihilism is so easy, which is why we need to kill it

(I initially published this here a couple weeks ago.)

So last night it dawned on me that, after over two years of being relatively symptom-free, my depression snuck back up on me and has taken over. It’s still pretty mild in comparison to other times I’ve been stuck in the hole, but after 24 months (and more) of mostly being good to go, I can tell that it’s here for a hot minute again.

How do I know? Well, it might be the fact that I spent more time sleeping during my recent vacation from work than I did just about anything else, and how it’s suddenly really hard for me to stay awake during work hours. I don’t really have an appetite, and in fact nausea hits me frequently. I don’t really have any emotional reactions to things outside of tears, even when tears aren’t super appropriate to the situation (like watching someone play Outer Wilds for the first time). And I’ve been consuming a lot of apocalyptic media, to which the only response, emotional or otherwise, I can really muster is “dude same.”

For a long time I was huge into absurdist philosophy, because it felt to my depressed brain like just the right balance between straight up denying that things are bad (and thus we should fix them, or at least try to do so) and full-blown nihilism. This gives absurdism a lot of credit; mostly it’s just a loose set of spicy existentialist ideas and shit that sounds good on a sticker, like “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

In the last couple years, while outside of my depressive state, I went back to Camus’ work and found a lot of almost full-on abusive shit in it. Not toward anyone specifically, but shit like “nobody and nothing will care if you’re gone, so live out of spite of them all” rubs me the wrong way in retrospect. The philosophy Camus puts out opens the door for living in a very self-destructive fashion; that in fact the good life is living without care for yourself or anyone/anything else. The way Camus describes and derides suicide especially is grim as fuck, and certainly I would never recommend The Myth of Sisyphus to anyone currently struggling with ideation. That “perfect balance” between denial and nihilism is really not that perfect at all, and in fact skews much more heavily towards the latter.

Neon Genesis Evangelion has been a big albatross around my neck in terms of the media products I’ve consumed in my life that I believe have influenced my depression hardcore. It sits in a similar conversational space to Camus’ work, in that it confronts nihilism and at once rejects and facilitates it. A lot of folks remark that Evangelion is pretty unique – or at least uncommon – in its accurate portrayal of depression, especially for mid-90s anime properties. The thing I notice always seems to be missing in these discussions is that along with that accurate portrayal comes a spot-on – to me, at least – depiction of what depression does to resist being treated. This is a disease that uses a person’s rational faculties to suggest that nobody else could possibly understand their pain, and therefore there’s no use in getting better or moving forward. Shinji Ikari is as self-centered as Hideaki Anno is as I am when it comes to confronting the truth: there are paths out of this hole, but nobody else can take that step out but us, and part of our illness is that refusal to do just that. Depression lies, it provides a cold comfort to the sufferer, that there is no existence other than the one where we are in pain and there is no way out, so pull the blanket up over our head and go back to sleep.

Watching Evangelion for the first time corresponded with the onset of one of the worst depressive spirals I’ve ever been in, and so, much like the time I got a stomach virus at the same time that I ate Arby’s curly fries, I kind of can’t associate Evangelion with anything else. No matter what else it might signify, no matter what other meaning there is to derive from it, for me Eva is the Bad Feeling Anime™. Which is why, naturally, I had to binge all four of the Evangelion theatrical releases upon the release of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time last month.

If Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion are works produced by someone with untreated depression just fucking rawdogging existence, then the Eva movies are works produced by someone who has gone to therapy even just one fucking time. Whether that therapy is working or not is to be determined, but they have taken that step out of the hole and are able to believe that there is a possibility of living a depression-free life. The first 40 minutes or so of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 are perfect cinema to me. The world is destroyed but there is a way to bring it back. Restoration and existence is possible even when the surface of the planet might as well be the surface of the Moon. The only thing about this is, everyone has to be on board to help. Even though WILLE fired one of its special de-corefication devices into the ground to give the residents of Village 3 a chance at survival, the maintenance of this pocket ecosystem is actively their responsibility. There is no room or time for people who won’t actively contribute, won’t actively participate in making a better world from the ashes of the old.

