Day: August 27, 2020

Laura reaches Pittsburgh

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published, August 27, 2020, at 9:59 pm.
  2. August 28, 2020, 12:57 pm:
    • It turns out the renewal treatment does not require the same layover period that the initial rust-proofing treatment did. I am down for the rest of the day, however, because the carpets are wet: It turns out the place does interior detailing, which my car badly, badly, badly needed doing.
    • It is just as well that the layover was not required. As I approached the Best Buy to pick up a replacement USB-C to USB-C cable for the car charger I have for my Pixelbook (which turns out not to be the problem), the skies opened up with another horrendous downpour, thunder and lightning (figure 2).
    • As I was driving to the Best Buy, I saw something I couldn’t quite believe. Here it is thundering and lightning all around, on top of the hill at Old Lebanon Church Road, Old Clairton Road, and Clairton Boulevard, and some schmuck is up in a cherry picker taking down a traffic signal. And there was a cop with his lights flashing, blocking the lane so he could work. I guess it occurred to neither of them that this was work best deferred even if only until the storm relented.

Laura

So I was thinking it was a bit early for Laura’s remnants to start affecting Pittsburgh weather. I was thinking that was more likely tomorrow.

It looks like I was wrong (figure 1). My last ride tonight was through a downpour the likes of which I haven’t seen in quite some time. I was glad I’d spent the extra nickel on really, really good tires.
eusgm.gif
Fig. 1. 72-hour gif of satellite imagery for the eastern U.S. and Gulf of Mexico, as of August 27, 2020, at 8:01 pm.

To be sure, there was other weather hitting the region about the same time. But that explosive downpour, with some of the most dramatic lightning I can remember, was also a bit of Laura.

This actually might be a problem tomorrow. I have rustproofing and body coating renewals scheduled for my car. As I recall, I’ll need to keep the car dry the rest of the day. I have a garage, so once I get it there, it’ll be fine. But what will I do if it starts raining on the way home?

Update:
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Fig. 2. 72-hour gif of satellite imagery for Eastern Canada, as of August 28, 2020, at 12:01 pm.

A murderer murders and the police chief blames protesters for being out after curfew

benfell

Police

A picture I had gotten from Twitter was of an armed young white supremacist appearing at a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, shooting protesters, and being allowed to leave. A Slate story refers to the shooter as a ‘vigilante’ but otherwise confirms the account[1] and I see no reason to distinguish between white supremacism and those who defend the police assertion of privilege to do whatever the fuck they want, including shooting people, especially including shooting Black people.[2]

[Kenosha Police Chief Daniel] Miskinis’ views of the gathering of vigilante groups that reportedly led to the killing of two local men [in a protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake] appears to be very much in line with those of his department. Before the shooting, officers in armored vehicles could be seen giving water to armed men gathered with the alleged shooter and telling them, “We appreciate you guys, we really do.” After the killings, the alleged shooter walked slowly past a series of police vehicles with his arms raised and was allowed to simply walk away. (It’s not yet clear what the officers knew about the shooting at the time, but the shots were audible in nearby footage.)[3]

Instead of blaming the white supremacist/vigilante who shot protesters, Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis appears to blame the protesters themselves, saying they were out after a declared curfew.[4]

Jeremy Stahl, “Kenosha Police Chief Blames Protesters for Their Own Deaths, Defends Vigilante Groups,” Slate, August 26, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kenosha-police-chief-daniel-miskinis-blames-protesters-for-own-deaths.html

Horse race

  1. [1]Jeremy Stahl, “Kenosha Police Chief Blames Protesters for Their Own Deaths, Defends Vigilante Groups,” Slate, August 26, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kenosha-police-chief-daniel-miskinis-blames-protesters-for-own-deaths.html↩
  2. [2]David Benfell, “Don’t just defund the police. Abolish them,” Not Housebroken, August 25, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/08/25/dont-just-defund-the-police-abolish-them/↩
  3. [3]Jeremy Stahl, “Kenosha Police Chief Blames Protesters for Their Own Deaths, Defends Vigilante Groups,” Slate, August 26, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kenosha-police-chief-daniel-miskinis-blames-protesters-for-own-deaths.html↩
  4. [4]Jeremy Stahl, “Kenosha Police Chief Blames Protesters for Their Own Deaths, Defends Vigilante Groups,” Slate, August 26, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kenosha-police-chief-daniel-miskinis-blames-protesters-for-own-deaths.html↩

Laura comes ashore

benfell

Laura

eusgm.gif
Fig. 1. 72-hour gif of satellite imagery for the eastern U.S. and Gulf of Mexico, as of August 27, 2020, at 6:01 am.

Gerald Herbert, Melinda Deslatte, and Stacey Plaisance, “Laura slams Louisiana coast with fierce wind, surging sea,” Associated Press, August 27, 2020, article in possession of author