President Donald Trump once again
unleashed what’s become his presidential hallmark: a bizarre, winding,
threatening press conference, this time following his White House
meeting with Democratic leaders Friday to try to break the impasse
causing the government shutdown.
In a long, meandering briefing
in the Rose Garden, Trump told reporters the partial shutdown now
heading into its third week could go on for months, even years, if
Democrats don’t give him the $5.6 billion he’s demanding to build a
U.S.-Mexico border wall. The Democrats have steadfastly refused. The
shutdown has affected some 800,000 federal workers — 420,000 of them forced to work without pay — since Dec. 22.
“This is national security we’re talking about,” Trump said. “We’re not talking about games.“
When asked if there was any “safety net” for workers going without pay as the shutdown continues, Trump responded: “The safety net is going to be having a strong border.”
Trump
also floated another way he could get his wall: declaring a state of
national emergency over border security to build it without
congressional approval.
If y’all are curious as to why I get so militant about the politics well it may or may not have something to do with the fact that the president of America is a wild man who believes things he himself made up and who talks about dissolving his own government and installing himself as a dictator as if it ain’t no big deal.
“I could do it if I wanted” indeed. Those words probably gonna haunt my dreams tonight ngl
The safety net for furloughed employees is a strong border? Is Mexico going to pay their wages like they’re going to pay for the wall?
Those employees include hospital staff, emergency services, and other staff of critical support structures. This is going to kill people, if it hasn’t already.
Impeach the bastard.
LOCK HIM UP
TSA screeners are working without pay and some are not doing their jobs properly. A growing number are involved in an informal sick out, causing longer lines.
We already have a shortage of air traffic controllers. One in five are eligible for retirement. If a significant number of them choose to retire rather than stick out the shutdown, we will have a long term problem, especially as the new apprentices in training are also likely to quit.
They have also furloughed all aviation safety inspectors, although they’re being called in without pay as needed.
Tl;dr - if you don’t have to fly right now, don’t.
Other effects: Affordable housing contracts are not being renewed. Nobody has been turned out onto the streets yet, but landlords are cutting back on maintenance.
If the shutdown passes January 20, while food stamp recipients will get money for February (early), they may not get it for March.
FEMA will not have funding after January 31. Some people are still waiting for roof repairs they now won’t get.
The Coast Guard has almost no money left, which, oh! That affects border security. Hey, drug smugglers? All ya need to do is get in a boat. It will also affect safety.
Tl;dr - yes, people are going to die, and we may have a major air disaster. Or another terrorist attack. And more drugs getting into the country.
Yet, 75% of Republicans still support the wall…over American lives.
FDA is stopping inspections on a lot of food types, when we’re already having people sick and dying over lettuce. The FDA workers that are still working are doing so without pay.
Manufacture crisis > declare emergency > seize power = dictatorship
this WILL NOT reblog to my reblog account SO IT’S GOING ON HERE
Jerry Gretzinger has been mapping an imaginary world for 35 years, and he’s not about to stop now. Gretzinger’s map began with doodles drawn out of boredom. Now, it consists of thousands of panels of paint, pen and collage depicting the swirling oceans, cities and land masses of an imaginary world.
Image courtesy of Jerry Gretzinger
“The map is 55 feet across at least, at this point. I spent hours on the phone with him trying to understand why he makes this map, and I don’t think I do,” said Betsy Mason, co-author of the 2018 book All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey. “But I love that he does it.”
In their book, Mason and her co-author Greg Miller explore more than 200 maps from all points in history and all across the planets. (A few even dip into imaginary worlds, like the Death Star plans from the Star Wars movies!)
Images courtesy of Becky Hale, National Geographic and Betsy Mason
In an interview with the PBS NewsHour, Mason discussed how maps of all kinds help people understand the ways in which people, places and ideas are connected. The conversation has been edited for length.
Maps are meant to show a relationship, to lay it out on a page, but some maps in the book actually prompted a discovery. How do people uncover new things using maps?
A few that come to mind right away are the maps made by geologists right after the 1906 earthquake [in San Francisco]. By mapping the damage and comparing it to the geology, they were able to discover for the first time that the geology that underlies a structure is a big factor in the risk that it has [for collapsing]. We didn’t understand that before.
Image courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
Maps can also be misleading. What can we learn from misinterpreted maps?
Many people will probably have heard about John Snow’s map of the cholera epidemic in 1850 in SoHo [a neighborhood in London]. Well, there was another physician who did a much more detailed map that included things like elevation contours.
His conclusion was that the old miasmatic theory of disease was in fact correct. It looked to him like there were more cases of cholera in the low-lying areas of Oxford – and that the areas that were on a little bit of topography, where of course there would be more wind cleaning out the “noxious air,” had fewer cases.
Image courtesy of Princeton University Library
What he didn’t realize is that they also had a different water source – wells, as opposed to the contaminated rivers.
What do you think people can take away from this book?
We hope people discover that maps are a really interesting way to explore the world, to explore history and imagination, or design, or culture or politics.
Maps can take you places that you wouldn’t think to go.
All images appear in the book All Over the Map by Betsy Mason and Greg Miller, published by National Geographic in October, 2018.
The Egyptian Temple of Ptah in Thebes, Luxor, Egypt (Photographed by Richard Mortel)
The temple is located within the Karnak Temple Complex. It was built during the 18th century BC by the Egyptians as a shrine to honour Ptah, a creator god and the god of craftsmen and architects.
The 380-page paperback is written by Max Booth III. Described as “the ultimate werewolf bromance,” the novel draws comparisons to An American Werewolf in London, Old School, and Bubba Ho-Tep. Read the synopsis below.
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