There are a lot of essentialist claims and assumptions made by the film in this first act about how the body interacts with the social – the concept of disability itself just doesn’t seem to have made it into the ring of safety provided by Misato and the Wunder, which seems frankly wild to me, and women are almost singularly portrayed in traditionalist support roles while men are the doers and the fixers and the makers. I think it’s worth raising a skeptical eyebrow at this trad conservative “back to old ways” expression of the post-apocalypse wherever it comes up, just as it’s important to acknowledge where the movie pushes back on these themes, like when Toji (or possibly Kensuke) is telling Shinji that, despite all the hard work everyone is doing like farming and building, the village is far from self-sufficient and will likely always rely on provisions from the Wunder.

As idyllic as the setting is, it’s not the ideal. As Shinji emerges from his catatonia, Kensuke takes him around the village perimeter. It’s quiet, rural Japan as far as the eye can see, but everywhere there are contingencies; rationing means Kensuke can only catch one fish a week, all the entry points where flowing water comes into the radius of the de-corefication devices have to be checked for blockages because the water supply will run out. There is a looming possibility that the de-corefication machines could break or shut down at some point, and nobody knows what will happen when that happens. On the perimeter, lumbering, pilot-less and headless Eva units shuffle around; it is unknown whether they’re horrors endlessly biding their time or simply ghosts looking to reconnect to the ember of humanity on the other side of the wall. Survival is always an open question, and mutual aid is the expectation. Still: the apocalypse happened, and we’re still here. The question Village 3 answers is “what now?” We move on, we adapt.

Evangelion is still a work that does its level best to defy easy interpretation, but the modern version of the franchise has largely abandoned the nihilism that was at its core in the 90s version. It’s not just that Shinji no longer denies the world until the last possible second – it’s that he frequently actively reaches out and is frustrated by other people’s denials. He wants to connect, he wants to be social, but he’s also burdened with the idea that he’s only good to others if he’s useful, and he’s only useful if he pilots the Eva unit. This last movie separates him and what he is worth to others (and himself) from his agency in being an Eva pilot, finally. In doing so, he’s able to reconcile with nearly everyone in his life who he has harmed or who has hurt him, and create a world in which there is no Evangelion. While this ending is much more wishful thinking than one more grounded in the reality of the franchise – one that, say, focuses on the existence and possible flourishing of Village 3 and other settlements like it while keeping one eye on the precarious balancing act they’re all playing – it feels better than the ending of End of Eva, and even than the last two episodes of the original series.

I’m glad the nihilism in Evangelion is gone, for the most part. I’m glad that I didn’t spend roughly eight hours watching the Evamovies only to be met yet again with a message of “everything is pointless, fuck off and die.” Because I’ve been absorbing that sentiment a lot lately, from a lot of different sources, and it really just fuckin sucks to hear over and over again.

It is a truth we can’t easily ignore that the confluence of pandemic, climate change, authoritarian surge and capitalist decay has made shit miserable recently. But the spike in lamentations over the intractability of this mix of shit – the inevitability of our destruction, to put it in simpler terms – really is pissing me off. No one person is going to fix the world, that much is absolutely true, but if everyone just goes limp and decides to “123 not it” the apocalypse then everyone crying about how the world is fucked on Twitter will simply be adding to the opening bars of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

We can’t get in a mech to save the world but then, neither realistically could Shinji Ikari. What we can do looks a lot more like what’s being done in Village 3: people helping each other with limited resources wherever they can.

