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Open thread Dec. 6, 2022

Dan Crawford | December 6, 2022 6:31 am

“Open thread Dec. 2, 2022,” Angry Bear angry bear blog

9 Comments

Jim Hannan says:

December 6, 2022 at 7:36 am

Is anyone else surprised that the Democrats failed to raise the federal minimum wage in their two years of unified government control? The wage was last raised in 2009.
EMichael says:

December 6, 2022 at 7:40 am

Not hard to count those votes.
Fred C. Dobbs says:

December 6, 2022 at 10:58 am

Is this anything?

Attack on Power Stations a ‘New Level of Threat’?

NY Times – just in

Tens of thousands of people in a rural North Carolina county remained without power on Monday as authorities worked to repair two power stations damaged by targeted gunfire on Saturday night, an attack that Gov. Roy Cooper said raised “a new level of threat.”

Beyond reiterating that whoever carried out the attack “knew exactly what they were doing” and that the damage had been substantial, officials gave few new details about the investigation during a news conference at the Moore County sheriff’s headquarters. Mr. Cooper, a Democrat, said that the incident had drawn attention to the importance of protecting critical infrastructure.

“I know that with our power sector, water infrastructure — we know that potential vulnerabilities are there,” he said. “We will be evaluating ways to work with our utility providers and our state and federal officials to make sure that we harden our infrastructure where that’s necessary.”

Utility companies maintain more than 55,000 substations throughout the country, and the equipment sits in locations that are highly vulnerable to vandalism and attacks. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  December 6, 2022 at 11:00 am
  
  … In April 2013, a sniper fired on the Metcalf Transmission Substation near San Jose, Calif., damaging 17 transformers and requiring $15 million in repairs. In response to that incident, Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility and the owner of the substation, added more security guards, lighting, cameras and buffer zones with additional fencing.
  
  The California Public Utilities Commission said in a 2018 report that the attack on the Metcalf substation was a “‘wake-up call’ or an alarm for the electric utility industry to apply closer scrutiny to the vulnerability of key infrastructure to various kinds of attack.” …
- run75441 says:
  
  December 6, 2022 at 11:47 am
  
  It corresponds with Russian attacks on Ukraine utilities and infrastructure. I would guess someone watched TV and learned something. I do not have to attack you directly to hurt you.
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    December 6, 2022 at 2:26 pm
    
    Proud Boys for Putin, eh?
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  December 6, 2022 at 5:04 pm
  
  Previously, not so long ago …
  
  3 Men Plead Guilty in Plot to Attack U.S. Power Grid
  
  NY Times – Feb 23, 2022
  
  The men believed that by knocking out power across the country, economic and civil unrest would spread, creating the potential for a race war and the opportunity for white leaders to rise, prosecutors said.
  
  Three men pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a plot to attack power grids in the United States, which they believed could lead to economic and civil unrest and create the opportunity for white leaders to rise, federal prosecutors said.
  
  The men, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Ind., and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wis., each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Wednesday to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
  
  They will each face up to 15 years in prison when they are sentenced. A date has not been scheduled.
  
  Kenneth Parker, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said in a statement on Wednesday that the three men “conspired to use violence to sow hate, create chaos, and endanger the safety of the American people.” …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

December 6, 2022 at 10:52 pm

Warnock Beats Walker, Giving Democrats 51st Senate Seat

NY Times – just in

Senator Raphael Warnock defeated his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, in a runoff election on Tuesday that capped a grueling and costly campaign, secured a 51-seat Democratic majority and gave the first Black senator from Georgia a full six-year term.

Mr. Warnock’s victory, called by The Associated Press, ended a marathon midterm election cycle in which Democrats defied history, as they limited the loss of House seats that typically greets the party that holds the White House and now gain a seat in the Senate. …

(50.7% to 49.3%, >95% of votes in)
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  December 7, 2022 at 6:30 pm
  
  Final (?) tally: 51.4% to 48.6%