Jan 11 2020
Probably going to see Rise of the Skywalkers today (I dunno, that’s the plan but I could get hit by a Bus).
Anyhow, content will likely suck bordering on non-existent.
Enjoy this episode of Worzel Gummidge: The Green Man which is notable mostly for being British, but also includes a featured role by Michael Palin who didn’t just do Python (Monty) Ltd.
Jan 11 2020
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
U.S. government warns of smoking risks, Amelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly solo across Pacific, Major League Baseball introduces designated hitter.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
Jan 10 2020
In The New Republic Alex Pareene makes the same argument I frequently do, which is focusing merely on the Criminal aspects of the Unindicted Co-Conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio’s RICO Gang misses the larger Criminality and Corruption of the Republican Party RICO Gang.
“I don’t know anything about ‘Five Families’ and ‘Our Thing’ but those Gambinos are nasty people.”
Who’s being naive now Kay?
The Most Popular Crook in America
By Alex Pareene, The New Republic
January 10, 2020
Larry Hogan is a Republican governor of a solidly Democratic state. He is also, according to one survey, the single most popular governor in the country. In a state where only 37 percent of likely voters approve of Donald Trump, 73 percent of Democrats approve of Hogan.
I’ve argued that, in many respects, the presidency of Donald Trump is more “normal” than some people would like to admit. That is, it’s a logical end point of where conservatism has been moving, rather than an inexplicable break from a system that was working as intended. But even so, in his personal behavior and incendiary rhetoric, Trump is aberrant—and, it should always be noted, he is deeply unpopular. The country, by and large, doesn’t want what Trump has wrought. His election was both overdetermined and something of a bizarre fluke, which would, arguably, not have happened had it not been for geography and our illogical modern interpretation of archaic founding documents.
Hogan, on the other hand, is exactly the “normal” to which politicians like Joe Biden promise to return us when they try to speak into existence a Republican Party that they can “work with.”
Here he is: a self-dealing crook whose racist policymaking will speed the destructive effects of climate change while making him even richer.
The key to Hogan’s appeal is as nakedly racial as Donald Trump’s, even if they sound nothing alike in other respects: Hogan’s project is to prop up the suburban and rural at the explicit expense of both the urban core and the next generation. He was fairly open about this project at the beginning of his time in office. As Washington Monthly puts it: “His most controversial policy to date was to cancel the Red Line—a planned $2.9 billion metro rail line through Baltimore, for which the state had already acquired land.”
Hogan took the “savings” from failing to invest in sustainable transit for Baltimore and spent them on road projects throughout the rest of the state, and bragged about doing so. “His office issued a map of most of the state showing where the money was going, with Baltimore left off,” The Washington Post reported. It was widely considered, at the time, to be part of a “war on Baltimore,” a deliberate policy of disinvestment in that largely black and poor city in favor of investment in the white suburbs and rural areas. And it has been a wild political success.
Hogan’s popularity shows how ultimately tenuous the progressive coalition that sustains the Democratic Party really is: Remove affective conservatism—reactionary culture-war-stoking and blunt appeals to white supremacy—from the plutocratic agenda, and well-off liberals may find themselves far more receptive to a right-wing politician.
As Washington Monthly points out, Hogan wins praise from ostensible liberals for being a “Republican who believes in climate change,” but his administration has devoted itself to constructing automobile infrastructure over public transit. This is one of the most difficult things to get American voters to believe, but if you support state politicians who constantly build and expand highways, you do not support mitigating climate change. Larry Hogan may “believe in” climate change, but he does not wish to do anything to stop it, especially if accelerating it is good for his own bottom line.
…
This has happened with the help of a Republican judiciary that has defined corruption practically out of existence. Once, robust local newspapers might have functioned as a kind of stopgap, exposing obvious wrongdoing and holding the powerful to account. But today, many of those newsrooms have shuttered, and the national political press, after four years of reporting on Donald Trump, no longer treats self-dealing as inherently scandalous. They operate in a feedback loop with a subset of fairly well-off American voters who no longer punish this behavior in the rare cases when they are presented with it clearly. Larry Hogan is crooked. Larry Hogan is popular. Being crooked doesn’t matter. So long as he’s good for our property values, he can graft his way to the apocalypse.
Jan 10 2020
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Paul Krugman: Australia Shows Us the Road to Hell
The political reaction is scarier than the fires.