Last week, Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast and churned there for hours – decimating Bayou communities in Louisiana and disrupting the supply chain extensively – before powering down and moving inland. Last night the powerful remnants of that storm tore through the Northeast, causing intense flooding. Areas not typically affected by hurricanes suddenly found themselves in a similar boat – pun not intended – to folks for whom hurricanes are simply a fact of life. There’s a once-in-a-millennium drought and heatwave ripping through the West Coast and hey – who can forget back in February when Oklahoma and Texas experienced -20 degree temperatures for several days in a row? All of this against the backdrop of a deadly and terrifying pandemic and worsening political climate. It’s genuinely scary! But there are things we can do.

First, if you’re in a weather disaster-prone area, get to know your local mutual aid organizations. Some of these groups might be official non-profits; one such group in the Louisiana area, for example, is Common Ground Relief. Check their social media accounts for updates on what to do and who needs help. If you’re not sure if there’s one in your area, check out groups like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief for that same information. Even if you’re not in a place that expects to see the immediate effects of climate change, you should still consider linking up with organizing groups in your area. Tenant unions, homeless organizations, safe injection sites and needle exchanges, immigrant rights groups, environmental activist orgs, reproductive health groups – all could use some help right now, in whatever capacity you might be able to provide it.

In none of these scenarios are we going to be the heroes of the story, and we shouldn’t view this kind of work in that way. But neither should we give into the nihilistic impulse to insist upon doing nothing, insist that inaction is the best course of action, and get back under the blankets for our final sleep. Kill that impulse in your head, and fuck, if you have to, simply just fucking wish for that better world. Then get out of bed and help make it happen.

[seasoflife]

St. Louis Cathedral in a darkened New Orleans after Hurricane Ida knocked out all power. Full power may not be restored for a month.

Johnny Milano for The New York Times

seasoflife

[sleepysera]

Sep 4 Headlines

WORLD NEWS

Afghanistan: Fresh fighting in final anti-Taliban stronghold (BBC)

"Fresh fighting has been reported in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, the final pocket of territory which remains out of the hands of the Taliban. One of the resistance leaders in the valley, Amrullah Saleh, dismissed reports that the Taliban had captured it as "baseless". But he admitted conditions are difficult, with the Taliban closing phone, internet and electricity lines. The fighting comes with the Taliban set to finalise a government."

New Zealand: Extremist was released from jail despite fears (AP)

"New Zealand authorities imprisoned a man inspired by the Islamic State group for three years after catching him with a hunting knife and extremist videos — but at a certain point, despite grave fears he would attack others, they say they could do nothing more to keep him behind bars. So for 53 days from July, police tracked the man’s every move, an operation that involved some 30 officers working around the clock. Their fears were borne out Friday when he walked into an Auckland supermarket, grabbed a kitchen knife from a store shelf and stabbed five people, critically injuring three."

Environment: Tuna bounce back, but sharks in 'desperate' decline (BBC)

"Tuna are starting to recover after being fished to the edge of extinction, scientists have revealed. Numbers are bouncing back following a decade of conservation efforts, according to the official tally of threatened species. And almost four in ten sharks and rays are now threatened with extinction. Meanwhile, on land, the Komodo dragon is moving closer to oblivion. The heaviest lizard on Earth faces threats from climate change, with fears its habitat could be affected by rising sea levels."

US NEWS

Abortion: Lyft, Uber to cover fees for drivers sued under Texas law (AP)

"Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft said Friday they will cover the legal fees of any driver who is sued under the new law prohibiting most abortions in Texas. Rather than be enforced by government authorities, the law gives citizens the right to file civil suits and collect damages against anyone aiding an abortion — including those who transport women to clinics."

Hurricane Ida: Evacuees urged to return to New Orleans (AP)

"Six days after Hurricane Ida made landfall, hard-hit parts of Louisiana were still struggling to restore any sense of normalcy. Even around New Orleans, a continued lack of power for most residents made a sultry stretch of summer hard to bear and added to woes in the aftermath of Ida. Louisiana authorities searched Friday for a man they said shot another man to death after they both waited in a long line to fill up at a gas station in suburban New Orleans."

