Odds and Ends — 27 December 2024

Jetliners being accidentally blasted out of the sky has become the leading cause of commercial-aviation deaths over recent years, marking a new trend running counter to an otherwise improving safety picture.

https://twitter.com/joncoopertweets/status/1872070991427555390

Leopards Eating People's Faces: Low Income Voters Worry Trump Will Cut Their Benefits

Fifty percent of voters from families with an income of less than $50,000 a year cast their ballots for Trump, according to the data, compared with 48 percent for Vice President Kamala Harris. Four years ago, President Joe Biden carried those voters by 11 percentage points; Hillary Clinton won them by 12 points in 2016 and former president Barack Obama by 22 points in 2012.
Now, low-income Americans who voted for Trump say they are counting on him to keep their benefits intact even while his Cabinet picks and Republican lawmakers call on him to reduce federal spending.

https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1872032143838478599

GOP facing 'doomsday scenario' of inability to certify Trump win on Jan 6: report

https://twitter.com/stengel/status/1871708862048546917

We’re Not Ready for the Chaos

Here’s the thing. Trump doesn’t and won’t have the formal powers to do a lot of the things he talks about doing. He can’t just unilaterally take back the Panama Canal or buy Greenland or make U.S. states out of Canadian provinces. He can’t just toss Liz Cheney in jail. He can’t just end Obamacare and replace it, or lower prices or hand eastern Ukraine over to Russia. He can’t compel companies to end DEI hiring practices or trans-friendly employee policies. And he can’t simply deport 10-20 million residents with the wave of his hand.
But he definitely thinks he can do at least some of this. And more importantly, he can create a lot of chaos and panic in the process.

https://twitter.com/RemakingManhood/status/1871686320797737466

How Bob Menendez Could Walk Away From Convictions

Five months after a jury convicted Sen. Bob Menendez of corruption-related charges that ended his political career, federal prosecutors have admitted to a series of errors that could upend the verdicts.
The missteps have handed Menendez’s attorneys just the kind of opening they’d been looking for, and they have already requested a new trial. If they get their way, Menendez could beat federal charges once again — a remarkable prospect given the stash of gold bars and piles of cash used as evidence against him.

https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1871733449557713258

Conspiracy theory is the new normal: 2024 was the year QAnon went mainstream