Aug 292015
 

I’m starting a little late, because a thunderstorm interfered with my Wi-Fi. On the plus side, steam rose from the asphalt street.  What a relief!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me  2:58 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Hat-Tip Lynn Squance): Harperman is a protest song against the Conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We are organizing a cross-Canada singalong of Harperman on September 17, just a month before the expected date of the Canadian federal election. Please contribute, if you can, to helping organize the singalong. Our first crowdfunding program on Indiegogo has finished and a new campaign has been launched at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cro…

 

Thanks Squatch!! This could apply to any US Republican too!!

From Daily Kos: In recent weeks, there has been a lot of political debate among the Republican presidential candidates about immigrants and aspiring citizens in our country.

And frankly, it has become ugly and dangerous.

Please take a minute to hear my thoughts below.

In Solidarity,

Rich.

 

I couldn’t have said it better.

From NY Times: …As Mr. Obama comes north for what the White House has described as an examination of the effects of climate change, Alaska is battling over oil — its chief source of revenue — and the thorny implications of drilling. Oil prices have fallen to multiyear lows, and production has declined from aging oil fields — with consequences rippling through a state that pays for just about everything with taxes from oil.

Mr. Walker, in an interview in his Anchorage office, said he planned to press Mr. Obama to loosen restrictions on exploration and to pledge support for a natural gas pipeline. More broadly, Mr. Walker said, he hoped to help the president understand Alaska’s dependence, because of climate and geography, on what can be extracted from the land or sea.

“From oil and gas development to fish caught in the ocean, we literally live off the resources,” Mr. Walker said.

But fossil fuels are also blamed for human-caused climate change, and that reality has set up a competing claim for the president’s attention. More drilling for energy, climate advocates say, is not the answer for Alaska or the planet. With a three-day trip for Mr. Obama planned out by the White House — including the first visit by a sitting president to some of Alaska’s most remote Arctic communities — the uncertainties and stakes are high, people on all sides of the energy fight say.

I hope that environmentalists hound President Obama wherever he goes. Allowing Shell to drill in the Arctic was one of his worst decisions while in office.

Cartoon:

0829Cartoon

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  15 Responses to “Open Thread–8/29/2015”

  1. 5:35 (4:53)  Kitten food?  Oh – wait.  That would be Gerber, not gerbera.

    YouTube – Good luck with the September 17th date.  I do hope – and I wish it weren't an exception – that lots of people who need to see it, do see it.

    Daily Kos – Yes.  Short and sweet.  Well, OK, short and sour, but sour is called for.

    NY Times – Boy, do I ever wish him strength.  Living in Colorado I have some experience with short sighted people who have managed to convince themselves (or selfservingly allowed themselves to become convinced) that their livelihoods depend on some form of poison, so it must not be so bad after all.  "Stupidity doesn't cover it, nor does it do justice to it.  The Secret Service will be there, right?  I hope they are alert and not racists themselves.

    Cartoon – What a hoot.  I have to wonder what the architect was actually thinking.  Maybe a distant relative of Chang and Eng?

  2. 4:15  It must be the hot weather we are having.  I am moving very slowly.

    • 3:02  Will anyone be able to save you from yourself Puddy Tat?  Your ravenous appetite could do you in. Gerbera plants contain coumarin, the same chemical in warfarin and rodent pestacides.  I think a modified Trini Lopez song fits here:

      Gerbera flower very pretty                                                                                                                                 and the smell is so sweet                                                                                                                                   but the fruit of the gerbera                                                                                                                                   is impossible to eat.

  3. No comment on cartoon.

    I hope indigineous peoples also show up wherever Obama goes in AK.

    Rich does express it superbly.

    Harperman is a fun song–not so fun the efforts to silence the artist.

    Clouds here, but no prediction of thunderstorms or precipitation (for a few days at least and then a tiny chance).

  4. As many of you know, Sister Sarah Palin snagged an interview with The Donald last night on some obscure cable channel.

    PROBABLE BARF BAG ALERT – NOT TO MENTION A PROBABLY WASTE OF TIME:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeju2SG7UMA

    I had NO intention of watching it, plus dealing w/ the CC, but I had a friend who waded through it who provides the PERFECT PITHY REVIEW:

    It was like watching two monkeys groom each other.

  5. Glad your surroundings got rid of some of its stored heat by the downpour, TomCat. When I was in La Mancha, one of the hottest areas in Spain, during a heat wave, I noticed that people started watering the streets and footpaths in front of their houses as soon as the sun went down to make the evenings and nights more bearable, but with a water shortage everywhere, I think that remedy is out of the question now.

    With little time to spare today and still unable to see videos, I'll limit myself to only commenting, well…agreeing with you, to be more precise, on the NY Times article. Obama shouldn't do any more harm to Alaska's still reasonably pristine environment by allowing more oil and gas drilling and transportation; in fact he should try to undo his earlier decision to give Shell permission to drill there. It is indeed one of his worst decisions.

    Cartoon: LOL

  6. SoINeedAName, I saw about 20 seconds of it and had to go on to something more productive, like vacuuming! I couldn't watch that ditzy idiot for more than that!

    TC! You got some of that stuff falling out of the sky FINALLY! And less than 99° had to be a ymtime for a celebration! I know it took a while for the building to bleed off all the stored up heat, but at least you have a chance to Breathe some cooler air!

    I do hope the Mr. Obama gets a chance to see how the Earth is MELTING!

  7. Puzzle — 

    3:02  Will anyone be able to save you from yourself Puddy Tat?  Your ravenous appetite could do you in. Gerbera plants contain coumarin, the same chemical in warfarin and rodent pestacides.  I think a modified Trini Lopez song fits here:

    Gerbera flower very pretty                                                                                                                         and the smell is so sweet                                                                                                                              but the fruit of the gerbera                                                                                                                        is impossible to eat.

    YouTube — It is a great song and it articulates so well many of the problems we have with Herr Harper and why HARPER HAS TO GO!!!!!  The CBC story which I posted yesterday gives much more detail. Of course Harper and his harlots (my name for the Conservative caucus) have been slashing CBC budgets and trying to pound it into the ground which is why I appreciate their guts to publish the story. Very ironic, no!

    20/10/15 Harper and his Harlots will be in the unemployment line with their golden parachutes aka their MP pensions when the time comes.

    Daily Kos — Right on Richard Trumka!  "The politics of fear."  Something in broad use in both the US and Canada by the right wing crazies!

    NY Times — I get that the economic consequences of drilling in the Arctic for oil would be good for Alaska both in terms of oil revenues and jobs.  But the adverse effects of climate change and global warming on the entire world yell out 'NO!'.  Not to mention part of the reason tthat the price of oil is so low is the market glut.  And this pipeline that is mentioned . . . what is the route and where is the end terminus?  Not across Canadian soil I hope! And if by sea, have they heard of the Exxon Valdez and the polluting of Prince William Sound?  The north Pacific can be an angry lady.  I hope the environmentalists stick to Obama like fleas to dogs!

    Cartoon — Is this part of your Republicanus/Teabaggerum family values series?  I had to google Larry Craig . . . nasty little blighter, eh!

  8. Correction to "so I  need  a name."

    Do not insult our closest  relatives.

    Monkeys are  intelligent animals.!!

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