Afghanistan: US expects to admit more than 50,000 evacuated Afghans (AP)

"Though the U.S. airlift has ended, Taliban officials have said they would allow people with valid travel papers to leave, and they may feel compelled not to backtrack as they seek to continue receiving foreign aid and run the government. Most of the Afghans who have arrived in the U.S. are being housed on military bases around the country, receiving medical treatment, assistance with submitting immigration applications and other services aimed at helping them settle in the country."

[reading-writing-revolution]

Heather Cox Richardson

September 27, 2021 (Monday)

Today, the Senate considered a bill to fund the government until December and to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans joined together to filibuster it.

Such a move is extraordinary. Not only did the Republicans vote against a measure that would keep the government operating and keep it from defaulting on its debt—debt incurred before Biden took office—but they actually filibustered it, meaning it could not pass with a simple majority vote. The Republicans will demand 60 votes to pass the measure in the hope of forcing Democrats to pass it themselves, alone, under the system of budget reconciliation.

This is an astonishing position. The Republicans are taking the country hostage to undercut the Democrats. If Congress does not fund the government by Thursday, the government will shut down. And if the country goes into default sometime in mid-October, the results will be catastrophic.

We are in this position now because Congress last December funded the government through this September 30 as part of a huge bill. The new fiscal year starts on October 1, and if the government is not funded, it will have to shut down, ending all federal activities that are not considered imperative. This year, such activities would include a wide range of programs enacted to combat the economic crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans have said they are willing to pass a stand-alone funding bill. That is, they are willing to continue to spend money going forward, even though to do so at the rate they want means raising the debt ceiling. Indeed, Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Richard Shelby (R-AL) joined McConnell today to try to pass a new funding bill that would provide disaster relief to Louisiana and Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Ida and fund the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). They complained that “disaster assistance is long overdue” and that “it’s critical” to extend flood insurance “so homeowners are covered come the next storm.”

But while willing to add to the debt, they refuse either to raise taxes or to raise or suspend the debt ceiling that would enable the government to pay for it.

The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress authorizes the government to borrow. Congress started authorizing a general amount of debt during World War I to give the government more flexibility in borrowing by simply agreeing to an upper limit rather than by specifying different issues of debt, as it had always done before. That debt limit is not connected directly to any individual bill, and it is not an appropriation for any specific program. Nowadays, it simply enables the government to borrow money to pay for programs in laws already passed. If the debt ceiling is not raised when necessary, the government will default on its debts, creating a financial catastrophe.

So, while a measure to fund the government is forward looking, enabling the government to spend money, a measure to raise the debt ceiling is backward looking. It enables the government to pay the bills it has already run up.

Not funding the government means it will have to shut down; not paying our debts means catastrophe. Both of these measures will hobble the economic recovery underway; refusing to manage the debt ceiling will collapse the economy altogether and crash our international standing just as President Biden is trying to reassert the strength of democracy on the world stage.

Led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republicans are trying to tie the debt ceiling to the idea that Democrats are big spenders. They are determined to stop the passage of Biden’s signature infrastructure packages, both on the table this week: a smaller bipartisan package that funds road and bridge repair as well as the spread of broadband into rural areas, and a larger package that funds child care and elder care infrastructure, as well as measures to combat climate change, over the next ten years.

Both infrastructure measures are popular, and if they become laws, they will reverse the process of dismantling the active New Deal government in which Republicans have engaged since 1981. The Republicans are determined to prevent at least Biden’s larger package from passing. Killing it will keep in place their efforts to whittle the government down even further, while it will also destroy Biden’s signature legislative effort.

But the Republican link of the debt ceiling to Biden’s infrastructure package is disingenuous.

Raising the debt ceiling will enable the government to pay for debts it has already incurred. The Republicans themselves voted three times during Trump’s presidency to raise that ceiling, while they added $7.8 trillion to the national debt, bringing it to its current level of $28 trillion. Further, Biden has vowed to pay for his new package in part by restoring some—not all—of the corporate taxes and taxes on our wealthiest citizens that the Republicans slashed in 2017.

