I’m writing for tomorrow, day 10. We still have exceptionally cold weather, that continues to effect my COPD, but the brutal wind is past. I’m quite uncomfortable, because I sprung the back on my computer chair. It’s been going out for months, but yesterday it gave up the ghost, I’ve ordered a replacement that will be delivered next week, but in the mean time, it’s sit straight up without being able to relax.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:50 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Raw Story: Alex Jones stoked the paranoid fears of his listeners – and left no doubt about whether he was a Republican shill – by warning that net neutrality would lead to censorship of conservative Internet sites.
“This has been the plan for a decade – free-quote-Wi-Fi that’s paid for by taxpayers, but you have no rights on that Wi-Fi, and you can’t get to InfoWars.com or DrudgeReport.com, that the White House officials have said they want to shut down, basically,” Jones warned this week on his radio program. “So this is it, they’re coming.”
Jones, who claims to be nonpartisan, promoted a widely mocked statement by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who misrepresented the president’s statements on regulating Internet service providers like utilities to claim “net neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet,” reported Right Wing Watch.
To be clear, this Republican propaganda is patently false. Reclassifying the Internet as a public utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act has no relationship at all to creating publicly funded Wi-Fi networks. It also does the opposite of what Jones claims. It prevents ISPs from blocking, or even slowing, Internet access to any sites, even the wacky-doodle brain drains listed above.
From Media Matters: The U.S Department of Energy’s (DOE) renewable energy loan guarantee program is turning a profit after weathering years of media attacks and misinformation that attempted to paint the now defunct solar energy firm Solyndra as representative of the program’s failure. Media outlets from The Washington Post to CBS News spent years profiling Solyndra, wrongly suggesting its demise was illustrative of widespread waste, fraud, failure, and political corruption among DOE loan guarantee recipients — but will the program’s latest successes receive a comparable platform?
On November 13, NPR reported that the DOE loan program, designed to "accelerate the domestic commercial deployment of innovative and advanced clean energy technologies," is now turning a profit exceeding $30 million after collecting $810 million in interest payments. NPR noted that the program was never intended to make money, making the development all the more remarkable:
I remember how Republicans were calling this a taxpayer giveaway to special interests. Of course the were doing what Republicans always do. They were lying. Kudos to the renewable energy load guarantee program!
From The New Yorker: The election of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) as the Senate Majority Leader was announced on Thursday by a puff of toxic black coal smoke rising from the United States Capitol.
Speaking from the well of the Senate, McConnell blasted President Obama’s recent climate-change deal with the Chinese, saying that it violated “the human rights of carbon.”
“I’m not a scientist,” he told his colleagues, “but I’m told that carbon is the basic building block of all life on earth. And that means it should enjoy the same human rights as you and I.”
Andy has a good point, and Bought Bitch Mitch will be spewing toxic gasses for the next two years.
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread–11/15/2014”
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3:14 I've got my bloodshot eyes on you!
3:42 The bloodshot boogeyman has arrived!
I was in SF that day and enjoyed Joan Baez and Judy Collins before La Raza took the stage in Golden Gate Park.
Since Mitch set the stage for money is speech and corporations are people he could choose to defend his China-based income via the carbon argument.
The mainstream [corporate] media consistently ignore this administration's successes–yet I'd like someone to make Issa eat his words now.
Cruz has lost conservative supporters who understand the internet and the neutrality issue–perhaps Jones will also lose enough listeners to affect his advertising revenue (those advertisers don't want to have to pay for fast lane, etc.) so he'll experience some of what Rush is…
Attaching towels (rolled, with rubber bands or tape) to computer chairs can increase position options.
4:44 average unchanged. I can't believe that, especially feeling a wreck as I do. Where was thispicture on Hallowe'en, BTW?
Raw Story – That's pretty raw, all right. I expect he will make the wacko list when it comes out, though he claims to benon-partisan.I don't see him on A*****e of the day yet but sometimes they are slow.
Media Matters – Huhh. Truth as they see it. "Special interests" to Republicans means the 99%, and "giveaway" means anything that will help us.
New Yorker – I never thought I would be saying I'm relieved that Bought B** will be the Senate Majority Leader – but consider – it could have been Ted Cruz.
Cartoon – At that point I was still trying without much success to change things from the inside. Thank you for being there.
The lesser of two evils?
Sorry about your chair TC – can you do kitty-stretches from time to time to rest your back?
Raw Story – only someone lobotomised or with paranoia could believe Alex Jones! The Repugs are, as usual, blaming their own behaviour and desires on others. Projection.
New Yorker – love Andy, thanks TC!
Puzzle — 3:42 The bloodshot boogeyman has arrived!
Raw Story — Perhaps Jones is having problems accessing InfoWars.com and DrudgeReport.com because he can`t spell them properly! I sure had no problem. Perhaps he needs to be reminded that there is such a thing as free speech (you know part of the first amendment to the Constitution) and likely, any attempts to stifle the right, which personally, for the protection of the sheeple might be adviseable, would be challenged in the courts.
Treat the internet like a utility with unfettered access to all. If there is any doubt that Jones is an idiot, this statement he made should clear up any questions: “I like Ted Cruz, he knows what he’s talking about.”
Media Matters — It is about time that renewable energy started collecting the kudos and attention that it deserves. I wonder if Republicanus/Teabagger James Inhofe, as the new Energy Committee chairperson and climate change denier-in-chief will try to scuttle that boat?
The New Yorker — McTurtle better watch it because clinging so tightly to that charcoal briquette will lead to getting his hand caught and he just might choke on all that carbon. (think monkey`s paw).
Cartoon — From Democraticunderground.com
To paraphrase a Ron Wesaley of the Harry Potter series remark, "Nixon really needed to sort out his priorities!"
Oh, I forgot to tell you that today was my first day without the cast on the right foot. WooHoo! My foot is still swollen a bit and my shoe felt a little tight, but I proudly walked about my day, even if a bit tentatively, with no weighty cast. I am a bit tired but the compression socks are really helping both legs. As to the lung infection, I have finished the anti-biotics but still coughing up a storm. Hopefully that will stop soon. It has been a long 2 months!
I know you feel better without the cast! Hang in there, we are rooting for you.
Cool! Be careful with the thunder-toes. 😉
Raw Story: The Republicans want control of the internet to enrich their contributors, large corporations like Comcast and Verizon that will wipe out any smaller companies. After these statements, Jones can hardly call himself non-partisan!
Media matters: Unlike Solyndra, this news will not be reported by main stream media.
The New Yorker: Mitch has been spewing pollution for thirty years, but my fellow voters believed he would stop the "war on coal" because he promised he would in his ads. The war on coal does not exist, but sheep will believe anything.
Cartoon: I' m proud to know someone who was there that day.!
Thanks all. Overslept. Pit Stop!