September 27, 2022

Using an open grave to dig up old wars is unseemly at best. He was one of DU's bright lights....

I’m sorry Will is gone — he was one of DU’s bright lights in our early days. I didn’t follow his career after he left, since DU is my only online community, but it looks like he did well and I’m glad.

Now he has gone where all wounds are healed, all petty squabbles forgotten, the great battles of our time laid down. RIP, Will Pitt, may your family be comforted.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

September 27, 2022

Was here from the beginning. Activist, history teacher, journalist, author, devoted father & husband

Here’s what remains of his Profile:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=115040

All quarrels are forgiven — go in peace, Will Pitt. You are gone much, much too soon. May your family be comforted.

September 15, 2022

Again and again and again, the goal is reached. See history...

From this thread

229. How many DUers are still out there that are willing to give money, never bothering

to read comments that shed the light on this scam?

Started last September

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215909861

In October he reached his goal

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215946390

Not yet, new year now in January

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216254697

And in April

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181653807

And in May

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216659843

And so it goes.

No, I did not donate. By the time I found one of the earlier one I read all the comments about suggestions that go no where and, yes, a list of the never ending GFM.

Oh, on edit, he reached his goal in July

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181683562

and so it goes

**************************

September 11, 2022

Just a side point: Elementary school students should have stayed in place until parent or guardian

…were able to get them. I’m sure there is such a plan for children too young to be let loose in an emergency.

About 1956 a military jet crashed on the athletic field of the jr hi school next door to my elementary school. It was class change at the jr hi and they lost 13 kids, but we in the elementary school were indoors and okay. As far as anyone knows the pilot, clipped by another plane at altitude, aimed for as open a space as he could.

In any case, my mother claimed my brother and me, plus two neighbor kids whose parents were at work.
💔💔💔
I am glad you were okay — thank you for sharing. I’m starting to tear up at people’s reminiscences. My daughter was at work and I was sleeping in after a late night writing on my dissertation. About 9:00 our time in California she phoned to order me to turn on the TV because New York was under attack.

No matter how far away you were from NYC and the Pentagon, you were in some way touched personally, far closer than “6 degrees of separation.” My sis in Massachusetts — well, 4 of her children’s schoolmates lost their grandmothers on flights out of Boston that day. When Bush got his war, one of my niece’s friends, by then 18, joined up out of patriotism; called his dad from Italy and said how badly they were equipped — and died outside Kirkuk. My best friend and her husband were civil servants working in D.C. when the city shuddered with the impact on the Pentagon. In years to come they ultimately changed the family name to something less recognizable than Akbar, because of all the blowback.

My life changed too. I had so many plans for my activities after finishing my dissertation and getting my PhD. I did finish — knowing that BushCheneyRumsfeld would neither know nor care if I failed to do so, but I’d care. But afterward, I shelved my book and joined the war resistance, knowing there would be no going back.

September 7, 2022

Thank you for these fire info sources!

https://app.watchduty.org/

Watch Duty for PC or smart cell. - best for quick updates on brand new fires. Great map.


https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/usfs/map/#m:tsd;d:24hrs;@-100.0,40.0,4z

NASA / LANCE / FIRMS- most detailed info available. The site takes some work hitting the right tabs for the info you want.


https://maps.nwcg.gov/sa/#/%3F/%3F/37.4845/-119.7333/10
- National Fire Situational Awareness. Super nice map, let it load up, can be slow, shows perimeters and hottest areas with a fire or it's edges.


https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
- InciWeb. Used to be one of the best, others above have surpassed it for data.


For California: https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/
- CalFire. Always reliable info, though not as early to report as Watch Duty.