This, Republicans utterly reject.

McConnell maintains that he does not want the U.S. to default on its debt; he just wants to force the Democrats to shoulder the responsibility for handling it, enabling Republicans to paint them as spendthrifts.

It is an extraordinary abdication of responsibility, driving the U.S. toward a disastrous fiscal cliff in order to gain partisan advantage. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns that a default “could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.” Financial services firm Moody's Analytics warned that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth.

The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt. Today Senate Republicans voted to make that happen.

In 1866, the year after the Civil War ended, Congress dealt with a similar challenge to the national debt. Democrats eager to undermine the United States wanted to protect the debt the Confederates had run up to rebel against the government, while demanding that the debt the United States had incurred to fight that war be renegotiated. Recognizing the ultimate power of financing to determine the fate of the nation, the Republicans in charge of the federal government settled the issue of the debts assumed by the two sides by writing their terms into the Fourteenth Amendment.

To pull the financial rug out from under former Confederates so they could not raise money to go back to war, the Republicans wrote in the fourth section of the amendment that “all…debts, obligations, and claims” of the former Confederacy “shall be held illegal and void.”

And, to keep the Democrats from destroying the government, the Republicans wrote into the Fourteenth Amendment that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law…, shall not be questioned.”

The Democrats will likely split today’s measure in two so they can fund the government ahead of Thursday’s deadline and focus on the infrastructure bills also on the table this week. They will deal with the debt ceiling themselves, later.

[merelygifted]

Hurricane Ida live updates: first death in Louisiana as New Orleans loses power - The Guardian

Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, was so strong it reversed the flow of the Mississippi River on Sunday - an extremely rare occurrence.

“We’ve never seen one like this, it’s the worst storm in our history,” Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner Jr tells WGNO TV.  A flash flood warning was issued for Lafitte earlier, after a levee was reported to be at risk of failing.

Many residents in LePlace are sharing their names and addresses on social media, asking for urgent assistance.  People are trapped in their attics and on their roof tops.

More than one million customers in Louisiana are without power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.

The energy company Entergy earlier confirmed that power had been cut off across the entire of New Orleans, describing “catastrophic transmission damage”.  In a statement, Entergy said power will not be restored this evening.

[dr-whoopsie-daisy]

As I previously mentioned, rewatching criminal minds and I'm now on Season 2 Ep 18 which is the one about Hurricane Katrina. It was made 2 years after the disaster.

And we just happened to make it to this ep on the 16th anniversary of the landfall, the same day that Hurricane Ida is also... probably destroying New Orleans.

I hope everyone that evacuated is safe where they needed to be and that everyone who stayed home is also safe and that power is restored to the city soon :(

[xproskeith]

Hey, everyone. I’m back! Sorry for my unannounced leave of absence. 

As many of you likely know, Louisiana, specifically New Orleans area, got hit hard by hurricane Ida. I’m fine. My girlfriend and I rode out the storm at her parents’ place where they had generators. It wasn’t too bad. But I felt guilty not activating and going into the hospital. That’s what I usually do, but couldn’t because still orienting in ICU.

So we had 2 weeks with no power, no internet, and spotty cell service. We just got back to our apartment today. Power was restored the night before.

Our building had no real damage, but others had quite a bit, so we’re lucky.

Either way, I’m back, y’all!

[purrrcrastination]

sorry i haven’t been active this week 😞 Hurricane Ida basically wiped my town off the grid so i’ve had no electricity and hardly any service since Saturday night. it’s hot af here and there’s no relief so we’re just trying to survive at the moment. it’ll probably be about 3 weeks before they restore power in my area. thank y’all for sticking around with me 🙏🏻 hopefully things will be back to normal soon

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Rolling Stone:

Four days after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane, much of New Orleans and its surrounding areas remain in the dark, both literally and metaphorically: Power outages persist and Entergy, the corporation responsible for fueling the region, has still not said clearly when power will be restored.

