Here in Portland, we have a winter weather warning with snow forecast. It’s currently 27°, so it’s a perfect day for worship at the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb and watching Viv kick my kitty butt at fantasy football. I hope you are all enjoying the last day of your holiday weekend.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (classic: 11/2015): It’s as bad as many of us feared. In spite of the "happy talk" of "oh, his son will be running it and he’s different," "Rupert wouldn’t destroy an asset like Nat Geo," etc., today the axe fell.
The memo went out, and November 3rd 2015 came to the National Geographic office. This was the day in which Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox took over National Geographic. The management of National Geographic sent out an email telling its staff, all of its staff, all to report to their headquarters, and wait by their phones. This pulled back every person who was in the field, every photographer, every reporter, even those on vacation had to show up on this fateful day.
As these phones rang, one by one National Geographic let go the award-winning staff, and the venerable institution was no more.
The name now belongs to Rupert Murdoch, and he has plans for it. The CEO of National Geographic Society, Greg Knell, tried to claim back in September that “there won’t be an [editorial] turn in a direction that is different from the National Geographic heritage.” Murdoch’s move today only served to prove Knell’s words hollow, with hundreds of talented people now served their pink slips. And with the recognition that Murdoch’s other enterprises do not reflect the standards held by National Geographic, and with Murdoch’s history of changing the editorial direction of purchased properties, today’s move indicates that we can expect a similar shift for National Geographic.
Another treasure has been trashed by Murdoch.
From The New Yorker: Just minutes after the Somali-based Al Qaeda affiliate Shabaab group released a propaganda video featuring a clip of Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential front-runner boasted that the video would be the highest-rated terror video of all time.
Within an hour of the video’s appearance, Trump took to Twitter to crow about his role in the jihadist promo, and tweaked his G.O.P. rivals for failing to be chosen by Shabaab.
Andy, it’s not just the Hairball of Hatred, The Republican Party has been the best recruiting tool that Al Qaeda and the Daesh have ever had.
From NY Times: Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign raised more than $33 million in the final three months of 2015, as his wide base of small-amount donors enabled him to come within $4 million of the amount raised by Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, his campaign said Saturday.
Mr. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, has now raised $73 million for his nomination fight, his aides said in a news release.
The campaign said more than one million individual donors had made more than 2.5 million contributions, passing President Obama’s previous record of about 2.2 million for the number of individual donations, which was set at the end of 2011.
“This people-powered campaign is revolutionizing American politics,” Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, said in a news release accompanying the release of the figures.
I’m quite surprised that Bernie’s mostly people fundraising is so close to Hillary’s mostly corporate fundraising. Sadly neither comes close to the secret support for the Clown Car from the 0.1% and giant corporations, both domestic and foreign.
Cartoon:
If you’re forgotten, Mooseolini is aka Bloody Bullseye Barbie, Drill Baby Dingbat, and Tundra Twit (similar to Squatch’s favorite).
19 Responses to “Open Thread–1/3/2016”
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5:07 Looks like a great day indeed for staying in. I wish you religious ecstasy.
DKos – I accidentally typoed his name to Murdick when I first read this, and it stuck. I trust everyone realizes you can't believe Nova either – it has David Koch's name all over it. I personally do not have the credentials to get any actual scientific journals, but any more I'm not sure whether I could believe them either. Sigh.
New Yorker – I'm pretty confident Andy knows exactly how much the entire GOP is helping Daesh. But because Trump has so much negative charisma, he would make the best short recruiting film. Potential Daesh recruits don't have any longer attention span than Americans do.
NY Times – Of course there is nothing to prevent a corporate employee from giving as an individual donor, although the amount is severely limited. However, when poster boy Martin Shkreli tried that, it backfired on him – Bernie wouldn't take it. As I recall it went to charity, I don't recall which, though it wasn't very long ago. I just recall the ROTF the announce,emt provided.
Cartoon – Mouthy Sarah can dictate all the correspondence she wants to, as long as I don't have to read it. I'll bet she couldn't even make the trains run on time, and since there aren't many left, that couldn't be very hard.
Your Spelling Works!
3:58 I slipped, fell, and got all wet.
3:00 I had my Jesus boots on!
Dang! He had big feet too?!!?
Apparently the Murdoch spoor does not fall fae from the tree…may it rot!
New Yorker: I can just imagine the Trump thing being proud to be so featured, as it would fill yet another one of the many empty places in his psyche.
