April 18 Open Thread: Scary Stuff

Filed in National, Open Thread by on April 18, 2018

As much as I enjoyed “Goldfinger” back in the day, I was always skeptical about the denouement, in which Auric Goldfinger, who’s almost as fat as Trump, gets sucked out of a broken airplane window by the pressure differential. C’mon, how is a guy that big gonna fit through a window that small? After yesterday’s Southwest New York-to-Dallas flight, during which an engine disintegrated at 32,000 feet and a woman was nearly sucked out a shattered window, I doubt no longer. Major props to the woman who piloted the jetliner to a safe emergency landing in Philly, but for me, aisle seat next time, please.

Scarier still is the news that Sean Hannity, who never graduated from either high school or college, is in daily contact with Trump and even tells him what to tweet, proving that it’s not just great minds that think alike — feeble ones do, too.

One thing that’s always on feeble minds is “Who’s out to get me?” Trump, for example, apparently worries that VP Mike Pence and UN Ambassador Nimrata Haley are plotting to challenge him for the 2020 GOP nomination.

Feeble-minded Republicans are right to worry, because there’s nothing meaner, pettier and more vindictive than a Republican politician (though lots of Democrats give them a run for their money). Perfect example: The asshats known as the Tennessee legislature voted to rescind funding to the city of Memphis in retaliation for the removal of two statues to Civil War losers — inept CSA President Jefferson Davis and KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Speaking of feeble-minded Republicans, House mouth-breathers sent a letter to Jeff Sessions demanding investigations of eight people Trump considers enemies. The signatories constitute a good list of the first Republicans who should hang once the treason trials are concluded.

James Comey compared Trump to a mob boss, but the truth is that no mobster as unhinged as Trump would last two weeks in the job. Stormy Daniels yesterday released a drawing of the man who supposedly threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot, and Trump walked right into the trap by claiming that the man didn’t exist, which of course he couldn’t possibly know. I think it looks quite a bit like Don Jr., but it couldn’t be because he was banging cocktail waitresses at the time.

As bad as Trump is, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens apparently is even worse. Unlike national Republicans, those in Mizzou have turned on their leader and demanded his resignation. The Navy SEAL-turned-rapist-turned-governor was defiant, claiming he’ll be vindicated in court. Not if someone finds the photo of the woman you stripped and photographed, buddy.

Bernie or Hillary? Unimportant as long as Trump remains in office, but I otherwise disagree with this sanguine look at the fault line in the Democratic Party.

A documentary filmmaker went to Kansas to view the wreckage of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-slashing disaster, and found that being a Republican is pretty much the same as joining a UFO-worshiping death cult — nothing will convince true believers that they are morons and their “ideas” are actually something called “wishes.”

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  1. Paul says:

    Alby, didn’t your science teacher do the experiment with the hard cooked, shelled egg and the glass coke bottle? You put paper in the coke bottle, light it on fire, place the egg over the opening, sealing it. Then the fun begins. The oversized egg is sucked into the bottle via the partial vacuum the fire creates. The plane is sadly the same, and bones, organs et. al. are no match for the difference in air pressure in the plane from the extremely low air pressure outside the window as air races over the fuselage. We think the size of the window will keep us in. Not so. Bones will break and crush, organs will liquify as the pressure to fly out of the window mounts. I cannot fathom a worse way to go. My sympathy for the deceased and her family, as well as those wonderful souls trying to save her on the plane. What they encountered was a horrific experience.

  2. Alby says:

    @Paul: I’ve seen the experiment, but I thought a human skull would stand up better than an egg. So, basically, I didn’t realize how strong the differential really was.

    Good argument for eliminating the windows, isn’t it?

  3. Bill B says:

    Talk about cool under pressure. I was listening to the ATC recordings this morning.

    Philly Approach: “Southwest 1380, is your airplane physically on fire?

    Southwest Pilot (as if this happens every day): “It’s not on fire, but part of it is missing.”

  4. Alby says:

    How pathetic is it that Trumpkins have freeped the DL poll?

  5. Paul says:

    @Alby. Normally I might think that the windows are the problem. Unfortunately, this accident was caused by shrapnel from the exploding engine. Like a grenade, hard metal bits went flying through the air. I doubt the hull of the plane is built to withstand objects hurled against it with such force. Removing the windows will not account for holes in the fuselage from bits of metal. If a hole is large enough, and I’m not even talking the size of a window, the force generated by the relative vacuum outside the hull would be as deadly. The hole in the coke bottle was so much smaller than the egg, no one could imagine the degree of distortion the egg would endure to be sucked in. It’s just a good thing Southwest has announced more eyes on the planes to replace parts before they explode from metal fatigue.

  6. Jason330 says:

    I always keep my seat-belt fastened.

  7. Speaking of Trump and mob bosses, how about this piece about Michael Cohen’s family and the Russian mob?:

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/good-grief-cohens-gets-mobbier-the-closer-i-look

    Coincidence? I think not. To quote Dubya, ‘That’s some heavy shit.’

  8. RE Vanella says:

    The General Brandt House candidacy died a quick death. I hardly knew ye.

  9. Arthur says:

    So will a movie be made about the heroism of the female pilot ala Sully?

  10. SussexWatcher says:

    From the TNJ article on Brandt dropping out:

    Mike Harrington, chairman of the Delaware GOP, said Brandt did not violate any rules because was on leave from the National Guard when he made his announcement – a claim neither Brandt’s campaign nor the National Guard have previously put forward.

    “This is all because of your stinking ass article,” Harrington said. “It was totally fake and untrue.”

    https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/18/brig-gen-ed-brandt-drops-out-u-s-house-race-days-after-filing/528891002/

  11. RE Vanella says:

    Congratulations to the News Journal. This Harrington characters seems soaking wet. Sad.

    And that pilot is totally dope. No automation either in that aircraft. She was on the yoke and apparently landed at speed to insure stability. Flaps not fully deployed. Still put her down without incident. That truly is rad af.

  12. jason330 says:

    “This is all because of your stinking ass article,” Harrington said. “It was totally fake and untrue.”

    lol. Maybe Harrington didn’t know he was talking to a reporter?

  13. That’s all it took for Brandt to flee the race? Allegedly fake news? Safe to say he wasn’t all the way in from the beginning.

  14. jason330 says:

    Harrington’s take, that the story was “fake and untrue” certianly isn’t supported by events.

  15. SussexWatcher says:

    The Harrington quote appears to now have been removed from the story.

  16. Jason330 says:

    Hmmm… The News Journal practiced some actual journalism, and then came to their sense.

  17. Alby says:

    @Paul: From what I understand, some of those metal bits also hit the woman while she was half out the window, which is why she was bleeding so badly.

    @Jason: I keep my seat belt on, too, but if the pressure difference can suck you out the window, that little lap belt ain’t gonna do shit to keep you inside.