By the year 2023 man will be living in colonies on the MOOON!! Or they will be living in underground shelters to escape from the radiation and other humans – or in undersea hotels complete with cocktail bars. That’s how a lot of 1950’/60’s science fiction started when I was a kid back in 1970.
None of that shit came true. Oh well. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld you go to blog with the future you have, not the future you might want or wish to have at a later time.
In that spirit, I’m back to start out 2023 with this resolution – Quality over Quantity. I’m not sure what I mean but that but it sounds like a worthy goal and one which lets me off the hook in terms of quantity.
Anyway…on to the news.
Read this from El Som. Peter C. Schwartzkopf is a cancer on Delaware. This must be the last gasp of life, right?
The Atlantic has some great stuff in its Jan/Fed 2023 print edition. I picked one up in an airport and it was the best $20 I spent in 2023 (so far). I may have to spring for a subscription this year.
…To explain the interplay between structural and individual causes of homelessness, some who study this issue use the analogy of children playing musical chairs. As the game begins, the first kid to become chairless has a sprained ankle. The next few kids are too anxious to play the game effectively. The next few are smaller than the big kids. At the end, a fast, large, confident child sits grinning in the last available seat.
IT’S HIGH NOON IN AMERICA – In our popular culture and in our politics, we’re returning to the Old West. By Noah Hawley
…as we enter Colorado, Kyle and I discover an inverse correlation between vehicles that display the American flag and vehicles that follow the rules of the road. As if the performance of patriotism frees one from responsibility, not just to the law, but to other people. Cruise control set, we wince as decorative patriots speed past us, tailgating slower vehicles and veering wildly from lane to lane.
More proof that Putin and the American GOP share one diseased mind:
Russian authorities have announced that soldiers and state employees deployed in Ukraine will be exempt from income tax, in the latest effort to encourage support for its military operation there.
Listen to this Highlands bunker podcast and set up your recurring Patreon donation:
WFP leaders Reji Gregoire, Tye Grier, Kirsten Walther, and Karl join Rob in the virtual bunker to talk about what Delaware WFP has been working on over the last year and what they’ll be working on in the next two years.
Show Notes:
An NFL player lay motionless on the field for 9 minutes last night. He may not survive. The NFL commissioner wanted the game to continue. The players said no:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/03/damar-hamlin-roger-goodell-hesitation-suspended-game
I hope and pray that Damar Hamlin survives. However, it’s been inevitable that some player in the NFL will die on the field. The networks don’t have enough commercials in reserve to keep cutting to them.
Lauren Witzke has a theory and — hear me out — it’s fucking stupid: https://www.salon.com/2023/01/03/sick-disgusting-human-beings-right-wingers-use-nfl-players-collapse-to-push-anti-vax-conspiracy/
“Prior to 2021, Athletes collapsing on the field was NOT a normal event. This is becoming an undeniable (and extremely concerning) pattern.”
Extremely concerning. Sure it is. Like after what they do to their bodies it’s vaccines where I should start giving a flying fuck about the health of professional athletes.
In 1998 the same thing happened to an NHL hockey player. Got hit in the chest with a puck and it was at this precise microsecond between hear beats. He took a couple steps and collapsed. 2 weeks later he was back on the ice and played for 12 more years. All we can do is hope the same for Damar.
im sure the NFL is glad that this injury will take the focus off all the concussions.
The link to the homelessness article isn’t working.
fixed – thanks
Speaker vote’s gonna have to go to a second ballot. Looks like there will be close to 20 R’s who vote for someone other than him.
Aieeee! The political stupidity…… It Burns!
First Ballot:
Jeffries: 212
McCarthy: 203
Biggs: 10
Others: 9
19 R’s abandoned McCarthy. He can only afford 4.
Anyone heard any cogent explanation for why these whackjobs don’t like McCarthy?
Uh, because they’re whack jobs?
Using that logic, if one does not support McCarthy, they are whack job. May we conclude you support him or you are a whack job?
No, you may not.
I support Jeffries.
Just in case you were wondering.
You DO understand, don’t you, that these whack jobs brought down Boehner and would’ve brought down Paul Ryan had he not resigned.
They’re now in position to just tie the Congress in knots b/c of the narrow edge the R’s have. Tell me, what would YOU call them?
Looks like McCarthy is going down a second time. Even though Jim Jordan gave a speech on behalf of McCarthy, Biggs’ supporters are gravitating toward Jordan. Already 8 votes for Jordan only a third of the way through the roll call. McCarthy can only lose 4.
House adjourns until 12 noon tom’w following a third failed vote for Speaker. Number of votes against McCarthy grew from 19 to 20.
Kevin is sadly slnging: “Can’t buy me votes, can’t buy me votes. Money can’t buy me votes.”
From Axios:
McCarthy’s leadership PAC — dubbed the Majority Committee — has donated more than $300,000 to the campaigns of 17 of the 20 members who voted against him today, Axios’ Lachlan Markay reports from FEC records. Twelve of those members got cash from McCarthy’s political operation during the 2022 cycle.
That homelessness story in the Atlantic includes this paragraph:
That’s some bad company we’re keeping.
I think this needs context as to how they develop what constitutes high levels of mental illness. Could it be that some of these state have higher levels of individuals seeking help and therefore getting the help they need?
People in Delaware public health have always said that our small size makes this kind of ranked state by state data suspect.