90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #956

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #954

After Train Crash 'Nuked' Ohio Town With Toxic Chemicals, Buttigieg Focuses on Bigger Threat: White Construction Workers

Drone footage shows the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 6, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released by the NTSB. NTSBGov/Handout via REUTERS

In one of his first public appearances since a massive train derailment released poisonous chemicals in eastern Ohio, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg avoided discussing the disaster—instead criticizing construction workers for being too white.

U.S. Shuts Down Montana Airspace Amid Flurry of Military Activity

"We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood," Buttigieg said Monday at the National Association of Counties Conference.

The transportation secretary made no mention of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, which has forced authorities to release toxic chemicals such as phosgene and vinyl chloride to avoid an explosion and get the tracks operable.

"We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open," Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist, told a local news outlet.

Buttigieg has been mum on the incident—the transportation secretary's Twitter and press releases have omitted any mention of the crash—even as reports have emerged that animals and fish are dying near the chemical releases. The possible effects on the human population are not yet known and the Environmental Protection Agency says anyone experiencing symptoms should see a doctor.

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), whose state borders the affected towns, said it was safe to return home as air and water tests appeared acceptable.

Caggiano said he was surprised at how quickly authorities told people they could...

Yale University professor Yusuke Narita is suggesting mass suicide for elderly people in Japan, according to a report by the New York Times. The professor is now backtracking, claiming that his in-depth discussion of mass suicide is “an abstract metaphor.”

“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” Narita, an assistant professor of economics at Yale. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?”

Seppuku refers to “an act of ritual disembowelment,” noted the New York Times, which also described the Yale professor as an individual who has “taken on the question of how to deal with the burdens of Japan’s rapidly aging society.”

Last year, after being asked to elaborate on his mass suicide ideas, Narita suggested it could be a “good thing” to “work hard toward creating a society” like the one depicted in the 2019 horror film Midsommar, in which a Swedish cult has elderly members of its community commit suicide by jumping off a cliff.

“Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question to answer,” the Ivy League professor said. “So if you think that’s good, then maybe you can work hard toward creating a society like that.”

When it comes to euthanasia, Narita has suggested “the possibility of making it mandatory in the future.”

After facing some backlash, the 37-year-old professor said his comments were “taken out of context,” and that he was mainly addressing a growing effort to push seniors out of leadership in business and politics in order to make room for younger generations.

While not everyone agrees with Narita’s remarks about mass suicide for the elderly, he has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on social media in Japan, many of whom are frustrated young people who think their economic success is being hindered by older generations in their society, NYT pointed out.

As the Yale professor grows more popular, he has appeared on magazine covers, comedy shows, in an advertisement for energy drinks, and has even “spawned an imitator” on the China-owned TikTok app, the report added.

In response to pushback, Narita claimed that he was using the phrases “mass suicide” and “mass seppuku” as “an abstract metaphor.”

“I should have been more careful about...

Visage à trois #1294 Valentines Day Edition!

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Video: Bill Gates Says It’s OK For Him To Use Private Jets Because He’s “The Solution” To Climate Change

Gates owns FOUR private jets at a combined cost of $194 million dollars

In a cringe inducing interview with a BBC reporter, Bill Gates argued that it’s perfectly fine for him to fly around the world on private jets because he’s doing much more than anyone else to combat climate change.

Gates claimed that because he continues to “spend billions of dollars” on climate change activism, his carbon footprint isn’t an issue.

“Should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria?” Gates said in the interview with Amol Rajan.

“I’m comfortable with the idea that not only am I not part of the problem by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my Breakthrough Energy Group is spending, that I’m part of the solution,” Gates added.

Watch:

Most recently, Gates flew around Australia on board his $70 million dollar luxury private jet lecturing people...