Lots of emoting, in the vaunted Zero Hedge way, but also information..
[Zero Hedge] Haunted by the recent tragedy in Surfside, some residents of ocean-side apartments in South Florida have been searching for information about the structural integrity of their condominiums. The residents of a Collins Avenue building with prior warnings in Miami Beach said they are horrified about what they found.
The fear started after Champlain Towers South, at 8777 Collins Ave., turned into the epicenter of heartbreak and grief on Thursday morning. Some of the residents of the Champlain Towers North and East decided to evacuate.
Days following the incident, two studies on the 12-story residential structure came to light. One was a field study from 2018 by an engineering firm that discovered structural issues. Another study was from 2020 when scientists analyzed satellite data to find the tower sunk in the 1990s.
On Monday, residents at Maison Grande Condominium, an 18-story building with 502 units, built in 1971, were worried about the safety of their building, according to WPLG Local 10.
Photographs show rusted steel and cracked concrete pillars and ceilings in the parking garage of the building - a similar observation that was observed at Champlain South.
City records show that five inspections determined the building is an "unsafe structure." Other warnings include the two-story parking garage and pool deck "have reached the end of their useful life and require repair, replacement," or "a combination thereof."
One city official wrote in late 2020, "Structure with evidence of spalling concrete. Need to submit a report signed and sealed by [an] engineer to evaluate the structure together with methods of repairs."
Near the building's entrance reads a red sign that warns: "unsafe structure" building violation notice.
Twitter user "Billy Corben" posted a shocking video of the structural deterioration unfolding inside the parking garage of the building.
Concerned resident at 18-story @MiamiBeachNews waterfront condominium built in 1971 took this video of a section of the underground parking lot directly beneath the pool. She says, "I'm honestly scared of going home. This is frighteningly similar [to Champlain Towers South]." pic.twitter.com/pC1G5ouuLT
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) June 28, 2021
After his post went viral, he said the condo building association announced a meeting to certify the building for "50-years."
UPDATE: Hours after my post, this Miami Beach condo announced a meeting "on our upcoming Pool Replacement/Garage Concrete Restoration Project" and "50-year Certification." A resident said, "All of a sudden this pending work that’s been almost 2 years on hold is getting done." pic.twitter.com/p5U1teJ68U
Posted by: Chris ||
06/30/2021 17:52 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Pretty sure there's some self-mockery going on there. Folks who put it together probably cut their stumpy little culture-appropriating teeth on "In Living Color" and such. See if you don't like this bit that ran a week later:
[Garowe] After months of fighting, the Tigray Defense Forces [TDF] formerly known as Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] finally took over Mekelle, the regional administrative capital of Tigray, where they lost control close to eight months ago.
Monday's progress has, however, caused mixed reactions did to conflicting reports. On one side, the TDF claimed to have flushed out ENDF, adding that the victory came after months of strategic movements leading to the consolidation of their bases.
They followed recent reports of an escalation in fighting between government troops and the Tigray's former governing party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF], outside Mekelle.
Continued on Page 49
Direct translation of the article. Edited. See the link for photos and maps by Oleg Airapetov
[Regnum] The first reaction of Emperor Nicholas II to the news of the outbreak of hostilities in the Far East was a desire to bring the war to a decisive end, the result of which was the complete neutralization of Japan, "so that she could no longer have either troops or navy." As options for the conditions of the future peace in St. Petersburg were discussed and the rejection of the treaty of 1875 (AKA The Treaty of St. Petersburg) on equal relations with Japan, and the annexation of the island of Tsushima. The international situation at the beginning of 1904 was generally favorable for Russia.
#1
Poor Korea, the Belgium of Asia, too often caught between two big warring nations. The rough translation from the Hangul/Korean is - when whales fight, shrimps backs are broken.
badanov has a gift for languages. He taught himself Russian for some of the wargames he wanted to play, as I recall, then Spanish so he could do the narco war in Mexico for us, and subsequently Ukrainian to cover that beat. The Regnum translation, y’all will note, is much too smooth and correct to be merely a machine translation.
[The Wrap] Bill Maher had some rather harsh words for the good ol’ U.S. of A. on Friday night’s "Real Time," saying that China is overtaking our place on the world stage because Americans are busy obsessing over culture wars and not doing anything productive.
