Yesterday, when I got up, my vision was blurrier than usual. That does happen sometimes, often as an allergic reaction. I am such a delayed reactor that it could possibly be due to road fumes from the day before. It did improve as the day progressed, but not quite back to normal. Hopefully it’ll get back to normal soon, since it does slow me down.
Cartoon – 29 1129Cartoon.jpg
Short Takes
Mother Jones – Every City Should Encourage This Kind of Solar Development
Quote – Undeveloped land is a rapidly dwindling resource, and what’s left is under pressure to deliver a host of other services we require from the natural world—growing food, sheltering wildlife, storing and purifying water, preventing erosion, and sequestering carbon, among others. And that pressure is rapidly intensifying. By 2050, in one plausible scenario from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), supplying solar power for all our electrical needs could require ground-based solar on 0.5 percent of the total land area of the United States.
Click through. I’ll bet we can all think of more than one parking lot which would be dramatically improved by this I know I can!
Daily Kos (Rule of Claw) – UPDATE: Good News-Compiling Expert Threads About “Nu” COVID Variant. I Hope This Quells Some Fears.
Quote – To start with, it appears that while “Nu” is outcompeting Delta, it is doing so in regions where Delta is more dormant and with low vaccination rates. Bloom Lab has a lengthy thread detailing why we should not be panicking. Concerned, evaluating, and being responsible, but we are not to the “send in the HAZMAT suits and lock the town down” stage.
Click through (worth it just for the headline photo). Things change so fast … apparently what they were going to call “nu” is now being called “omicron” (and I’ll spare you the linguistic humor.)
Daily Kos (PvtJarHead) – Iraq War Veteran Tried To Infiltrate III%ers: Was Asked If He Was Willing To Murder Antifa And BLM!
Quote – Immediately following the election I infiltrated an affiliate of the Three Percenters unlawful extremist militia. They straight up asked me if I was willing to murder people from “antifa” and “BLM” during my intake interview. And I recorded all of it.
Click through for more details. You know, I am 76, and I cannot remember a timein my life when I felt afraid of contracting a fatal disease AND afraid of being deliberately murdered just for being who I am. And I still can’t grasp how people of color must have felt all their lives – and how they must feel now much more personally yhan I do. I am very grateful this veteran is still willing to risk everything to save us
Food for Thought –
6 Responses to “Open Thread for November 29, 2021”
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Cartoon: I knew it was for progress, but I always felt bad for the animals who did this.
MJ: Yep, I see that Texas is on the list, what with the land that is undeveloped, and actively discouraging rooftop solar, what a bummer.
DK: Still reading, and very informative. Amen! to your comment too!
FFT: Scary lies, and unfortunately….people listen to this channel with their hateful rhetoric. It’s off limits in this household.
TJI: TJI 1. “New jobless claims hits 50 year low. All Americans should hear this.” ~ George Takei ~
2. “Jan. 6 rally organizers reportedly communicated with Trump’s team using BURNER PHONES, raising new questions about the involvement of Trump’s inner circle. Who else thinks Trump himself is GUILTY?
~ Jon Cooper ~
3. “Why isn’t the media reporting that oil companies chose to raise prices rather than increase supplies?” ~Robert Reich ~
4. “Zero House Republicans voted for universal pre-K in the Build Back Better Act.” ~ The Democrats ~
5. “Why would any decent person be drawn to a political party that glorifies a disturbing teenager killing two people??” ~ Stuart P. Stevens ~
TJI #1 – Truthfully, Americans don’t really understand how to interpret the jobless rate, and misunderstand it. But still, yes, they should know this, even if it’s not quite as good as it sounds.
TJI #2 – Because of course they did. Which means that at least on some level they knew what they were planning was wrong and criminal. I hope courts, especially juries, will be allowed to accept this as evidence of a mens rea.
TJI #3 – Well, Robert is moreoptimistic than I. He clearly thinks the media knows that. Even more optimistic, he thinks Americans would understand it. I have never met anyone who whined about gas prices who also had the faintest notion what affects them.
TJI #4 – Yet they are taking credit for what they voted agains. Each District with a Republican representative needs to have at lease a few people on top of this – letters to newspapers billboards, whatever they can afford and do.
TJI #5 – The answer is in the question. No decent person would.
Comment from Mitch – (Welcome back, Mitch!)
MJ: “They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.” As VP for conservation,in my local audubon group, we are trying to have some bit of a say in the reconstruction of an old, unused golf course in the area; trying to assert the need for more passive, animal friendly space.
DK: RofC: Nu and Omicron are the same, then? Excuse me, but I’ve been, happily, out of the loop for a bit, and did not come across “Nu” until now. But,
it’s not panic time, apparently.
DK/JarHead: “Shell-Shocked ” veterans, victims of the wars which GWB lied us into, being easy marks for radicalization against that idiot president’s country,
which has/had been further traumatized by an idiotic, AND psychopathic president. How special is that?
FFT: ‘Fair and Balanced” was their first BIG LIE, and they’ve not stopped since. Murdoch is a domestice terrorist of the mind!
Mitch
A golf course has a far better chance of being usable for living things than a parking lot. You’re on the right track and I wish you success!
And, yes, nu was changed to omicron. I don’t know why – maybe to avoid confustion down the road, since “nu,” spoken not written, has an English meaning whch is very confusable. (Of couse illiterate Rethigs though they meant “omega” and thought Biden (who has nothing to do with it – the international agency that names these isn’t even in the US) had deliberately chosen it to avoid offending China (the Greek alphabet ends “phi, psi, xi, omega.”) And apparently it’s less lethal, but the rapidity of spread is disturbing, because that can lead to more mutations.
Fair and baanced wasn’t a lie they way they originally intended it – giving equal time and equal respect to truth and lies, sanity and insanity. And now that interpretation is creeping into the mainstream. “Fair and balanced” is not desirable for journalism. “TRUTH and FACTS” are what it needs to provide in order to to survive
And Mitch’s response –
Faux News was set up by Roger Ailes, a former aide to GWB. I believe that it is fair to say that he never intended it to be about conveying anything but his version of propaganda. He was reported to supervise what was put out very closely. He reportedly told Murdoch that
it would not be good for business to support Obama…where $ was the bottom line. Faux viewers would not appreciate an endorsement for
the Black guy.
I have a friend who was sucked in, directly, by that initial lie, a woman who my friend had known for years, and whose judgement she respected,
until the friend fell into the trap, and continues to love her Faux News!
M
thank you, be well….stay safe, sane, healthy and hopefully happy.