Bernie is rocking it!
Dude! I give! You got me ALREADY! My ability or sit the very players that will score the most points has been the bane of my team! So many points sitting on the bench! Bryant was supposed to be a sure-fire points hog! NOT ONE POINT! Even on the "Start em, Sit em" line, it said to START him! ARG!
Now to more important things. What's going on in your neck of the woods? Have the Hatriots taken you hostage yet? I hear they are calling for BACK UP NUTS to join them in taking over an out-in-the-stocks Firewatch station. WHAT UP?
It was VERY Close!
See today's lead article.
And The GREAT Peyton Manning WINS THE GAME for Denver!! And you, too!!!
Great game, TC!!! You got me GOOD!!!
It's Monday morning here now, so I hope you've enjoyed your worship at the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, TomCat. With the weather turning into real winter in Portland, I hope you do not have to go out anytime soon. It'll be a novelty to be out in snow and ice in a wheelchair, but one you can do without for a while, I think.
Daily Kos: We've been subscribing to National Geographic for over 30 years now and our house is one of those which is slowly sinking under the weight of every issue we kept. We even moved all we hadwith us when we moved house 16 years ago, and the jury is still out on whether we'll take all of them with us to Oz in 2.5 years time. But 2016 seems a good year to end our intimite relationship with NG; we felt the cold dread creap into our hearts when we heard the news about Rupert Murdoch's take-over, this article is our last push into quiting.
The New Yorker: Andy did it again: without his picture next to his column I first didn't catch on the text was his, it sounded just so plausible for the reaction Trump would give on Da'esh using him in a video, that I thought it was a real article, not satire. Even "In a cascade of tweets directed at the terror group, Trump insisted that he be paid two million dollars for every subsequent video and that he retain editorial control over the final cut." is so close to the truth, that I believe Andy just held a microphone to that big loud mouth.
And for Shabaab choosing Trump and not any of the other eleven: Donald is the personification of everything the GOP stands for, he is their icon, so they couldn't have made a better choice for a recruitment magnet, could they?
NY Times: It's very encouraging to see Bernie Sanders collect so much money from small donors. It means that he is truly popular, not just in polls without financial consequence. It also shows that it can be done without big donations by the 1%, but unfortunately it consolidates the notion that the amount of money a candidate can gather is the most essential in the campaign. It's sadly still all about money and not about content, wisdom and leadership.
Cartoon: This nickname seems to have been appropriated, like everything else, by Donald too. Suits him to a tee.
Daily Kos:
Climate change denier Rupert Murdoch just bought National Geographic.
You read that right: one of the world’s most notorious climate change deniers, whose Fox media empire spreads misinformation on a massive scale, just got control of National Geographic.
The National Geographic Society does incredibly important work on climate change — from publishing groundbreaking stories to giving grants to scientists. But the new deal hands 73% ownership of its media operations to Fox.
We may not be able to stop the deal from going through, but together with our allies at ClimateTruth.org we can stop Murdoch from meddling if we put enough pressure on the board. Top publications enforce editorial independence by appointing Public Editors who represent the public and investigate complaints of editorial interference.
http://action.sumofus.org/a/murdoch-national-geographic/?akid=14402.9014393.UUtPm5&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1
If you see any pre-murdick National Geographic mags, videos, you may want to get them. They may become collectible someday if not already.
A sad FYI:
There's been a sudden and unexpected death in the family (but NOT my 99 y/o Mom).
It's the reason I've been – and will continue to be – scarce around here. The funeral is tentatively planned for Thursday, and family has been coming in.
(Hopefully I’ll be able to put something together for Friday – will update later.)
So sorry, my condolences to you.
Though relieved it's not your mom, I'm so sorry for your loss. You do what you need to do. We'll sxtill be here.
Sorry for your loss, Nameless.
Congratulations on the Bronco's win.
Daily Kos: Kiss National Geographic goodbye. Even if he resurrects it, there will be no objective reporting.
The New Yorker: Andy does it again! This sounds like straight reporting because Trump is narcissistic enough to make such a boast.
NY Times: This much in individual donations shows how much support Bernie has. Of course it is a drop in the bucket compared to the GOP.
Cartoon: I had forgotten about that nickname for her, it suits her well.
We have snow forecast for tomorrow,too.
Stay warm!
Thanks and hugs to all!