261 Comments

Punta Gorda reporting in, sort of. Still evacuated, but the house has power because I can see our webcams. Looks ok, will know more once they allow us back in.

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I wish I could stop calling him "Hurricane Marvin".

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I wish I could stop calling him "Hurricane Marvin".

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I assume Governor DeSantis has Highway Patrol checkpoints at every entry point into the state to check the pronouns of every out-of-state responder.

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Assign, not check. Remember, he is (and they are) the boss of you.

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Ta, Dok. The FL Wonketteers are checking in as they're able.

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I glanced at the comments discussion, read it as "Disassociation about this," and knew exactly where I was.

That's strong branding, that is. I'm for it.

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FAKE NEWS! DEMONCRAT WEATHER MACHINE!! I'M NOT WEIRD YOUR'E WEIRD!!!

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The Mighty Ox checking in, saying hi, and all clear from Orlando, Florida. Power is on, tree branches missed my house, and whatever water intrusion I got reached one room and nowhere else.

I will say, though, that the giddy excitement of getting company-paid days off for "extreme circumstances" has worn the hell off. Even the hurricane-comfort-food-in-a-can of Spaghetti-Os doesn't taste as good as I remember. The dread I had is subsiding, but the adrenaline is still in rush-mode. I could use a mental health day between now and the next one.

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"I am no science fiction weather expert, but I think a massive storm system that maintained a constant wind speed would be proof of a scary artificial wind machine, no?" If one needed evidence, sure!

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Well, I heard from a reliable source I cannot name that there should be no power or internet service disruption from this average storm (3 on a 1 to 5 scale sounds average to me) except FEMA had crews out all night blowing up power substations and cable, phone, and electric poles. Biden got some splainin to do.

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Well, dang.

It's like Florida Man and Florida Woman need jerbs, or crimes that look like jerbs with a little judicial respect...a distinction without a difference in GOP legislators.

And FM&FW don't appreciate FEMA blowing up power substations, et alia. NO GOVT COMPETITION for the honest citizen doing an hour's work for a month's pay. Assuming I'm still following the plot.

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It's not healthy but I don't care. I hate De Santis with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

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my first blood pressure reading was 184/78/70, at 11:00a.m.

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Hating someone as vile and outright evil as desantis (or trump, or Vance, or pence, or Greene ect) isn't unhealthy, it's a completely normal human response.

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It did not occur to me that some dipshit might use this as an opportunity to steal copper wire, but that sounds like what Mr Guthrie is worried about.

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Nothing says payday at the metal recyclers like a few hundred feet of aluminum cable...

What dipshits.

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Maybe Guthrie could put a word in regarding folks not eating nails during the recovery. Disasters are an awesome opportunity to accelerate Natural Selection.

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Yeah, that was what I 100% took away from it. It's warning the scavengers away, though they are least likely to listen.

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I honestly believe that many Republicans have found themselves in a position where they have sold their souls to the Devil for a pocketful of empty promise, and now have no way to get out of the deal

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They have no soul and there is no devil. This is just them being given permission by Trump to get out of their human suits and reveal their true lizard selves.

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Republicans have a soul? Do you have evidence?

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Not any more.

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Yes, nothing says education and sophistication like a political commentator named "Catturd."

What's that? Classist? Fuck you. Just because you're poor doesn't excuse one from being an ignorant slob.

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Unless it's a political commentator named " Chtululu"

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Not aaaaaas bad, still bad, and made worse.

https://xcancel.com/AccountableGOP/status/1844417616116318420

https://x.com/AccountableGOP/status/1844417616116318420

“My father-in-law lives just outside of Asheville, NC…And he has refused all FEMA help because he's a hardcore Trumper. He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA they're going to take his house.”

Trump's lies about hurricane relief have real consequences.

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I know I should feel bad about senior citizens getting hoodwinked, but IDGAF about this guy. He deserves every bad thing that happens to him.

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I feel really awful even thinking this, but at least this time they're only going to hurt themselves and not spread a potentially fatal disease by listening to the MAGA ecosphere's lies. They endangered others during Covid, now they will just ... starve out in the mud next to the debris that used to be their home, I guess.

I have sympathy for them having bought into the lies, but it's very, very limited. I feel truly bad for their family members who are directly or indirectly impacted.

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So he is LITERALLY going to watch his neighbor's homes be rebuilt with FEMA help and as time goes on realize that the government did NOT come to take their houses...He'd better be careful...If you refuse help from FEMA, they don't ask twice...

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His neighbors may also regret his envy.

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Yeah...I don't think we are obliged to feel anything for them other than contempt...The truth has always been out there for them JUST as available as the lies, and they CHOSE to believe lies...

No pity

sorry

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Something something God sending fishermen, police boats, and helicopters... only instead of God, they're waiting for the PAB to save them. And he's too busy trying to save himself to care.

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Not every person in their household might share that view ... but yeah, empathy is worn out.

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So Tropicana Field has a retractable roof after all.

Too soon?

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When built, The Trop took the title of "worst venue for baseball" away from my hometown Metrodome.

The Rays had a really cool proposal on the table a few years ago but for some reason didn't go through with it. A big fabric sail over the top of an open-air ballpark; to act as a parasol. That would have been shredded by Milton also, I'm sure. But at least there wouldn't be catwalks, in play, over the playing area.

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Isn't Tropicana the park where a Fox announcer muttered "blow up this place" on the air after yet another fly ball hit a scoreboard or girder or some damn thing? (Or was that actually your hometown Metrodome?)

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It works either way, really. I haven't heard that story but it rings true. I'm guessing The Trop.

The Metrodome's only saving grace was it was cheap to build and operate and attend; they didn't have the brass to charge much to see a game. And it was publicly owned and run. 24/7/365, somebody was using it. Old folks walking. Small-school baseball at 2:30 am in February. Tractor pulls. Quilting conventions. You name it.

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I still miss the Metrodome. Even with the noise and its poofy top and the way pop flies might bounce off the speakers overhead.

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It was a dump, but a very useful dump. The new Valhalla palace hasn't replaced the functionality we got from the Dome. That was a nasty bait-and-switch; promising that we'd get something comparable for all our public money.

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