In this vacuum, a coalition of climate activists are maneuvering to temporarily bring approximately $1 million worth of solar equipment to the region to both immediately aid relief efforts and hopefully lay the groundwork for the kind of greener New Orleans Entergy has previously tried to stifle.

Josh Fox, the documentary filmmaker and environmental activist behind 2010’s Gasland, tells Rolling Stone that his non-profit, Solutions Grassroots, along with Empowered by Light and the Footprint Project, have acquired 12 10KW solar systems, donated by Tesla, and an array of other smaller solar systems (Fox has also contributed to Rolling Stone in the past.) Linking up with local organizations, from other climate groups like the Alliance for Affordable Energy to cultural institutions, the goal is to begin distributing this solar tech around New Orleans and other hard-hit areas as soon as Sunday or Monday.

“People are really struggling to get information and just stay safe in this heat. There are folks who are going to the hospital because of carbon monoxide poisoning from traditional generators,” Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, tells Rolling Stone. “We’re trying to to figure out a way to support folks who are there because they couldn’t afford to get out, and those who are there to rebuild since we need to get power to drills, saws and those kinds of things.”

“Rather than parachuting in and doing this with FEMA and the Red Cross and all that garbage, we’re working directly with the local organizations that are the most keyed in to where need is and to what specific geography these solar systems can be deployed,” Fox adds. “And not only as a relief organization, but as a political statement.”

[newstfionline]

Monday, September 20, 2021

Biden’s Entire Presidential Agenda Rests on Expansive Spending Bill (NYT) Biden’s entire presidential agenda is riding on the reconciliation bill being crafted in Congress right now. No president has ever packed as much of his agenda, domestic and foreign, into a single piece of legislation as President Biden has with the $3.5 trillion spending plan that Democrats are trying to wrangle through Congress over the next six weeks,” Tankersley writes. “It is almost as if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had stuffed his entire New Deal into one piece of legislation, or if President Lyndon B. Johnson had done the same with his Great Society, instead of pushing through individual components over several years. If he succeeds, Biden’s far-reaching attempt could result in a presidency-defining victory that delivers on a decades-long campaign by Democrats to expand the federal government to combat social problems and spread the gains of a growing economy to workers. If he fails, he could end up with nothing. As Democrats are increasingly seeing, the sheer weight of Mr. Biden’s progressive push could cause it to collapse, leaving the party empty-handed, with the president’s top priorities going unfulfilled. … If Mr. Biden’s party cannot find consensus on those issues and the bill dies, the president will have little immediate recourse to advance almost any of those priorities.

Child care in the US is a ‘broken market,’ Treasury report finds (Yahoo Money) A Treasury Department report this week characterized the U.S. child care system as “unworkable” as Democrats push reform that experts say is an “overdue and critical investment.” The average American family with at least one child under age 5 uses 13% of their income to pay for child care, according to the report, nearly double the 7% that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers affordable. Additionally, less than 20% of the children eligible for the Child Care and Development Fund—a federal assistance program for low-income families—are getting that funding. “Child care is a textbook example of a broken market, and one reason is that when you pay for it, the price does not account for all the positive things it confers on our society,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement on Wednesday. “When we underinvest in child care, we forgo that; we give up a happier, healthier, more prosperous labor force in the future.”

Inspiration4 Astronauts Beam After Return From 3-Day Journey to Orbit (NYT) After three days in orbit, a physician assistant, a community college professor, a data engineer and the billionaire who financed their trip arrived back on Earth, heralding a new era of space travel with a dramatic and successful Saturday evening landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission, which is known as Inspiration4, splashed down off the Florida coast at 7:06 p.m. on Saturday. Each step of the return unfolded on schedule, without problems. Within an hour, all four crew members walked out of the spacecraft, one at a time, each beaming with excitement as recovery crews assisted them.