In a rational world, the burning of Australia would be a historical turning point. After all, it’s exactly the kind of catastrophe climate scientists long warned us to expect if we didn’t take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, a 2008 report commissioned by the Australian government predicted that global warming would cause the nation’s fire seasons to begin earlier, end later, and be more intense — starting around 2020.
Furthermore, though it may seem callous to say it, this disaster is unusually photogenic. You don’t need to pore over charts and statistical tables; this is a horror story told by walls of fire and terrified refugees huddled on beaches.
So this should be the moment when governments finally began urgent efforts to stave off climate catastrophe.
But the world isn’t rational. In fact, Australia’s anti-environmentalist government seems utterly unmoved as the nightmares of environmentalists become reality. And the anti-environmentalist media, the Murdoch empire in particular, has gone all-out on disinformation, trying to place the blame on arsonists and “greenies” who won’t let fire services get rid of enough trees.
These political reactions are more terrifying than the fires themselves.
John Kerry: Diplomacy Was Working Until Trump Abandoned It
The president put us on a path toward conflict and turmoil with Iran.
President Trump says that on his watch, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. But if he had wanted to keep that promise, he should have left the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement in place. Instead, he pulled the United States out of the deal and pursued a reckless foreign policy that has put us on a path to armed conflict with Iran.
After Mr. Trump authorized the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani last week, Iran announced it was no longer obligated to follow the agreement, which had reined in its nuclear ambitions, and it launched ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing American troops, to little effect. Adding to the turmoil, the Iraqi Parliament approved a largely symbolic resolution to expel American troops who have been fighting the Islamic State.
Though Mr. Trump has since walked back from the brink of war, I can’t explain the chaos of his presidency as it lurches from crisis to crisis, real or manufactured. The president has said he “doesn’t do exit strategies.” Clearly he doesn’t do strategies, period.
Charles M. Blow: My Journey to Radical Environmentalism
It’s never too late to take action aimed at protecting our planet.
I can’t quite remember the moment when I became radicalized about protecting the environment and the planet, but it happened last year. That’s late in life, I know. At 49 years old, it is very possible and even likely that I have more years behind me than in front of me, but that is when it happened.
Before that, I didn’t do more than was required by law.
I have lived in New York City since 1994. Mandatory recycling was phased in citywide by 1997. So, I recycled what was required.
Five years ago, when my last two children went away to college, I got rid of my car, but not for environmental reasons. I just didn’t need it anymore, and it was expensive to maintain.
But something happened to me last year. [..]
It seems to me that environmentalism involves not only the changes we personally make, but also proselytizing, getting more people to join us.
My journey to radical environmentalism is not complete. To the contrary, it’s just beginning. I think that the only way to prevent the radical alteration of our planet is to commit to a radical alteration of our own behavior.
Andrew McCabe: If you think Iran is done retaliating, think again
I am glad Qasem Soleimani is dead.
Iran’s measured response to the general’s killing has many people believing the worst of this crisis has passed. Should we be relieved? By limiting its response to U.S. military targets, Iran sent a powerful message to its own people that Soleimani’s killing would not go unavenged. Tehran managed to accomplish this without escalating a military conflict with the United States.
However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials would be well-advised to remember that Iran’s most provocative actions have often been asymmetric attacks conducted through proxy forces and terrorist elements. It is those deniable, civilian-focused attacks we should be looking for as this situation unfolds. As a counterterrorism leader for the FBI, it was my job to figure out how events abroad would impact us here. And I am afraid the saga of Soleimani is far from over. [..]
n Wednesday, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security released an intelligence bulletin to law enforcement groups warning them to remain alert to the possibility of Iranian-sponsored terrorist and cyber attacks in the United States. They were right to do so. Iran is unlikely to forget about the death of Soleimani. Despite cool-headed comments lately from Iranian leaders, missiles that missed their marks in the Iraqi desert may not be enough to satisfy their desire for retaliation.
Iran has a long history of striking when their adversaries least expect it. I am confident that our law enforcement and intelligence professionals are working hard to keep us safe. We should help them by remaining vigilant. We may not be out of the woods yet.
Jim Webb: When did it become acceptable to kill a top leader of a country we aren’t even at war with?
Strongly held views are unlikely to change regarding the morality and tactical wisdom of President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani as he traveled on a road outside the Baghdad airport after having arrived on a commercial flight. But the debate regarding the long-term impact of this act on America’s place in the world, and the potential vulnerability of U.S. government officials to similar reprisals, has just begun.
