World's Worst People Know Why That Ship Crashed Into The Bridge. Oh, *YOU* Know.
By: Doktor Zoom
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hmmm hmmm hmmm whatever could it be.
As has become traditional with any significant news event, Tuesday's crash of the container ship Dali into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore prompted rightwing kooks across the internet — and your television! — to offer any number of conspiratorial takes on the disaster. It was obviously a "cyberattack," according to rape advocate and alleged practitioner Andrew Tate, leading Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones to agree "Looks deliberate to me." Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo speculated that the "wide-open border" was to blame, although she didn't say what she thought the connection was. Matt Schlapp blamed COVID lockdowns for weakening infrastructure and security, and speculated that maybe everyone was on drugs that night.
Nancy Mace blamed the "Green New Deal" for taking away all the maintenance dollars (like most Republicans, Mace voted against the Infrastructure law, not that it matters, because the bridge was "fully up to code," per Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and no bridge is designed to withstand a collision with the equivalent of a floating city block).
But because nothing excites the Right like the chance to be racist as fuck, the consensus among the crazies was that the disaster was due to Black people having jobs anywhere. Freakouts over DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) are the Right's current outrage flavor of the month, so there were plenty of racists to hop on that, even if they couldn't actually point to any Black people on the ship who might have caused it to lose power and crash. But Gov. Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott are both Black, so obviously they, and the majority-Black population of Baltimore, are all at fault, because when only white people ran ships, they never sank or crashed into things.
Typical was the response of Utah gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman, who seized on a tweet from the "Young Conservative Federation" expressing outrage that two of the six members of the Maryland Port Commission are Black, and not even sailors! Lyman tut-tutted,
"This is what happens when you have Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens."
We should probably point out that the Port Commission's job is to promote business for the Port of Baltimore. It's not involved in running the port or even driving the boats.
Then there was man of few words and Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini (R-Did We Need To Say?), who simply twote a video of the crash (archive link) and collapse, adding simply, "DEI did this."
No need to explain: The people he wants to reach already agreed.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-New Jersey) blamed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for being "worried too much about pronouns, worried too much about DEI policies, worried too much about being the cool kid on the block" to do his job, which we suppose meant he should have somehow shooed away the Dali before the ship hit the span. Van Drew is the former Democrat who switched parties, and we think he's found his proper home at last.
And then there was some idiot who is apparently a favorite of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted a video of Mayor Scott (link is to a Chris Hayes quote tweet) and warned,
"This is Baltimore's DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
It's going to get so, so much worse. Prepare accordingly."
Wow, bet that video must have shown Scott saying something insanely incompetent or insensitive that would prove why Black peoples shouldn't win 70 percent of the vote and become mayor through affirmative action! Oh, wait. The press conference video shows Scott calling on people to pray for the victims and first responders, and to thank the first responders for their quick response. (After a distress call from the ship, police closed the bridge to traffic, preventing more deaths, but were unable to reach construction workers still filling potholes. Other emergency responders rescued two construction workers from the water.) Wow, shame on him.
Mayor Scott went on Joy Reid's MSNBC show last night to set the bigots straight, if such a thing were possible.
"I know, and we know, and you know very well that Black men, and young Black men in particular, have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy white men should have a say in anything."
Wow, how divisive. We bet some of the racist white guys blaming everything on DEI aren't rich but only plan to be. Scott went on:
"We've been the bogeyman for them since the first day they brought us to this country, and what they mean by DEI in my opinion is duly elected incumbent. We know what they want to say, but they don't have the courage to say the N-word, and the fact that I don't believe in their untruthful and wrong ideology."
In a bizarre departure from many in their party, the Baltimore City Republican Party issued a Facebook statement in which it actually pledged to "stand with Governor Moore as he faces the biggest challenge of his term of office." Perhaps to prove they're still Republicans, they also said Moore's time in office would be judged for his work in rebuilding the bridge, including his "ability to keep union demands in check," so there's that.
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finally, a bridge too far for the far right conspiracy loons ?
No, it's not too far for the nuts. Yesterday I posted what dingbat Republican politician said about the mayor of Baltimore and DEI...
