Texas Conservatives blamed the state's power fiasco on solar and wind

via @NYTimes ⁦@GovAbbott⁩ puffs his wittle chest out about building a wall while Texans freeze, swelter. #TexasPowerGrid #TexasFreeze [_link]

— OldLady (@fuoldlady) June 16, 2021

Texans are urged to cut back on cooking and cleaning to ease power grid strain | The Guardian |

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@TexasGOP spent the entire session focused on trans people and legislation to keep brown people from voting. Now instead of busted pipes Texans will have heat stroke from lack of power. #TexasPowerGrid @ERCOT_ISO #TexasFreeze

— OldLady (@fuoldlady) June 15, 2021

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AJC slams Arizona plans to restart executions with 'Zyklon B' [_link]

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) June 8, 2021

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'Sometimes'

Unrelated: Buckingham Palace banned ethnic minorities from office roles, papers reveal

He doesn't mention antisemitism, probably because he doesn't think this is new.

"under Johnson"??

That started long before.

UK aid cut behind $284m fall in global humanitarian spending [_link]

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 21, 2021

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"There is no hunger in Tigray," Mr Abiy told the @BBCNews. Yet, @UNReliefChief told the #UNSC on June 10 there was famine in #Tigray.
Study found 350K people were living in "famine". #TigrayGenocide @RepSusieLee @repdinatitus @MarkAmodeiNV2 @StevenHorsford [_link]

— Genet Hagezom (@GHagezom) June 21, 2021

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"I'm extremely worried and I'm also angry. We sounded the alarm in November last year when Ethiopia's Tigray conflict started. The world was too slow to respond. No one thought it would come to this... now 5 million people need help" @NRC_Egland tells @BeckyCNN on @CNN pic.twitter.com/GMdYkDyT9J

— NRC (@NRC_Norway) June 21, 2021

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Inspection raised concerns about a `major error' in Champlain Tower design, records show | Miami Herald |

The concern was laid out in an October 2018, "Structural Field Survey Report," produced for the condo association by engineer Frank Morabito of Morabito Consultants. Morabito wrote that the "main issue" at Champlain Towers was that the pool deck and outdoor planters "laid on a flat structure" preventing water from draining. The lack of waterproofing was "a systemic issue" that traced back to a flaw "in the development of the original contract documents" 40 years ago, the report said.

...
The parking garage under the pool deck and planter slabs also "revealed signs of distress/fatigue," according to Morabito's report. "Several sizable [cracks in the concrete] were noted in both the topside of the entrance drive ramp and underside of the pool/entrance drive/planter slabs, which included instances with exposed, deteriorating rebar."

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Voluntary evacuations of collapsed condo tower's `sister building' have begun, mayor says

No mandatory evacuations of buildings close to the South Champlain Tower, including of the North Tower, have been ordered, said Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett Saturday night.

Residents have been given the option to relocate if they wish, and FEMA funds will be allocated toward that effort. It was not immediately clear how resident would be able to access those funds.

...
The collapsed Champlain Towers South Condo at 8777 Collins Ave., just north of Miami Beach, was built in 1981 by a group of developers, Champlain Towers South Associates, that included the late philanthropist Nathan Reiber.

About a block away to the north is its slightly smaller sister building, Champlain Towers North Condo, which was built at the same time and is also 12 stories tall.

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Biden's Build Back Better Jobs Bill d/b/a the "infrastructure bill" to end all infrastructure bills is still tumbling in the dryer. The WH has mobilized press corpse to translate Joe-speak
Biden hopes infrastructure deal reflects the Senate he remembers
and splain top line shrinkage from $6T to (checks notes) $1.2T, maybe, ahead of "traditional" FY 2022 budget mayhem.