"You’re not going to win the battle for the 21st century if, you are a silly people, and Americans are a silly people," Maher said, citing a quote from "Lawrence of Arabia" that as long as they stay a bunch of squabbling tribes, we will remain a silly people.
"Well, we’re the silly people now," he said. "You know, who doesn’t care that there’s a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book? China. All 1.4 billion of them could give a crouching tiger, flying f— because they’re not a silly people. If anything, they are as serious as a prison fight."
In a previous installment, I pointed out that in On Liberty, John Stuart Mill advocated for minority opinion to be specially "encouraged and countenanced,"1 and thus that Mill was not an absolute free market thinker where opinion is concerned. Mill suggested that minority opinion should not only be tolerated but requires special encouragement in order to gain a fair hearing. Such special encouragement would amount to the subsidization of opinion, most likely by the state. Thus, Mill did not argue for a free and fair "marketplace of ideas."
It should be noted here that "the marketplace of ideas" is not only an analogy, where commodities are to markets what ideas are to the public square. The public square is also market in its own right, and not only metaphorically associated with the market. The expression "the marketplace of ideas" somewhat obscures rather than clarifying the situation of opinion.
Further, I argued that Mill's advocacy for special treatment of minority opinion does not solve the problem of "social tyranny," which Mill suggested is "more formidable than many kinds of political oppression."2 Rather, when minority opinion is foisted on the majority through special sanctions or subsidies, "social tyranny" is actually increased rather than diminished. To the extent that a majority is unwillingly subjected to minority opinion, the majority is tyrannized.
This argument begs the question: What about the opinion of minorities? After all, the mere mention of minority opinion invokes minorities themselves. Don't the opinions of minorities require special encouragement, special sanctions, especially when said opinions have to do with fair and equal treatment of minorities themselves? Doesn't a free market in opinion, or an unfettered marketplace of ideas, drown out or otherwise suppress the opinions of minorities? Wouldn't a free market in opinion thus serve to perpetuate discrimination, lack of recognition, or unfair treatment? Isn't the state required to rectify the situation through special subsidies for opinion?
Leaving the nonremunerated voicing of opinion aside - that is, opinion expressed casually or even in public demonstrations; the question becomes whether in the actual marketplace of ideas, state subsidies are necessary for the opinions of minorities to get a fair hearing.
The question implies that state actors are specially qualified or motivated to subsidize minority opinion in order to rectify the unfair treatment of minorities that the state is the most qualified entity for intervening in opinion to favor minorities. But it is easily demonstrated that the market provides more incentives to advocate for the fair treatment of minorities than does the state. Markets encourage legal equality among buyers and sellers. The state, meanwhile, has no monopoly on equal treatment to say the least. Quite to the contrary, states have more incentives to discriminate against particular groups, as state prerogatives often depend on discrimination. Consider the treatment of the Japanese and Germans in America during World War II, or the treatment of Middle Easterners after 9/11. (Notice how discrimination against Middle Easterners morphed into the consternation about "Islamophobia" when the prerogatives of the state shifted from "the war on terror" under George W. Bush to the incorporation of Islamic immigrants into the electorate under Barack Obama.)
Thus, we should be quite skeptical when states impose the opinion of minorities on the majority through special programs in schools and elsewhere. Such programs likely involve "positive discrimination" against particular groups, consistent with state objectives.
In fact, discrimination is precisely what is involved in the teaching of critical race theory in schools, the military, the intelligence agencies, and in other government agencies today. Critical race theory is a minority opinion that even most blacks do not agree with. It is being foisted on the majority to establish discrimination against "whites," in order to destroy a political contingent deemed inimical to the Democratic Party run state. It is a means for marginalizing oppositional elements and driving others into the voting ranks of the Democratic Party by means of ideology. The state imposition of minority opinion does not serve minorities.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Regnum] The first reaction of 
[The Wrap] Bill Maher had some rather harsh words for the good ol’ U.S. of A. on Friday night’s "Real Time," saying that China is overtaking our place on the world stage because Americans are busy obsessing over culture wars and not doing anything productive.
