May 312025
 

Yesterday, Wonkette had a link to a site which tracks lower level elections all over the US – state level, of course, including primaries, but all the way down to city council level as well. I’m posting the link because I think we have learned the hard way that we ignore this information at our peril. Also, the ACLU emailed regarding four cases they are working on which will essentially affect everyone. I don’t have a link, so I’ll just list them. U.S. v. Skrmetti. Louisiana v. Callais. Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton. Mahmoud v. Taylor. All have been heard by the Supremes and decisions will start coming out next week. Finally, ACLU promises they will keep me (and some of you who are member-donors) updated on what the decisions mean for real people. Incidentally, has anyone heard from Freya? I haven’t and neither has Evelyn, who emailed to ask me if I had.

The F* News is on to something here that we should all latch on to. Granted that it’s nowhere near as easy to use for citizens as it is for foreign nations – that still needs work – but it should be something we can find a way to use.

What’s the point of learning history? Well, there are many reasons. One is that the truth is important in itself – another is to be able to accurately credit (and if appropriate discredit) those who preceded us for their accomplishments. But probably the best reason is in order to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. As a race, the human race is not very good at that. There are many ways in which we as a society have failed, and that failure has led to where we are now. Robert Reich here discusses just one of them.

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Jul 082023
 

Yesterday, I received an e-mail with a little video of Jamie Raskin announcing that his cancer is in total remission. Now that’s something to break out a little bubbly for! I also received a note (email) from Pat advising me she has out-of-town family visiting, so will probably not be around this weekend (so don’t worry.) I also received a grocery order.  Most of it was there, But there was one substitution, and it was a bad one (which common sense should have prevented.  So I had to file a refund claim for that.  I got it all in and the shulder was still better after doing so than it was the previous day, so that’s a win.  It’s still a work in progress, but I;m liking the progress.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Politico – Biden’s hydrogen bombshell leaves Europe in the dust
Quote – European leaders have devoted tens of billions of dollars toward encouraging production of hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel that advocates say will create jobs and help fight climate change. But now, many of those jobs will be going to the United States instead. The clean energy subsidies that undergird President Joe Biden’s climate agenda have just prompted one Norwegian manufacturer to choose Michigan, not Europe, as the site of a nearly $500 million factory that will produce the equipment needed to extract hydrogen from water. And other European-based companies are being tempted to follow suit, people involved in the continent’s hydrogen efforts say — making the universe’s most abundant substance the latest focus of the transatlantic trade battle on green energy.
Click through for details. I wish no ill to Europe, but I cannot help feeling that this is so cool.

National Public Radio – Researchers found a rare octopus nursery off the coast of Costa Rica
Quote – Scientists working off the coast of Costa Rica say they’ve discovered the world’s third known octopus nursery…. According to a press release, researchers witnessed Muusoctopus eggs hatch. They said it demonstrated that the area, known as the Dorado Outcrop, was hospitable to young octopuses… Scientists said the discovery also indicated that some deep-sea octopus species brood their eggs in low-temperature hydrothermal vents, such as the one where the nursery was discovered, where fluid heated in the Earth’s crust is released on the seafloor — like hot springs.
Click through for story. I cannot bring myself to be surprised that octopuses have discoverd this and made use of it for child care – they are so doggoned smart! But I am charmed by it. The octopuses in this story are neither South Asian nor mimics, but I couldn’t resist the chart below.

Food For Thought

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Apr 092022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Is DOJ Investigating Boxes of Classified Documents Trump Unlawfully Took to Mar-a-Lago? Glenn is wrong – the 1/6 committee is not accusing the Justice Department of anything. It is the House Oversight committee which is complaining about the Justice Department. It is not Bennie Thomas but Carolyn Maloney who is demanding these documents at this moment. Clearly he is frustrated – likely more so than he says directly. I barely looked at the comments, so I don’t know whether anyone else caught that.

Meidas Touch – Psaki HUMILIATES Republican with perfect response to classless stunt during confirmation vote

Thom Hartmann – Will the Billionaires Be Able to Quell the Growing Union Movement?

RepresentUs – The Problem With Wisconsin’s Election Investigation

MSNBC – Trump Criminal Case ‘Ongoing’: NY Prosecutor Makes Unusual Statement (Ve-ry In-ter=est-ing.0

Guy Offers Hand to a Giant Octopus — You Won’t Believe How He Reacts

Beau – Let’s talk about Russian state media telling us what’s coming….

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