How did it become acceptable to assassinate one of the top military officers of a country with whom we are not formally at war during a public visit to a third country that had no opposition to his presence? And what precedent has this assassination established on the acceptable conduct of nation-states toward military leaders of countries with which we might have strong disagreement short of actual war — or for their future actions toward our own people?
With respect to Iran, unfortunately, this is hardly a new issue. [..]
Jan 10 2020
“Seth takes a closer look at the House voting to rein in President Trump’s war powers as it becomes increasingly clear his administration lied to justify an unconstitutional act of war.”
I’ll also point out Justice Robert H. Jackson at Nuremberg thought Aggressive Warfare the root of all War Crimes, particularly those of the Nazis.
Oh, and Amber says “What?!”
Jan 10 2020
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense; London’s Underground opens; The Beatles first album released in US hits store shelves; Rod Stewart born.
Puerto Rico earthquake aftermath deepens as govt seeks help
After quake, Puerto Rico governor says power should be back by Monday
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
Jan 09 2020
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show
Well, we’re big rock singers
We got golden fingers
And we’re loved everywhere we go…(That sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten thousand dollars a show…(Right)
We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll getcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(Rollin’ Stone…) Wanna see my picture on the cover
(Stone…) Wanna buy five copies for my mother…(Yes)
(Stone…) Wanna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone…(That’s a very very good idea)
I got a freaky ole lady name a Cocaine Katy
Who embroiders on my jeans
I got my poor ole grey haired daddy
Drivin’ my limousine
Now it’s all designed to blow our minds
But our minds won’t really be blown
Like the blow that’ll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(Rollin’ Stone…) Wanna see our pictures on the cover
(Stone…) Wanna buy five copies for our mothers…(Yeah)
(Stone…) Wanna see my smilin face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone.
Hey, I know how, Rock and Roll…
Ah, that’s beautiful
We got a lot of little teenage blue eyed groupies
Who do anything we say
We got a genu-wine Indian Guru
Who’s teaching us a better way
We got all the friends that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep gettin’ richer but we can’t get our picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(Rollin’ Stone…) Wanna see my picture on the cover
(Stone…) Wanna buy five copies for my mother…(Wa wa)
(Stone…) Wanna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
On the cover of the Rollin’…
(Stone…) Wanna see my picture on the cover
I don’t know why we ain’t on the cover, baby…
(Stone…) Wanna buy five copies for my mother
We’re beautiful subjects…
(Stone…) Wanna see my smilin’ face
I ain’t kiddin’, we would make a beautiful cover…
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone…
Fresh shot, right up front, man…
I can see it now, we’ll be up in the front…
Smilin’, man…
Ahh, beautiful…
I wanted to be a Lumberjack. With my best girl by my side I would sing, sing, sing…
Sorry, got a bit off track there. Matt Taibbi (you remember him) and Katie Halper have this webcast for Rolling Stone (I’m Gonzo, not insane) titled “Useful Idiots” and they have about 90 minutes (in 2 parts) with Michael Moore who as you’ll recall is my Grandmother’s least favorite paperboy because he just tossed it in the general direction of the house instead of carefully placing it in the center of the doormat.
Jan 09 2020
Jan 09 2020
I have frequently been in Bristol, Connecticut, home of ESPN and Otis Elevators. The last time I was there I was abandoned by a Cop at a Movie Theater without a Pay Phone (and me without a Cell because I’m a Luddite) since I didn’t want to be dumped at a Strip Club at 3 o’clock in the morning.
To be fair he thought they had a Phone, instead I had to hike about a quarter of a mile to an all-night grocery.
You get off the exit for Rt. 132 (I’m just guessing, I know it when I see it and I’m too lazy to look it up) and head toward what the signs say is Bristol but really isn’t anything much until you hit the outskirts of Southington (and not a lot there either) with a few exceptions.
The first is ESPN on your right, a Jodrell Bank of Satellite Dishes (some impressively large) on a sloping hill with a rather ordinary office complex next to it. Want to know why the Lady Huskies are on TV all the time? That’s why.
But if you slog on a little farther, to your left is the Otis Elevator Test Facility, a 30 story obelisk of concrete blandness (without a cap mind you) that rises like an enormous middle finger, a random monument in the midst of nowhere in particular.
There are things around it, the Plant, the fast food places that cater to the employees, convenience/gas, etc. …
And a Hotel I stayed in at least 6 times for conferences of my club which was attractive because while they served the Otis crowd during the week on Friday and Saturday the rates were quite reasonable especially if you could guarantee a certain number of rooms.
