This week is turning out to be quite busy already. Wednesday, my normal grocery delivery day from Store to Door, I have an appointment I cannot change, so I have to get groceries from Safeway.com. They are coming tomorrow, moving prep for that to today. The kitty basking weather is winding down. Only 58° forecast today.
Per Nameless’ Request:
i-feet.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:86). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: For all his partisan animus toward President Obama, it is still shocking to see the Senate’s majority leader, Mitch McConnell, urge the nation’s governors to undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.
Mr. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who seems to hold Mr. Obama personally responsible for what has been the decades-long decline of coal jobs in his state, expressed his defiance in an op-ed article [Bought Bitch delinked] Wednesday in The Lexington Herald-Leader.
The administration has proposed regulations aimed at limiting emissions. Mr. McConnell urged the governors not to cooperate with a joint rule-making process aimed at developing final regulations under which Washington will set emissions targets while giving states flexibility to implement them. Sabotaging this process, he says, will give the courts time to find the plan illegal or give the Senate time to figure out a way to block it. “Without your support,” he said, the administration “won’t be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism.”
Bought Bitch Mitch is pursuing a plan that won’t help coal jobs. Mechanization is replacing many. There are few left, because coal can’t compete. Fracking has provided a surplus of unnatural gas, and the Saudis are flooding the market with cheap oil to forestall a shift to green energy. The liar is trying to protect profits, not jobs.
From Alternet: The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.
What’s behind this? Two big facts.
First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries…
…The second fact is most big American corporations have no particular allegiance to America. They don’t want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.
Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right about the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, which is wrong by definition. Click through for more than this tiny taste about how RepubliCorp is screwing YOU.
From Crooks and Liars: Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver didn’t hold back when discussing the racist emails being sent by the Ferguson, MO police department and court officials which were discovered during the Department of Justice investigation of racial prejudice in the city’s police and judicial system.
It amazes me that Oliver can be so funny, while being spot on about racism at it’s worst.
Cartoon:
20 Responses to “Open Thread–3/9/2015”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
4:26 average (still I assume, since that's the professional typo) 4:56. Two of them and pretty large. You'll have leftovers!
NY Times – The handwriting on the wall is getting pretty clear now. Get into solar and/or wind if you want to keep employed. if you are creative, put your all into developing strategies to keep bird alive at wind farms. That should be a money-saver for the wind farmers even if a littlepricey, since having birds gum up the equipment can't be cheap. (Don't jump on me, I love birds and don'r want to see them extinct, but I do have enough imagination – and professional experience with auto claims – to know that they can do some damage, even if the damage to them is worse.) The Saudis' release of cheap oil can only delay the inevitable so long – and will make it much more inevitable when it does hit. It's too bad for the people of Kentucky (though it's cat fud for Dems) that Mitch can't read it.
Alternet – Robert says we must "do one or the other" – I think we should do both. Now.
Crooks and Liars – Well, now, we can deduce from this that there is one geographical fact that is known to Ferguson, and that is: Denial is a river in Egypt. It's probably a good thing I don't have cable. If I were to watch John Oliver for a half hour uninterrupted, I would have cramps from laughing so long and hard.
Cartoon – "Der ist schuld am Kriege" – I would LOVE to deny war criminals the right to vote. But of course I mean real war criminals, not minorities. My experience of war criminals is that, wherever they are, they are in the majority there. That's how they get away with it.
OOPS! I stand corrected.
WOW … not only socks, but shoes or slippers, too!
I think we can all "breathe" a sigh of relief.
Wait till I do a chile pic. 🙂
NY Times: The only time Mitch remembers the people of Ky is when coal is threatened. He screamed about Obama's War on Coal during the entire recent election and convinced many that he would protect their jobs. Eastern and Western Ky are both dependent on coal for their jobs. Frankfort and Mitch have done nothing to diversify the economy in either region. The area where I live is getting poorer and poorer due to the decline of jobs in the coal industry.
Alternet: I think most of us on here all ready knew this, but I shared it on Facebook for those who do not.
Crooks and Liars: It amazes me that the mayor of Ferguson had the nerve to try to defend the city and police department after all that has all ready been reported.
Cartoon: Good one.
Diversifying would free Kentuckians from fear of losing their only way to survive. Bought Bitch wants them to be enslaved Koch addicts.
You are sooooo right!
2:54 No Macaw fricassée today puddy tat!
3:04 TC must not be very hungry today.
I was so weak from hunger that my heart was overloaded by the sight of thise bird, ands I felt too faint to win them. 🙁
Puzzle — 2:54 No Macaw fricassée today puddy tat!
NY Times — “Without your support,” he [McTurtle] said, the administration “won’t be able to demonstrate the capacity to carry out such political extremism.” You can bet your sweet bippy that had the roles been reversed, the Democrats would be charged with all sorts of things, probably including sedition. It is long overdue for the DOJ to investigate these rat bastard Republicanus/Teabaggerum. And further, to have the nerve to call the health and welfare of people and the environment "political extremism" is the height of lunacy!
Alternet — "As an Apple executive told the New York Times, “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems.”" If corporations are people as they like to claim (think Citizens United), do they not have the same responsibilities as other citizens? Apparently not, and there's the rub!
Crooks and Liars — When it comes to Ferguson, MO, I hope the DOJ is forced to clean up the police department. Perhaps then this so called mayor will change his town.
Cartoon — And I wonder if they'll try it with Latinos too?
BTW, who is the sasquatch dude?
Corporations want all the rights, none of the responsibilities.
Dang! My feet arrioved before yours!
NY Times ~ McTurtle gets too much money from Coal to want the EPA cutting into his cash cow. No matter what the issue it seems money is the language they all speak. Coal is not creating jobs. Solar and Wind Power are.
Alternet ~ We must end Citizens' United and Corporate welfare. Middle class income in my area peaked in 1969 according to an article in today's local paper. Corporations are doing better than okay. So are the shareholders.
Crooks & Liars ~ Ferguson needs a complete overhaul.
Cartoon ~ Fascism here??? You betcha!
You betcha indeed!
I was horrified to hear that certain UCLA students considered being Jewish automatically disqualified someone.
I was pleased to read that the State has taken over Ferguson's courts and the judge some say determined the fiscal policy at the core of the problem has resigned.
Require all corporations to meet B Corp standards to be eligible for any tax credits or special deductions–that might change the inhumane towards workers and the economy practices.
Actually I thought much of the money was via transporting coal–a company at the center of some legal investigations.
B Corp standards?
TY TC
YVW Pat!