DL Open Thread: Saturday, April 3, 2021

Alabama Refuses To Lift Yoga Ban. The Reason? Hindu Indoctrination.  Having taken acid gives me even more appreciation for a story like this.  Hindu indoctrination is a real thing.  You start with a few ommmm chants, and you end up here:

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

Next thing you know, the entire Alabama congressional delegation is Black.

MLB Moves All-Star Game Out Of Atlanta.  Well, actually out of Cobb County, where the new, largely public-funded, stadium for the Atlanta Braves resides. (There’s more than a little irony associated with the Atlanta baseball team’s decision to relocate to Cobb County, but I digress).  Rethugs blame ‘cancel culture’ and the ‘woke mob’ for the move, not massive voter suppression efforts on their behalf.  Texas corporations are getting ahead of the voter suppression curve there.

Biden, DOT, Halt Highway Project Through Houston.  Why?:

Known as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, the proposal would widen I-45 in three sections. TxDOT’s environmental review of the project, completed in February, found it would have a massive impact on the communities it would roll through, displacing more than 1,000 homes and housing units, 344 businesses, five places of worship and two schools.

Local activists say the communities that would be harmed are disproportionately home to Black and Hispanic residents. And the impacts go beyond the direct displacements: Twenty-six schools would be brought within 500 feet of the highway, increasing children’s exposure to pollution in a metropolitan area that’s already rife with car exhaust.

Elections have consequences.

More Whacky Matt Gaetz Stuff.  Me? I want to know more about his unadopted ‘son’ who is about the same age as the young ladies for whom Gaetz has demonstrated an affinity.  One more fact I want to know: Which congressmen did Gaetz share his nude photos with? If they did nothing, they’re complicit in his bizarre behavior.  Perhaps criminally complicit–if he told them the age of his alleged conquests.  (Truth in blogging: I know that Gaetz stuff is great clickbait b/c I’m clicking just like the rest of ya’s.)  He now has his own poem. I like it:

Florida man, Florida man,
great head of hair, studio tan,
if I were hitching in the Everglades
and you pulled up, I’d be afraid.

I wouldn’t climb into your minivan,
your swampmobile, O Florida man.
I’d wait for a ride with an honest trucker.
Anyone but you, you sleazy fucker.

James Parker for The Atlantic

Divest From Fossil Fuels. Make Money:

In places, BlackRock’s findings are redacted, so as not to show the size of particular holdings, but the conclusions are clear: after examining “divestment actions by hundreds of funds worldwide,” the BlackRock analysts concluded that the portfolios “experienced no negative financial impacts from divesting from fossil fuels. In fact, they found evidence of modest improvement in fund return.” The report’s executive summary states that “no investors found negative performance from divestment; rather, neutral to positive results.” In the conclusion to the report, the BlackRock team used the phrase beloved of investors: divested portfolios “outperformed their benchmarks.”

Fossil Fuel Companies Got Huge Covid Bailouts–Dumped Thousands Of Employees.  See preceding article.

What do you want to talk about?