It’s not soothing but it is necessary: This shelter saved 100 animals: A race to evacuate over 100 animals from Asheville, North Carolina’s main animal shelter ahead of Hurricane Helene’s torrential rains and devastating flooding likely saved all of their lives. But now comes the struggle to find more permanent housing, as the shelter would later become destroyed in the historic flood. “It’s been a really, really hard week for everyone,” said Leah Craig Chumbley of Brother Wolf Animal Rescue. “We’re working around the clock.” The shelter cares for mostly dogs and cats, but also such pets as rabbits and guinea pigs. “We know that when the river rises, we get some water in our building. And we really thought worst-case scenario, 6 to 12 inches,” she said. But this storm was going way beyond those levels. “So we knew that we needed to get our animals out,” she said. “The day before this storm, we sent out a social plea and email to our supporters, our fosters, our volunteers and said, you know, can you help us?” And the community rallied to save the animals.
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What did I miss? It’s been a week. Thursday was the first day since the morning Helene’s winds hit that I’ve been able to load web pages. (An email bleep from the phone at 5:30 a.m. announced the news.) I thought I’d be able to provide a more coherent update this morning but the signal that was strong here yesterday is weaker this morning. I’m just beginning to see images those of you outside have seen all week. Friends who live on ridgetops seem to have had better luck. I see now that they’ve been on FB for a few days. Asheville Watchdog has an explainer for why cell service went out across WNC. > So I’ve been in a news blackout since early last Friday morning except for local public radio. That’s filled with daily press conferences (and repeats) and updates from officials from ours and surrounding counties. The local volunteer effort has been massive. This is an effort led by my friend, our Register of Deeds. You know it’s a disaster zone when World Central Kitchen shows up. I’ve donated to them for years (hint, hint). Never expected to be eating their food.
At least someone is facing judgment Via Denver’s ABC affiliate: MESA COUNTY, Colo. – On Thursday, Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced a defiant Tina Peters to 9 years behind bars on multiple charges – including felonies – for a data-breach plot amid false claims of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Peters, the former Mesa County Clerk was found guilty in August by a jury on seven of 10 counts including first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation along with other counts. She was acquitted of identity theft charges, criminal impersonation and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. “You are no hero. You abused your position – and you’re a charlatan who used, and is still using your prior position to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again,” said Judge Barrett. “Your lies are well-documented and these convictions are serious.
Like Cheney and Harris, I may not agree with Tim Miller on everything but I agree with this: As long as I live I will never fully comprehend it. There should have been a line of honest and wise men a mile long standing behind Cheney on Thursday. But their cowardice, their venality, their shameful abdication of responsibility only served to make this moment in Ripon more powerful. Because instead of that mile long line of men, there stood two women with vanishingly little in common. There they were, in the place where an honest, abolitionist Republican party formed, in political unity, bound by a mutual love of country and a commitment to its best ideals. Two women standing in the breach to protect the country from the men trying to tear it apart. Two women alone, standing together for all of us. I didn’t mention it in my Salon column about their campaign stop yesterday but I was impressed by something they did that I think is important. When Cheney introduced Harris she walked back and waited for her to come out and I expected them embrace there on the stage. But they didn’t.
I thought this was a BS way to frame the abortion issue last night and because of the rule that the moderators could not fact check Vance’s lies (or even their own questions!) Walz had to just repeat over and over again that it wasn’t true. As TNR reports: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s outlandish abortion talking point during the vice presidential debate Tuesday. “Former President Trump said in the last debate that you believe that abortion ‘in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ Yes or no, is that what you support?” asked CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell. “That’s not what the bill says, but look, this issue is what’s on everyone’s mind,” Walz replied, explaining that Trump had made way to destroy national protections for abortion. During the presidential debate last month, Trump had claimed that Walz supported abortion in the ninth month—and after. Trump claimed that Walz “also says, ‘Execution after birth’—execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born—is OK.
Representative Mike Collins posted this “perfected” image of JD Vance on his Twitter feed yesterday: Uhm, no: Is this Collins’s fantasy? Vance isn’t hot enough for him as he is? What? And they wonder why people think they’re weird.
Rick Perlstein is out with another interesting piece in the American Prospect today, this time about “undecided voters.” He references the great Chris Hayes piece from 2004 that I’ve often discussed over the years. It had the same effect on me that it had on Perlstein who describes it as “the most important piece of political journalism I have ever encountered.” As he says: The future MSNBC host’s TNR piece was an account of the lessons he learned canvassing among undecided voters in Wisconsin for John Kerry. It incinerates a basic foundation of how political junkies think: “Perhaps the greatest myth about undecided voters is that they are undecided because of the ‘issues.’ That is, while they might favor Kerry on the economy, they favor Bush on terrorism; or while they are anti-gay marriage, they also support social welfare programs.” Chris noted that while there were a few people he talked to like that, “such cases were exceedingly rare.
Writing about a debate on the morning after always feels more like theater criticism than political analysis. How did they look, how did they sound, did they come off as authentic and real or were they phony and glib? Were they believable to the faceless Real Americans watching who were being asked to decide which of them to vote for? But that’s what these televised debates really are. The substance is usually secondary because they’ve practiced their lines and have a specific message they want to impart regardless of the topic they’re being asked to address. They’re political rituals which we use to decide if the person appears to be someone we want to watch perform the role of whatever office they are seeking. The worst debate ritual we’ve all ever witnessed happened last June when President Joe Biden was seen to be doddering and incompetent. It wasn’t that most Democrats disagreed with his policies to the extent that he articulated them or were unhappy with his record, quite the opposite. It was his performance and it resulted in him having to withdraw from the race.
I just wanted to check in to give people an update from Tom Sullivan. He’s doing fine. He’s staying at a friend’s house and power came on last night. His own house is still out. They still have no water and are having to bring it in from a creek nearby for flushing and bathing. WiFi is sporadic. However, there does seem to be a lot of services flowing and local businesses are coming to the rescue with free water and supplies to keep things going. Some grocery stores are open and Jose Andres is in town, so the townsfolk even have some good eats. The airport is letting in some flights but it’s erratic. Lots of helicopters, fire trucks and other rescue vehicles have been going night and day. Lots of people are still missing. I haven’t had the heart to even ask him about the prospects for the election in his area. I’m not all that hopeful, I’m sorry to say. Asheville is one of the blue cities the Democrats were depending on… But we’ll see. You can be sure if there’s a way to get people out to vote, Tom will be there working to see that it gets done.