Haitians on Texas border undeterred by US plan to expel them (AP) Haitian migrants seeking to escape poverty, hunger and a feeling of hopelessness in their home country said they will not be deterred by U.S. plans to speedily send them back, as thousands of people remained encamped on the Texas border Saturday after crossing from Mexico. Scores of people waded back and forth across the Rio Grande on Saturday afternoon, re-entering Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña before returning to the Texas encampment under and near a bridge in the border city of Del Rio. Junior Jean, a 32-year-old man from Haiti, watched as people cautiously carried cases of water or bags of food through the knee-high river water. Jean said he lived on the streets in Chile the past four years, resigned to searching for food in garbage cans. “We are all looking for a better life,” he said.

Three Weeks After Hurricane Ida, Parts of Southeast Louisiana Are Still Dark (NYT) For Tiffany Brown, the drive home from New Orleans begins as usual: She can see the lights on in the city’s central business district and people gathering in bars and restaurants. But as she drives west along Interstate 10, signs of Hurricane Ida’s destruction emerge. Trees with missing limbs fill the swamp on either side of the highway. With each passing mile, more blue tarps appear on rooftops, and more electric poles lay fallen by the road, some snapped in half. By the time Ms. Brown gets to her exit in Destrehan 30 minutes later, the lights illuminating the highway have disappeared, and another night of total darkness has fallen on her suburban subdivision. For Ms. Brown, who works as an office manager at a pediatric clinic, life at work can feel nearly normal. But at home, with no electricity, it is anything but. “I keep hoping every day that I’m going to go home and it’ll be on,” she said. Three weeks have passed since Hurricane Ida knocked down electric wires, poles and transmission towers serving more than one million people in southeast Louisiana. In New Orleans, power was almost entirely restored by Sept. 10, and businesses and schools have reopened. But outside the city, more than 100,000 customers were without lights through Sept. 13. As of Friday evening there were still about 38,000 customers without power, and many people remained displaced from damaged homes.

Favela centennial shows Brazil communities’ endurance (AP) Dozens of children lined up at a community center in Sao Paulo for a slice of creamy, blue cake. None was celebrating a birthday; their poor neighborhood, the favela of Paraisopolis, was commemorating 100 years of existence. “People started coming (to the city) for construction jobs and settled in,” community leader Gilson Rodrigues said. “There was no planning, not even streets. People started growing crops. It was all disorganized. Authorities didn’t do much, so we learned to organize ourselves.” The favela’s centennial, which was marked on Thursday, underscores the permanence of its roots and of other communities like it, even as Brazilians in wealthier parts of town often view them as temporary and precarious. Favelas struggle to shed that stigma as they defy simple definition, not least because they evolved over decades. Paraisopolis is Sao Paulo’s second-biggest favela, home to 43,000 people, according to the most-recent census, in 2010. Recent, unofficial counts put its population around 100,000.

The barbecue king: British royals praise Philip’s deft touch (AP) When Prince Philip died nearly six months ago at 99, the tributes poured in from far and wide, praising him for his supportive role at the side of Queen Elizabeth II over her near 70-year reign. Now, it has emerged that Philip had another crucial role within the royal family. He was the family’s barbecue king—perhaps testament to his Greek heritage. “He adored barbecuing and he turned that into an interesting art form,” his oldest son Prince Charles said in a BBC tribute program that will be broadcast on Wednesday. “And if I ever tried to do it he ... I could never get the fire to light or something ghastly, so (he’d say): ‘Go away!’” In excerpts of ‘Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers’ released late Saturday, members of the royal family spoke admiringly of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s barbecuing skills. “Every barbecue that I’ve ever been on, the Duke of Edinburgh has been there cooking,” said Prince William, Philip’s oldest grandson. “He’s definitely a dab hand at the barbecue ... I can safely say there’s never been a case of food poisoning in the family that’s attributed to the Duke of Edinburgh.” The program, which was filmed before and after Philip’s death on April 9, was originally conceived to mark his 100th birthday in June.

