Important headlines for January 8th:
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Lightning is killing fewer people than ever - Sun-Sentinel
Excerpt: Lightning killed 16 people in the United States last year, far below the previous record low of 23 and well short of the 100-plus fatalities that had been routine in the 1960s, according to the National Weather Service. The total includes five deaths in Florida, the perennial leader in U.S. lightning fatalities, which receives more lightning strikes per square mile than any other state. But Florida has also seen stricter lightning safety policies, mirroring those taking effect across the country.
“If you go back 40 years or so, people would just simply hear the thunder and say, ‘Oh, I think the storm is some distance away,’” said John Jensenius, lightning safety specialist for the National Weather Service. “What they didn’t realize was that if you could hear thunder, you’re in striking distance of the storm. Lightning can strike outward 10 miles from a storm, which about the distance that you can hear thunder.” When you look back to the 1940s, on average there were about 300 people dying every year from lightning. Now we’re below 30, and certainly this last year dropped a lot more.”
Hot Take: Education and quicker response within healthcare doubtless plays a role. It's highly instructive when you consider that we've had a 300% increase in population since the 30's and we now average 90% fewer deaths. I'll never forget a horrible incident that occurred in suburban Atlanta over 25 years ago. During a rain delay in a baseball game in Alpharetta, a parent of a boy playing in a game was leaning against the chain-link fence around the field when lightning hit the fence. In a moment the father dropped dead. It's no joke and nothing to play with. The knowledge that lightning can strike 10 miles outside of the storm clouds is significant and should be taken seriously.
Michael Wolff's Unbelievable Tell-All About Trump Aaron Blake, Washington Post
Excerpt: Several news outlets published excerpts of Michael Wolff's new book about the Trump campaign and the White House. And almost every word of it is unbelievable.
Some of it, literally so.
In one passage from “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” Wolff recounts how Roger Ailes recommended former House speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to serve as Trump's chief of staff. Trump's response, according to Wolff: “Who’s that?”
Never mind that Trump had golfed with Boehner in 2013 and mentioned him several times on the 2016 campaign trail. Using the Donald Trump Factbase, I found Trump mentioning Boehner on the campaign trail at least four times: April 10, 2016; Nov. 30, 2015; Oct. 14, 2015; and Sept. 25, 2015. He also tweeted about him on Oct. 8, 2015, and Sept. 25, 2015 — that last date being when Boehner resigned as speaker during the 2016 campaign.
Hot Take: Kudos to the Washington Post for calling out this nonsense. It's a bit of a pleasant surprise. Of all the lame arguments of political adversaries of President Trump, the one that's the most lame of all is the moron card. There is no lower hanging fruit that's been somewhat consistently perpetuated in media along with leftist politicians and accepted by lemmings filled with blind hatred of the President than this. How exactly do you moron yourself into billions of dollars? And don't give me that silver spoon thing either. Millions of dollars don't magically give birth to billions of babies. Plus I'm sure that a multi-national company operating in over 20 countries creates and runs itself too right?
And btw, if you're able to moron yourself into billions how sorry is your paycheck to paycheck ass? Not you literally - you know - THOSE people.
Trump Book Proves Liberals Don't Care About the Truth Tammy Bruce, FOX News
Ding, ding, ding. There are two sides to every story and one side to facts. There's are so many demonstrably false statements in the book (like the aforementioned) to go along with the incredible rhetoric from Wolff in book whore interviews - that he clearly illustrates that integrity and credibility don't mean a thing if you've got enough bigots filled with hate that want to hear the red meat BS you're happy to serve up. Wolff really isn't the one 180 degrees out of reality. He's making money from BS that people who lack seriousness and credibility want to hear and buy.
Until tomorrow...