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Hurricane Helene, an unusually large and rapidly intensifying storm, took aim at the Big Bend of Florida Wednesday, where it was projected to bring life-threatening conditions when it made landfall Thursday night.
Forecasts from The National Hurricane Center projected that Helene would become a raging Category 4 storm with winds of 130 mph over the next day as it makes its way through the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps most dangerous, models show Helene threatening to bring a storm surge of up to 20 feet to parts of Florida's West Coast and panhandle. The hurricane center warned of a "catastrophic and deadly storm surge" with "destructive waves" along the Florida coast, in addition to "potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds" and "life-threatening flash and urban flooding."
The imposing size of Helene adds an additional dimension to its danger, with a wind field hundreds of miles wide.
Governors across the South sounded the alarm Wednesday ahead of the cyclone’s arrival. States of emergency were declared in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. Evacuations orders were issued for those in low-lying areas in two dozen Florida counties.
The National Weather Service Wednesday night implored residents under evacuation orders to "please abide," given the latest forecasts that show storm surges of 15-20 feet projected for parts of the Florida coast when Helene makes landfall Thursday night.
"This is very, very serious," the weather service said.
Schadenfreude edition, part 1:
Everything you need to know about Harris’ plan in under five minutes
Kamala Harris just issued an 82-page detailed economic plan and made a keynote speech on her vision. We read that plan, and here’s the good news: It charts a course not just on cleaning up climate pollution, but for a more affordable, prosperous country that truly invests in our communities.
Vice President Harris cast the deciding vote on the most important climate law in our history—the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, she and Governor Tim Walz have laid out a plan to build on that extraordinary foundation with an economic vision that drives forward climate action in a new opportunity economy for all. Today’s actionable plan also matches up well with our Evergreen Action Plan 2.0, which was built in conversation with the climate movement to highlight key priorities for the next president. Here are some highlights of the Harris-Walz economic vision from a climate perspective
What we’ve learned from the Inflation Reduction Act is that big investments in key sectors, alongside real efforts to uplift workers and communities, cutting climate pollution, and leveling up clean energy, change the world. Leading states, innovative entrepreneurs, and community advocates all benefit when we focus on building up the middle class to build a safer climate future and a cleaner economy.
In today’s plan, we see a concrete vision to build on that foundation, with an exciting focus on modernizing American industry and tackling the housing crisis...
Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest Muslim American voter mobilization groups, marking a significant boost to her campaign since many Muslim and Arab American organizations have opted to support third-party candidates or not endorse.
Emgage Action, the political arm of an 18-year-old Muslim American advocacy group, endorsed Harris’ presidential campaign on Wednesday, saying in a statement provided first to The Associated Press that the group “recognizes the responsibility to defeat” Donald Trump in November.
The group, based in Washington, D.C., operates in eight states, with a significant presence in the key battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The organization will now focus its ongoing voter-outreach efforts on supporting Harris, in addition to down-ballot candidates.
“This endorsement is not agreement with Vice President Harris on all issues, but rather, an honest guidance to our voters regarding the difficult choice they confront at the ballot box,” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, in a statement.
And in the department of double schadenfreude:
Presidential polls are no more reliable than they were a century ago. So why do they consume our political lives?
...George Gallup, whom Time had just deemed the “Babe Ruth of the polling profession”—oops!—gave as his alibi, “No scientific method is known today which can accurately predetermine the voting intentions of people who are … undecided.” Nate Silver offered the same truism 67 years later: “There’s not much a pollster can do when a voter hasn’t made up her mind.” But you have to try something. So Gallup weighted the 13 percent of his last 1952 sample who hadn’t yet made up their minds as going 3-to-1 for the Democrat, as they had in 1948. But this time, they mostly went for the Republican. Oops again.
That error opens up onto the myriad conceptual fallacies built into the entire enterprise, if something so unavoidable can be called an “error.” Past performance is no guarantee of future results; but past performance is all a pollster has to go on. That’s why much of the process of choosing and weighting samples is … well, you can call it “more art than science.” Or you can call it “intuitive.” Or you can call it “trial and error.” But you can also call it “made up.”
...You could go either way. But you won’t know whether you were right until after the election—when all a pollster can do about it is fight the last war next time.
The Guardian UK — Labour appoints Rachel Kyte to climate envoy role axed by Sunak
A former climate chief of the World Bank has been appointed to lead the UK’s efforts to forge a global coalition on climate action, the Guardian can reveal.
Rachel Kyte, who previously served as special representative for the UN and a vice-president of the World Bank, will take up the role of climate envoy to lead the UK’s return to the front ranks of global climate diplomacy.
Her role will be vital to the pledge made last week by David Lammy, the foreign secretary, that the UK would play a central role in tackling the climate and nature crises, in contrast with the previous government, whom he described as “climate dinosaurs”.
The envoy role was axed by Rishi Sunak, to the anger of campaigners and dismay of foreign governments and allies. Sunak also snubbed international climate meetings.
...As bad as 2008 was, it wasn't even close to the end of terminal stage capitalism. The market has soldiered on, with complex swindles like carbon offset trading, metaverse, cryptocurrency, financialized solar installation, and (of course) AI. In addition to these new swindles, we're still playing the hits, finding new ways to make the worst scams of the 2000s even worse.
That brings me to the American health industry, and the absurdly complex, ridiculously corrupt Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), a pathology that has only metastasized since 2008.
On at least 20 separate occasions, I have taken it upon myself to figure out how the PBM swindle works, and nevertheless, every time they come up, I have to go back and figure it out again, because PBMs have the most powerful Shield of Boringness out of the whole Monster Manual of terminal-stage capitalism's trash mobs.
PBMs are back in the news because the FTC is now suing the largest of these for their role in ripping off diabetics with sky-high insulin prices. This has kicked off a fresh round of "what the fuck is a PBM, anyway?" explainers of extremely variable quality...
Troubled by the potential political fallout from the North Carolina gubernatorial candidate’s scandal, the American Black Nazi Party was reportedly worried Friday that Mark Robinson could hurt its other candidates down the ballot.
“Mark Robinson does not represent the African American Third Reich,” said American Black Nazi Party chairwoman Sandra Higgins, who warned that by refusing to exit the race, Robinson was endangering the campaigns of thousands of American Black Nazi Party candidates in races ranging from county commissioner to U.S. Senate.
“There are so many tight races between American Black Nazi and Democratic candidates right now. We’ve made significant inroads with racist Black voters for years, and now, I fear, we could lose them all. It’s a shame his pornography use is undercutting the very insightful comments he has made about Martin Luther King Jr.”
What unforgettable projects are you working on tonight? Tell us all about it in the comments!
The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw