Note: I went to high school with Tony back in the day. I thought he did a great job with the 2010 oil spill and managing that, but I think he's gone off the rails here. I'm honestly tired of wearing a mask, after a year, but I'm more tired of a 9/11's worth of deaths every damn day because people won't wear masks or social distance.

Source: WALA-TV, Mobile, Alabama

Link: https://www.fox10tv.com/news/baldwin_county/orange-beach-mayor-responds-to-criticism-over-comments-about-pandemic-politics/article_bd1613bc-8d55-11eb-8c15-83b343d46c36.html

Excerpt: ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (WALA) -- Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon has responded to some criticism over comments he made during a recent radio interview.

Kennon talked about what he calls "pandemic politics," saying, "you can't trust the numbers."

He made the comments on "The Jeff Poore Show" on FM Talk 1065.

This article in the New York Times discusses climate change and the very real effects in an area I know and love--the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Full disclosure...I'm a property owner there, but not in Avon, so I understand the concern as much as the people who live in Avon, Buxton, and other places. And yes, I pay real estate taxes in Dare County. I'd be willing to pay more to solve the problem there, and I have a hard time understanding people who don't want to pay higher taxes to help themselves.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/climate/outer-banks-tax-climate-change.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Excerpt: Tiny Town, Big Decision: What Are We Willing to Pay to Fight the Rising Sea?
On the Outer Banks, homeowners in Avon are confronting a tax increase of almost 50 percent to protect their homes, the only road into town, and perhaps the community’s very existence.

The last known lynching in the US took place in Mobile in 1981. Have we learned nothing since then?

(ETA: I graduated from USA in 1980)

https://poetsandquants.com/2021/03/10/3-b-school-profs-at-south-alabama-u-suspended-over-racist-photos/?pq-category=business-school-news

Source: WaPo
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/family-separation-migrant-biden-executive-order/2021/02/01/ebb6ada8-64bf-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html

Excerpt:


By
Kevin Sieff
Feb. 2, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. EST
The Biden administration will announce on Tuesday plans to identify and reunite hundreds of families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration and remain apart years later.
Biden will create a new task force to reunite families through an executive order, following through on a campaign promise to undo some of the damage inflicted by the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration policy. Biden officials did not yet have details on the scale or timing of the reunification effort, but said that the task force would make recommendations on how separated parents and children could be brought back together.

Looks good in orange....especially with that stupid grin. Check the pictures, especially the one of his business. Wonder when the Going Out Of Business Sale starts?

Link: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-media-social-media-missoula-arrests-ca5d1e6c3081b1263d524b2ec5aa30f5

Excerpt:HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana appliance store owner and supporter of former President Donald Trump was charged Thursday in connection with the breach of the U.S. Capitol while Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.

Videos taken inside the Capitol and social media posts led to the arrest of Henry Phillip Muntzer, 52, of Dillon, authorities said in court records.

Muntzer made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Thursday, where he was charged with illegally entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct. U.S. Magistrate Kathleen DeSoto appointed a federal defender and released Muntzer on the condition he appear in federal court in Washington on Jan. 28, the court clerk said.

Not a damn minute too soon!

If you give a farewell address and no one listens, were you ever actually President?

Source: WaPo

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/18/inauguration-biden-trump-live-updates/#link-3ISKRRK2SNAZ7KFVFHD5LLL74Y

Excerpt:

Josh Dawsey and Felicia Sonmez

Trump taped a farewell address at the White House on Monday in which he touted his administration’s successes over the past four years, according to a senior administration official.
The recording is likely to be released Tuesday, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
News of the video was first reported by CNN.

How in the bloody hell are we supposed to move on when they lie and support the liar in chief? I'll unite with them when they make the first move to dial down the temperature. I won't hold my breath.

Source: WaPo
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/17/republicans-call-unity-wont-acknowledge-biden-won-fairly/

Excerpt:

Amy B Wang
The call for unity came from one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, nearly a week after a pro-Trump mob rampaged the U.S. Capitol in a riot that left five people dead.

“What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was as wrong as wrong can be,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told colleagues during a virtual committee meeting about Democrats’ demands that Trump be removed from office. Now was the time for “healing,” and in Jordan’s opinion, that meant allowing the president to finish out his term.

The committee chairman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), pressed him on one point. Hadn’t Jordan and more than 140 other Republicans given oxygen to the false conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that motivated the Capitol rioters — that the election had somehow been stolen — when they had voted to object to certifying the electoral college results?

Thanks, Don. This is your real legacy, and I hope you sleep very soundly at night. (No, I really don't.). This is a blistering attack on how we've handled the virus.

Source: WaPo
Link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2021/national/400000-deaths-coronavirus-us/?wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_news__alert-hse--alert-national&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNTk2YmM5YzNhZTdlOGE0NGU3ZGQ4MjE2IiwidGFnIjoid3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vZ3JhcGhpY3MvMjAyMS9uYXRpb25hbC80MDAwMDAtZGVhdGhzLWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXVzLz93cG1rPTEmd3Bpc3JjPWFsX25ld3NfX2FsZXJ0LWhzZS0tYWxlcnQtbmF0aW9uYWwmdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1hbGVydCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj13cF9uZXdzX2FsZXJ0X3JldmVyZSZsb2NhdGlvbj1hbGVydCJ9.TCi9bjNF9rG9Id0ksQmLFxLxapJ68T4UBbF5VItFMjg

Excerpt:

By Marc Fisher, Lori Rozsa, Mark Kreidler and Annie Gowen
In a Connecticut hospital room, a woman less than 48 hours from death posted on Facebook: “It is now just a matter of trying to keep me comfortable till I pass.”

A few days before Christmas, less than a week before he died at home, a California man texted his daughter: “Vaccines on the way. Gettin kinda close.”

Nearly 400,000 Americans have now died of covid-19. It took 12 weeks for the death toll to rise from 200,000 to 300,000. The death toll has leaped from 300,000 to almost 400,000 in less than five weeks.

While there are other problems with Gen. Nakasone's leadership at NSA, he's in the right on this one. It'll be interesting to see who wins this standoff...the Acting Secretary of Defense or a 4-star general.

Source: WaPo
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-defense-secretary-orders-nsa-director-to-immediately-install-former-gop-operative-as-the-agencys-top-lawyer/2021/01/16/b3e06a02-5837-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

Excerpt:

Ellen Nakashima

Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller ordered the director of the National Security Agency to install on Saturday a former GOP political operative as the NSA’s top lawyer, according to four individuals familiar with the matter.

In November, Pentagon General Counsel Paul C. Ney Jr. named Michael Ellis, then a White House official, to the position of general counsel at the NSA, a career civilian post at the government’s largest and most technologically advanced spy agency, The Post reported. He was selected after a competitive civil service competition. He has not taken up the job, however, as he needed to complete administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test.

Reached by phone Saturday, Ellis said, “I don’t talk to the press, thank you,” and hung up.