These people are just fricking nutty racists.
there were tweets that the crash happened because the mayor of Baltimore is black. That is about as racist as it gets.
It’s more an unprincipled politician saying stupid shit and hoping it sticks.
One of the many examples of Baltimore racism with real consequences includes:
” Majority African American communities in Baltimore bear the brunt of sewage backups, experiencing more backups and worse sewage infrastructure than predominantly white communities. Using 311 data, the system by which the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) records all reported backups in the city, the top five neighborhoods experiencing the most backups from 2021-2022 were all predominantly African American communities. Loch Raven, with a population which is 87% African American, was the highest with 525 reported backups . A Johns Hopkins University study concluded that as African American population rates increase in a Baltimore neighborhood, there was an increase in the frequency of basement backups. The higher rates of sewage backups in Black communities can be linked to the legacy of redlining and a long history of environmental racism and inequitable investments in infrastructure between Black and white neighborhoods.”
https://bluewaterbaltimore.org/blog/baltimores-sewage-issues-are-rooted-in-racial-injustice/#:~:text=Racial%20Inequality,infrastructure%20than%20predominantly%20white%20communities.
What would they have said if Larry Hogan was still our governor? Pssst, out governor is black also.
Ah, thank you to Doktor Zoom:
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.
Wonkette - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com)
kind of like a Trump rally speech, if you leave out the factual part.
wonkette is amazing.
Much like anything you post about Trump- it leaves out all of the factual parts.
I saw a post on FB this morning where some dumb republican stated "Accident? I think not" I'm paraphrasing and don't remember who said it but the idea is that certain conspiracy theorists are set to blame it on terrorists or whoever the Scapegoat Du Jour is
Another CIA false flag operation? I can hardly wait, lol
Man, oh, man. Keeping disadvantaged Blacks in the spotlight has required scraping the bottom of the barrel. The problem is that the story of the bridge collapse doesn't have anything to do with Black people. If anything Hispanics are the victims in this story.
Now we know who gets their news from influencers on social media and bloggers.
I love (/s) how whenever some rare, catastrophic thing happens - planes flying into buildings, ships crashing into bridges, etc. - people everywhere suddenly are experts on how it all should have unfolded, or why it really happened in the first place. The level of verbosity and volume seems inversely correlated to their level of genuine expertise on the subject.
The amount of pure stupid being orally excreted from human beings in the last few days is far more impressive than anything that boat did to the bridge.
Really Captain Dumbass? It looks deliberate? The mind reels at the possible differences between what looks deliberate and what looks like an accident, but I’m sure this scholar of boating accidents went on to describe in great detail what those differences are.
Because bridges are designed to take a direct hit from what is basically a floating skyscraper. I’m sure this is specifically a problem with liberal America. If this had happened anywhere else in the world, the bridge would have been just fine.
I’m sure Trump will add this to the long list of things that would have never happened on his watch.
I’m going with the official explanation myself, given all my expertise in the areas of shipping and bridge design and maintenance.
And considering law enforcement received the mayday call and blocked off the bridge prior to the collision.
My heart goes out to the families of those guys who had the misfortune of being on shift that day.
I want to like Nancy Mace, but every time she has the chance to be reasonable and rational she chooses to be stupid.
As it now stands:
The Dali, a nearly 1,000-foot-long container ship registered in Singapore, appeared to lose power as it began moving toward the bridge at about 8 knots, or 9.2 miles per hour.
Those onboard issued a mayday, said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, which gave authorities time to stop the flow of traffic on the bridge.
The Dali crashed into one of the bridge's support pillars, and parts of the structure came down immediately, at about 1:30 a.m.
Federal investigators are seeking to understand why the ship drifted so far off course and crashed into the bridge.
What we do and don't know about the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse : NPR
I’ve read that the particular fuel used by container ships is notoriously contaminated with industrial waste fluids, used motor oil, anything that would otherwise cost a manufacturer or industrial process to have properly disposed of. It’s a dumping ground for toxic waste, which is then combusted over the waterways. It’s possible that the fuel filters got clogged by these substances at exactly the worst time. Maryland pretends to be such an environmentally responsible state with all its overregulation, yet this practice remains rampant in one of the biggest shipping ports in the nation.