By ,
Published May 08, 2017
Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Off the Grid
The Federal Emergency Management Agency urged Sandy victims to turn to the Internet -- that's despite high expectations of power outages and cable TV failures.
Politico found that even FEMA's news desk did not have any non-Internet information readily available, beyond suggesting that folks call 911 in an emergency.
Politico asked, what about those who've lost power? A FEMA worker said -- quote -- "Those people who have a laptop with a little battery life on it can try that way. Otherwise you're right."
Then and Now
The New York Times seems to be changing with time when it comes to interpreting the country's economic outlook.
This is an editorial from October 29, 1992 -- quote -- "President Bush smiled when he learned this week that economic growth during the third quarter reached a surprising 2.7 percent, almost twice the previous rate. But his smile shouldn't be broad. The new figure almost certainly exaggerates the health of the economy, which continues to creep along at a painfully slow pace. Even the 2.7 figure is half the normal rate of recovery and not enough to bring down unemployment."
And then there was this from three days ago -- this past Saturday, October 27 -- quote -- "The slow pace of the nation's economic recovery has picked up a bit lately. In the third quarter, the economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent, beating expectations and the 1.3 percent growth in the second quarter. Over the past year, the growth rate has been 2.3 percent. At that pace there's enough momentum to keep unemployment -- currently 7.8 percent -- from getting much worse."
Something's Fishy
And the animal rights group PETA wants the city of Irvine, California to install a sign memorializing hundreds of fish killed earlier this month when a truck carrying 1,600 pounds of live fish crashed.
The sign would read: "In memory of hundreds of fish who suffered and died at this spot" to remind tractor-trailer drivers of their responsibility to the animals who are "hauled to their deaths every day."
The Orange County register tells us PETA's letter acknowledges signs of this sort are typically for human deaths, but hopes the city will make an exception.
A city spokesman says there will not be a fish memorial.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/grapevine-visit-the-internet