Twin idiots separated at birth, Chuck and Nancy, had a plan to by-pass constitutional constraints, Jim Crow Fusion filibusters, and the part-time Parliamentarian: spit appropriations procedure into two parts originating in the senate

• a "bi-partisan" earmark bill ($597B guarantee)
  
• a blank check "reconciliation" resolution
  

returned to the House where confirmation vote stipulates total "additional funding" provisions ($4T-$6T) for FY 21 budget. This way an enrolled endless infrastructure bill ends up in a bi-cameral conference committee -- to conform bill texts without pesky rules. This is how H.R. 2, introduced by Jim Yarmuth, became H.R.1319 American Rescue Plan or Public Law 117-2).

Some moderate Democrats oppose Biden spending package, as progressives feared

Today RT America is running a segment "MIAMI BUILDING COLLAPSE 'Surveyors fearful of lawsuits over housing prices'", that relies on some D-list British "expert" (who apparently escaped Grenfell scrutiny) in US liability law or wtf. I'm not listening closely, because litigation is the NEW! retirement plan for decades...
Lawsuit seeking $5 million says victims of Florida condominium collapse deserve compensation, 25 June

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of Manuel Drezner, a nearby property owner, and other victims was filed at 11:29 p.m. against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association Inc., Local10 first reported. ... The court filing alleges the condominium  did not provide adequate protection for residents and visitors to the building, did not repair structural problems and failed to prevent the "catastrophic" collapse of the building.

Condo [association] board [president] warned of worsening damage before collapse, 30 June

The April 9 "Dear Neighbors" letter from Champlain Towers South Condominium President Jean Wodnicki hinted at an ongoing debate over the repairs and a reluctance by some condo owners to pay for major work that would cost at least $15.5 million.
[...]
The condominium association pegged the total repair and restoration cost at $16.2 million -- counting items added since the 2018 Morabito inspection -- that would be defrayed in part with about $707,000 the association had in cash on hand. That left the owners with a bill of $15.5 million, with individual assessments ranging from $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to more than $300,000 for a penthouse.
[...]
"A lot of people were complaining, especially the old people living there," said condo owner Rosalia Cordaro, who was in New York when the building collapsed. "It was a lot of money. I was complaining."

Another owner said the assessment was the talk of the pool when she last visited a week before the collapse.

"It was the theme of most of our conversations," said Nieves Aguero. "`Are you going to pay it? Are you going to refinance?'"

"The number kept getting bigger, bigger and bigger," said owner Alfredo Lopez, adding that the board did a good job of communicating and keeping the process transparent.

... but incorporation is not well understood. Soon shareholders will be suing themselves.

EDITORIAL BOARD | NYC's Board of Elections committed a crime against democracy

Practicing ranked-choice tabulation with 135K dummy ballots--that stayed in the system.

Fire them. Fire them all. Lest they turn our local democracy into more a sick, sad joke. [_link]

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) June 30, 2021

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The map is incomplete (omits absentee ballots) and just represents the unofficial first round #NYCMayor primary results. But it's fascinating nonetheless. We'll be following closely (& mapping) how the ballots move during RCV rounds. cc @commoncauseny pic.twitter.com/YYGCEie9Dn

— Steven Romalewski (@SR_spatial) June 23, 2021

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The funniest explanation that I've found so far is, leftover Biden votes.

A million Iraqis died over this shit. pic.twitter.com/6HVthJX5LQ

— Richard Medhurst 🇸🇾🇵🇸 (@richimedhurst) August 6, 2020

'Sapere aude'

This will be on your tombstone, Donald Rumsfeld: Halabja, 1988. pic.twitter.com/gSHxY6FC5O

— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) June 30, 2021

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The White House and Biden have yet to make a statement ... months overdue!

Military-grade Israeli spyware was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a global investigation finds. [_link]

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 18, 2021

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The government of #India on Sunday rejected the allegations made in the #pegasusproject report which claimed that phone numbers of 40 journalists were targeted using hacking software sold by the Israeli surveillance company #NSO Group.#Pegasus [_link]

— The Newsmen (@the_newsmen) July 18, 2021

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Stop what you're doing and read this. This leak is going to be the story of the year: [_link] pic.twitter.com/doo4HDDzxt

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 18, 2021

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