You and I in a little toy shop

The 1980s called, they want their imagined dystopia back

PRESENTED BY 500 LUFTBALLONS

We’re in a real ’80s moment right now. Nena and DeLillo tried to warn us.

Everybody, sing along…

           You and I in a little toy shop
           Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
           Set them free at the break of dawn

           Til one by one, they were gone
           Back at base bugs in the software
           Flash the message, something's out there
           Floating in the summer sky
           99 red balloons go by

           99 red balloons
           Floating in the summer sky
           Panic bells it's red alert
           There's something here from somewhere else
           The war machine springs to life
           Opens up one eager eye
           Focusing it on the sky
           Where 99 red balloons go by

One might think a land war with Russia is enough for the United States war machine, but one would be wrong. Everyone from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to the editors of the The New York Times is dutifully puffing up a Gulf-of-Tonkin-esque panic about THE CHINESE SPY BALLOON.

“Imagine dealing with not one, but 500 balloons heading to the U.S. during a crisis where the vast majority of your capabilities are deployed elsewhere, as is your attention,” screamed top national security journalist Tyler Rogoway, in a Twitter thread so unhinged I sincerely thought it was parody.

Yet again, inflation rears its ugly head. As Nena expained in 1983, 99 balloons is enough.

           99 Decision Street
           99 ministers meet
           To worry, worry, super scurry
           Call the troops out in a hurry
           This is what we've waited for
           This is it boys, this is war
           The president is on the line
           As 99 red balloons go by

Did you hear? @PossumEveryHour is now on Mastodon. Neo-Nazis plotted to shoot up electric substations serving Baltimore in order to “permanently, completely lay this city to waste.” Biden’s Green-New-Deal-lite legislation has helped create 100,000 green jobs across the nation.

AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT

Parts of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night were still on fire in East Palestine, Ohio, at midday Saturday. Credit: Gene J. Puskar

“Every day on the news there’s another toxic spill. Cancerous solvents from storage tanks, arsenic from smokestacks, radioactive water from power plants. How serious can it be if it happens all the time? Isn’t the definition of a serious event based on the fact that it’s not an everyday occurrence?”

At 8:55 pm Friday night, a 150-car train carrying twenty cars of toxic products, including ten with vinyl chloride gas, butyl acrylate, benzene residue, and unspecified combustible liquids, derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, on the Pennsylvania border. The train burned throughout the weekend as toxic chemicals spilled into nearby creeks and several hundred thousand pounds of vinyl chloride, a petrochemical used to make plastic, hissed into the air. Fearing uncontrolled explosions of the tankers, officials punched holes in the cars and set fire to their contents on Monday afternoon, sending out a deadly black cloud of phosgene and hydrogen chloride. The National Guard was sent to force the local residents to evacuate from the death zone. The release of vinyl chloride was “successfully completed” by Monday afternoon, claimed Norfolk Southern representatives, although the fires continued burning and the evacuation order remains standing.

The airborne toxic event, captured on local radar.

Rep. Bruce Westerman’s (R-Ark.) House Natural Resources Committee is establishing its oversight agenda today. Priorities include attacking the Endangered Species Act, increasing drilling, increasing mining, increasing logging, increasing grazing, increasing fishing, killing sea lions, killing whales, and privatizing more services associated with the national parks. At the hearing, Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) offered this remarkable version of climate denial:

“The United States, of course, is one of the smallest emitters to the issue of CO2 and the bigger issues are not within our control.”

a truly super high tech jet fighter

           99 knights of the air
           Ride super high tech jet fighters
           Everyone's a super hero
           Everyone's a Captain Kirk
           With orders to identify
           To clarify, and classify
           Scramble in the summer sky
           99 red balloons go by

About 3.4 million Americans were displaced by climate disasters in 2022, 1.4% of the national population. Even though Louisiana did not a face a “major” disaster last year, storms carrying tornadoes and floods forced nearly 370,000 people — one in nine Louisianans — to leave their homes. One in twenty Floridians were displaced by disasters, mostly the catastrophic Hurricane Ian.

Congratulations to climate scientist Kim Cobb, who has been appointed to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, much to the consternation of the right-wing climate-denier media, who would prefer us to panic about Jewish space lasers and Chinese spy balloons.

           99 dreams I have had
           In every one a red balloon
           It's all over and I'm standing pretty
           In this dust that was a city
           If I could find a souvenir
           Just to prove the world was here
           And here is a red balloon
           Just to prove the world was here
           And here is a red balloon
           I think of you, and let it go

Hearings on the Hill:

• 10:15 AM: House Natural Resources
  Authorization and Oversight Plan

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