cyclically cynical

The circle of life is a wheel of fortune - but the cycle of cynicism takes away the leap of faith - to win is to survive.

[Barnaby Breaks History 🇺🇸 @BarnabyHistory]

🇺🇸 The Boatlift That Was Bigger Than Dunkirk

At 10:45 a.m. on September 11, 2001, a Coast Guard lieutenant named Mike Day keyed a radio in New York Harbor and said the only sentence that mattered.

“All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island.”

The boats were already coming.

The bridges were closed. The tunnels were closed. The subways were dead. South of the towers, hundreds of thousands of people had nowhere left to walk. Some jumped into the Hudson. Some stood on seawalls that were never meant to be docks and waited for anything that floated.

Dunkirk took nine days to pull 338,226 Allied soldiers off a beach in 1940.

On 9/11, roughly 800 mariners on about 150 vessels moved as many as 500,000 civilians off Manhattan in about nine hours. Ferries. Tugs. Dinner boats. Pilot boats. Yachts. A retired fireboat. Rubber dinghies that held two people. The largest water evacuation in history.

NY Waterway did not wait for the official call. After the second plane hit, the whole fleet moved. Captain Rick Thornton nosed his ferry against a seawall that was not a slip and started taking people off. Some of them he pulled out of the river. His company alone carried about 158,000 people to Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Brooklyn, and Queens.

On a normal Tuesday they carried 34,000.

The Staten Island Ferry moved more than 50,000 people and came back the other way with water, bandages, and men who still had work to do in the dust.

The old fireboat John J. Harvey, already retired, tied up near the Museum of Jewish Heritage, took civilians off the seawall, then pumped water when the hydrants downtown died.

Lt. Day later admitted what the day required. “I broke more rules that day than probably I’ve enforced in my whole Coast Guard career.”

In raw numbers it was bigger than Dunkirk. No boat went down. By nightfall the southern tip of Manhattan had been emptied by people who were not on anyone’s list of heroes when the morning started.

They were tug captains. Ferry deckhands. Pilots. A lieutenant with a microphone. Ordinary boats answering one sentence.

All available boats.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@DominicCardy Oh, you mean the ones that Canadian politicians like to grandstand about the “help” we provide - completely ignorant of the hefty bill California pays to lease the aircraft during their fire season?

It ain’t free.

[#MsportXtra © @MsportXtra]

#ChinaGT A word from Ollie Milroy after being pulled out of a burning car by Loek Hartog. #MsportXtra

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Tablesalt13 Canada is in a tough spot due to self-inflicted policy.

They’ve taxed good paying jobs out of the country; spent money carelessly requiring a larger tax base to cover the spread; and then imported unskilled labour whose productivity never outweighs their cost to the system.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Mike_M_Klotz SSRI’s need to be investigated; as do the doctors who prescribe them.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Mike_M_Klotz Not having followed the nuance of the trial; it shocks me that only a single juror was holding out for a guilty verdict. All others were indicating acquittal.

That said, that woman should NEVER roam free again.

I feel for the father of the children.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@AllThingsCanATC His ears will be included on the $10 and $50 notes.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@MarkJCarney Respectfully; why are the Alstom Adessia rail cars priced at $6-8M per unit in Europe, but $15M here?

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Thorn3652 @Mileage_impo A million or so more without regular maintenance.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@MidwestBohunk @Mileage_impo A million years from now, archeologists will stumble across the rotted carcass of a Buick LeSabre…. Refer to the ancient texts and the 3800 will still run.

It will be considered a shrine.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@younweb3 @Mileage_impo Fanboys and YouTube will have you believe this. Once modified they’re less than stellar.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@ushtrasanam @georgebell Derocho in May of ‘22 that had significant damage throughout the province.

So yeah. Once every 100 years is really only far enough to keep the story convenient.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@ushtrasanam @georgebell Except that we had almost identical circumstances in 2011 when there was widespread flooding throughout the city; worse than last night’s storm. 2015 when we had significant wind damage across north York and Markham with higher gusts than yesterday’s storm. And of course the

[The Food Professor @FoodProfessor]

Mexico still has a higher food-insecurity rate than Canada—but the trajectories are moving in opposite directions. ⬇️

Between 2017–2019 and 2023–2025, Mexico’s rate fell from 23.8% to 16.5%, while Canada’s more than doubled, from 5.1% to 10.5%.

Canada calls itself a food superpower. These numbers suggest we are increasingly failing to feed our own population.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Tablesalt13 Speaking as someone who has worked in the industry, it happens every six years anyway.

Health insurance premiums are too high in California and New York; and grants are too heavy up here to ignore.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@TheEbonyMaw This is the type of customer that you sit down with the management team, and assess the customer value report.

In past experience, what starts as a good customer you like to reward - becomes a relationship where they abuse your kindness.

[Leviathan @l3v1at4an]

There are 9 CBC accounts using a gold checkmark which cost $10,000 USD per year if using the yearly subscription that have not been active since 2023/2024.

That comes out to roughly $360,000 USD at the beginning of this year, which converts to about $500,000 CDN was wasted.

Not to worry, when the CBC receives $1.38 billion in government funding, this waste is nothing but a drop in the bucket that Canadian tax payers are on the hook for.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Mike_M_Klotz Hippies realized they can make a buck.

Commercialized it.

Marketed it to upper middle class 20-somethings that it’s an experience.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@FoodProfessor It’s a good thing I’ve always preferred Kawartha Dairy. 98% of ingredients have always been Canadian.

Imported ingredients are only specialized flavors and candy inclusions not made in Canada.

[cyclically cynical @cyclicallysynic]

@Mike_M_Klotz Given the spectacular failure that is the Prelude; I can’t see Toyota making the same mistake.

Then again….