Sunday Serendipity

jace, truly “fiery and effervescent” and beautiful.  thank you thank you.

flatus, were you just kidding or surmising about the “adjacent records storage area bursting into flames” at trash tower or do we have here another drip in the drip drip drip really evidencing cover-up and obstruction?

jace, adding well wishes too and a speedy return to full time trail maintenance.

craig, how’s it going on prepping for the big day in may?  is command center south equipped with all things helpful to navigate during recovery time?   just remembering the hassle less than a year ago hobbling around on one workable leg trying to safely ascend and descend stairs and maneuver mundane stuff like bathroom facilities to say nothing of getting in and out of bed…. a walker with wheels and an extension grabber tool were pathways to freedom.

hopefully, nurse toby will be at your side to console you and listen to the groaning when all others have grown weary of hearing it.

Survivors and activists share their stories of horror and shock after a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta’s Douma.
By his third frantic dash down the stairs, with a wet piece of cloth over his mouth and a little girl in each arm, everything went dark for Khaled Abu Jaafar.
 
“I lost consciousness. I couldn’t breathe any more; it was like my lungs were shutting down,” recalled the resident of Douma, in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta.
 
“I woke up about 30 minutes later and they had undressed me and were washing my body with water,” Abu Jaafar told Al Jazeera on Sunday. “They were trying to make me vomit as my mouth was emitting a yellow substance.”
 
Abu Jaafar is one of the survivors struggling to cope with the effects of a chemical attack on Saturday in the besieged town of Douma, the last rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
 
Rescue workers and medical staff have said at least 85 people were killed in the chlorine gas attack – an accusation dismissed by the Syrian government as “farcical”.
[….]
The chemical attack in Douma is the largest of its kind in Syria since April last year, when nerve agent sarin or a sarin-like substance was dropped onto the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing at least 85 people.
 
Symptoms of a chlorine attack include dyspnea and coughing, as well as intensive irritation of the mucous membrane and breathing difficulties.
 
On Saturday evening, rescue workers posted videos on social media of people appearing to show symptoms consistent with a gas attack. Some appeared to have white foam around their mouths and noses.
 
Abu Jaafar said that those who did not manage to evacuate their shelters died instantly.
 
“There were basements in other buildings with people who didn’t see the gas in time. We entered those buildings and found bodies on the staircases and on the floor – they died while attempting to exit,” he said.
 
Although some Douma residents rushed to various medical points, a shortage of supplies and doctors meant that treatment options were limited.
 
Activists said that several of Douma’s clinics and ambulance teams had been hit during the bombardment campaign, largely disrupting the town’s medical assistance capacity.
Local activist Alaa Abu Yasser was also among those who tried to help evacuate people.
 
“I went to a building where about 35 people had died as a result of this attack; the scenes I saw were unbearable, it’s like nothing I have ever seen even in the movies,” he told Al Jazeera, describing the aftermath of the attack.
 
“As I approached the building, a father was crying hysterically as he dragged his feet towards us carrying his two children … he was hugging them, smelling and kissing them after they suffocated to death,” Abu Yasser added.
 
Several witnesses speaking to Al Jazeera said that during a chemical attack it is common practice for people to rush to the top floors and on the roofs of buildings in a bid to avoid inhaling the gas that tends to “stick to the ground”.
 
“When we arrived to the roof of the building I was helping at, I saw the lifeless bodies of a mother in her 50s, with two of her adult daughters and a child with their arms around each other, all foaming at the mouth,” said Abu Yasser.
 
“I mostly saw bodies of women and children in three separate rooms; they’ve been placed there to isolate the smell of the gas from those who survived,” he added.
 
Although the White Helmets, a group of rescuers operating in opposition-held areas in Syria, and Syrian American Medical Society have given a death toll of at least 85, there are fears that the number of people killed in the attack could be higher.
 
“The rescue teams have not been able to document all the cases,” local activist Mansour Abu al-Khair told Al Jazeera. “They’re overwhelmed and cannot deal with the impact of the attack.”
He explained many of those who lost their lives were still under destroyed buildings and have not yet been pulled from the rubble.
 
“Others are instantly being buried by their families, so they aren’t accounted for in terms of registered numbers,” al-Khair said.
 
“We expect the death toll to surpass 100,” he added.
 

Jamie, since ’tis mischief seems out of the running, Quip is my next choice.  ky bred. won an upset at tampa bay. and said of:  “He is a pretty forward horse and he’s a smart horse,”

the guardian:

New York Times editor says Trump attacks on press are out of control

 
Donald Trump’s attacks on the press are “out of control” and damaging “the civic life and debate of the country”, the editor of the New York Times said on Sunday.
 
Dean Baquet was responding to a tweet in which the president attacked his main rival.
 
“The Washington Post is far more fiction than fact,” Trump wrote. “Story after story is made up garbage – more like a poorly written novel than good reporting. Always quoting sources (not names), many of which don’t exist. Story on John Kelly isn’t true, just another hit job!”
[….]
Baquet said: “I think the press will keep doing what it does, but … if [Trump] creates a culture where Fox & Friends and Jesse Watters are regarded as serious journalism, and the New York Times and the Washington Post are not, he will have done longstanding, harmful effect on the country.
 
“It’s out of control. It’s out of control and his advisers should tell him to stop, because it’s actually affecting the civic life and debate of the country. “When I first heard it, I thought, OK, a year ago, it felt like an exaggerated version of what we’ve heard from presidents forever. But it’s out of control.”
 
Regarding the Post’s story on Kelly, Baquet said “every one of those deeply reported inside stories about the White House from the Times or the Post have all been verified. When [former Trump strategist] Steve Bannon talked about life inside the White House, when he left the White House, he verified them. [Former chief of staff] Reince Priebus came out, he verified them.
 
“This stuff so far is all held up.”
 
Baquet also said the Times and the Post would continue to “fight to the death on daily stories… [because] it’s healthy for the countries to have institutions fighting to the death. But we believe in the same principles. And I will defend them on these principles and they will defend me on these principles.”
[….continues….]