Relations between France and the U.S. have sunk to their lowest level in decades. (NYT) The U.S. and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling a defense contract worth at least $60 billion. President Emmanuel Macron of France was so enraged that he recalled the country’s ambassadors to both nations. Australia approached the new administration soon after President Biden’s inauguration. The conventionally powered French subs, the Australians feared, would be obsolete by the time they were delivered. The Biden administration, bent on containing China, saw the deal as a way to cement ties with a Pacific ally. But the unlikely winner is Britain, who played an early role in brokering the alliance. For its prime minister, Boris Johnson, who will meet this coming week with Biden at the White House and speak at the U.N., it is his first tangible victory in a campaign to make post-Brexit Britain a player on the global stage.

Hong Kong’s first ‘patriots-only’ election kicks off (Reuters) Fewer than 5,000 Hong Kong people from mostly pro-establishment circles began voting on Sunday for candidates to an election committee, vetted as loyal to Beijing, who will pick the city’s next China-backed leader and some of its legislature. Pro-democracy candidates are nearly absent from Hong Kong’s first election since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to ensure that “only patriots” rule China’s freest city. The election committee will select 40 seats in the revamped Legislative Council in December, and choose a chief executive in March. Changes to the political system are the latest in a string of moves—including a national security law that punishes anything Beijing deems as subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces—that have placed the international financial hub on an authoritarian path. Most prominent democratic activists and politicians are now in jail or have fled abroad.

The Remote-Control Killing Machine (Politico/NYT) For 14 years, Israel wanted to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist. Then they came up with a way to do it while using a trained sniper who was more than 1,000 miles away—and fired remotely. It was also the debut test of a high-tech, computerized sharpshooter kitted out with artificial intelligence and multiple-camera eyes, operated via satellite and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. The souped-up, remote-controlled machine gun now joins the combat drone in the arsenal of high-tech weapons for remote targeted killing. But unlike a drone, the robotic machine gun draws no attention in the sky, where a drone could be shot down, and can be situated anywhere, qualities likely to reshape the worlds of security and espionage.

Israeli army arrests last 2 of 6 Palestinian prison escapees (AP) Israeli forces on Sunday arrested the last two of six Palestinian prisoners who escaped a maximum-security Israeli prison two weeks ago, closing an intense, embarrassing episode that exposed deep security flaws in Israel and turned the fugitives into Palestinian heroes. The Israeli military said the two men surrendered in Jenin, their hometown in the occupied West Bank, after they were surrounded at a hideout that had been located with the help of “accurate intelligence.” The prisoners all managed to tunnel out of a maximum-security prison in northern Israel on Sept. 6. The bold escape dominated newscasts for days and sparked heavy criticism of Israel’s prison service. According to various reports, the men dug a hole in the floor of their shared cell undetected over several months and managed to slip past a sleeping prison guard after emerging through a hole outside the facility. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have celebrated the escape and held demonstrations in support of the prisoners. Taking part in attacks against the Israeli military or even civilians is a source of pride for many Palestinians, who view it as legitimate resistance to military occupation.

Jaw-dropping moments in WSJ's bombshell Facebook investigation (CNN Business) This week the Wall Street Journal released a series of scathing articles about Facebook, citing leaked internal documents that detail in remarkably frank terms how the company is not only well aware of its platforms’ negative effects on users but also how it has repeatedly failed to address them. Here are some of the more jaw-dropping moments from the Journal’s series. In the Journal’s report on Instagram’s impact on teens, it cites Facebook’s own researchers’ slide deck, stating the app harms mental health. “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from 2019, according to the WSJ. Another reads: “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression ... This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.” In 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said a change in Facebook’s algorithm was intended to improve interactions among friends and family and reduce the amount of professionally produced content in their feeds. But according to the documents published by the Journal, staffers warned the change was having the opposite effect: Facebook was becoming an angrier place. A team of data scientists put it bluntly: “Misinformation, toxicity and violent content are inordinately prevalent among reshares,” they said, according to the Journal’s report.