Oh, did I mention I used to set up Conferences?
Yeah.
Jan 09 2020
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon is born, Howard Hughes identifies fake biography, Unmanned probe lands on moon, the Phantom of the Opera becomes the longest running Broadway show.
As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest of all the forgivenesses.
Jan 08 2020
I find myself needing to remind people all the time-
PUERTO RICANS ARE UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND THEY ARE EUROPEAN WHITE!
They happen to speak Spanish is all, it’s no different than speaking French or Italian.
Puerto Rico is 3,515 square miles. Connecticut is 4,849 square miles. Puerto Rico has 3,193,694 residents. Connecticut has 3,572,665 residents. They are remarkably similar (well, in Puerto Rico you get Hurricanes, but you get Hurricanes in Connecticut too and you can pretty much rely on the weather being thoroughly miserable for at least 4 or 5 months out of the year) except for this figure-
Median Household Income in Connecticut: $74,168
Median Household Income in Puerto Rico: $19,343
Do the math.
On the other hand until the Ramapo Fault sends us all sliding into the sea we don’t worry about Earthquakes much (though we’ve had them as recently as 2012).
After Homes Collapse in Earthquake, Puerto Ricans Ask: Are We Safe?
By Patricia Mazzei, Edmy Ayala and Frances Robles, The New York Times
Jan. 8, 2020
Across swaths of southern Puerto Rico, families are huddled on parking lots, basketball courts and even roadsides, as an unrelenting series of aftershocks continues to rock the island. At least 45 earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher were registered since early Tuesday morning, according to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network. Two-thirds of the island’s 3.2 million people remained without power.
…
Puerto Ricans were all too aware that the island’s aging buildings, particularly its schools, were vulnerable to hurricane winds and flooding. But few had seriously thought they could also be destroyed by powerful earthquakes, which had been relatively rare in recent years. Some homes that were elevated to avoid storm surge — a risk made apparent with the thousands of homes damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Maria in 2017 — collapsed when the ground moved.On Tuesday, the education secretary, Eligio Hernández, said up to 95 percent of the island’s public schools were not built to withstand earthquakes, despite Puerto Rico’s location on the border of two tectonic plates. Classes have been suspended indefinitely so the buildings can be inspected.
“We are going to evaluate the totality of the agency’s infrastructure,” Mr. Hernández said at a news conference. “All of the schools were inspected after Maria by the Army Corps of Engineers, all of them, so they could operate.”
But he noted that schools built in the 1950s or ’60s were designed to comply with older building codes that did not include modern seismic safety standards.
Emilio Colón Zavala, an engineer who is the immediate past president of the Puerto Rico Builders Association, said the building code that required quake resilience was enacted in 1987. About 70 percent of the island’s infrastructure, including more than 500 schools, was built before 1980. A plan a decade ago to retrofit hundreds of schools ended for lack of funding after about 100 schools were renovated, he said.
Félix Rivera Arroyo, president of the Earthquake Commission of the Puerto Rico Engineers Association, said there was no law that required the more than 850 schools on the island to keep up-to-date with new code revisions.
“The problem is the government does not have a law that requires inspections,” Mr. Rivera said.
After Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pressured Puerto Rico to enact even stricter building codes, which took effect two months ago.
Even the 1987 building codes may not have offered full protection: A school in the town of Yauco, built just 15 years ago, was heavily damaged during Tuesday’s quakes.
The continuing power failures were proving to be an equally pressing problem for an island that did not see full electrical service restored until nearly a year after Hurricane Maria.
About 1 million electrical customers still had no power on Wednesday, and the outages also left about 250,000 customers without running water.
“This is a question of hygiene and health,” Elí Díaz, the president of the water department, told WKAQ radio. “People can go without water for one day, maybe two. Now is when things start getting a little harder.”
On Twitter, the power authority said it was generating 955 megawatts of power by Wednesday evening, about 40 percent of the amount normally needed at this time of year.
Authorities were working around the clock to fire up power plants around the island, but it was unclear whether they could generate enough electricity to make up for the loss of the island’s major power plant, known as Costa Sur.
Towns in the southwest hit hardest by the earthquakes were struggling with all the problems combined: collapsed buildings, no power, no water and long lines at the few stores that were open.
Allow me to repeat.
Two thirds of Puerto Rico is without power.
Again.
Back to your regular Programming (consider what that means, carefully).